Featured image from Austin Resource Recovery The City of Austin Zero Waste Block Leaders were fortunate to have Balcones Recycling, the recycling company contracted for curbside recycling in my area of Austin, talk at one of our meetups and answer our questions. Here I share their Recycle FAQs for curbside recycling carts (blue carts) and…
Today’s guest post comes from Carmen Adams, a master’s student at San Diego State University. Carmen contacted me and asked if she could share this less discussed topic with all of you. In a perfect world, the United States would be like Europe (no wait, hear me out). Our cities would be built with walking,…
Hi Everyone! I want to share a few reminders and tips with you as we go into our third month of interrupted access to all things recycling and trash. Sign up for the Austin Recycles App or go to My Collection Schedule to sign up for reminders for weekly collection. When Bulk and Brush resume,…
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…
Due to the amount of neighbors that offered to help collect or transport non-curbside-accepted recyclables to the appropriate place, I created a neighborhood recycling Facebook group where residents and businesses in my neighborhood can be listed as drop-off sites for more difficult items. The items collected are not allowed in the blue recycling carts and…
More than you thought Cities are starting to provide Styrofoam recycling. Styrofoam can be melted down in a densifier into a block of material that can then be sold for reuse. The City of Austin and New Braunfels provides this service! I started a neighborhood Styrofoam collection last Christmas when I started to see all…
This article appears in the April 2019 edition of the Front Porch Flyer. It has been expanded here to address apartments, condos, and specific donation types. Approximately 6.6 million pounds of textiles are going to the landfill each year from ARR’s curbside customers. That’s 18,000 pounds of clothes going in the trash every day rather…
This month I attended a group meeting. I arrived early as I always do (I hate late minute parking in Austin and I cannot parallel park!) When I saw there were disposable name tags to fill out, I pulled out my reusable name tag and clipped it on. New attendees to this monthly meeting asked…
The following information was shared with City of Austin Zero Waste Block Leaders in the February/March 2019 newsletter. This is long so bear with me. It’s an official response from Austin Resource Recovery/The City of Austin to citizen concerns. China’s program to stop importing recyclables, “Operation Green Fence,” was formally implemented beginning in 2013 because…