You may feel like you are tripping over stuff in your house right now including your family. Our family has been spending so much time in our alley and garage I feel like I’m falling over stuff in there, though I know it’s not the case. Visual clutter can cause mental clutter so do please…
All posts in Recycling
Metal Trays and Aluminum
In case you didn’t know, aluminum and metal trays are allowed in the City of Austin blue recycling carts. For metals in the curbside recycling cart you may include: Steel and tin cans Aluminum foil baking pans (from roasts, catering, pies, to-go containers, etc.) Aluminum foil (balled 2 inches or larger) Metal, as with other…
The small (plastic and metal) things in life
As some of you may know, I have an incredibly long list of items and topics that I intend to write about and review. Some topics are prompted by the time of year or holidays, some by personal frustration, others get brought to the top of the list by neighbor inquiry. This is one such…
Recycling Bags Not Needed/Prohibited
If you have been purchasing blue or clear “recycling” bags to put in your City of Austin blue recycling cart, I am sorry to say you have been wasting your money. Bagged recycling is prohibited in the City of Austin blue curbside single-stream recycling carts. They’re also prohibited at most apartment complexes. Recycling should be…
HEB Recycling Station
One of the grocery store chains in Texas is HEB. It happens to be the grocery store located in my neighborhood so it’s the one we use. We walk to it when we can. It has a recycling station. This is what the recycling station looked like before this week. You’ll see they used to…
Six Pack Rings/6-pack rings
I’m so excited to share that after one of the neighbors asked, I received the exciting answer that six pack rings, or 6-pack rings depending on your spelling or preference, are recyclable in plastic bag store drop-off containers. Please do not put these in your single stream recycling carts or they will tangle the sorting…
Black Is In: black foam and plastic
This came up again last weekend so I wanted to remind you all that in the City of Austin, black Styrofoam and black plastics can be recycled! Black Styrofoam The Recycle & Reuse Drop-off Center will accept most foams. It will not accept the 80’s/fluffy/disintegrate-y type foam shown above on the right, but it will…
TerraCycle: Recycle that difficult stuff
TerraCycle® is a social enterprise Eliminating the Idea of Waste®. In 20 countries, we tackle the issue from many angles. We have found that nearly everything we touch can be recycled and collect typically non-recyclable items through national, first-of-their-kind recycling platforms. https://www.terracycle.com/en-US Austin is fortunate to have the capability to recycle all that we do. We…
Plastic Bags and Plastic Films
By far the most popular question I get right now is for help with plastic bags and films. There are many types and people are overwhelmed. It is confusing, there are lots of types, and the directions change a bit to try and correct contamination levels. I’m going to share with you all what I…
Christmas Tree and String Lights Recycling
Here is the information shared about where, when and how to recycle Christmas trees and string lights in Central Texas this holiday season. The City of Austin’s website for Christmas Tree Recycling is http://www.austintexas.gov/department/christmas-tree-recycling. Details below are from Austin EcoNetwork’s EcoNews 12/19/19 and Austin Resource Recovery’s site: Christmas Trees: If you’re an Austin Resource Recovery…