Hello all,

I just moved to a new city (Austin, TX), and the managers of the condominium complex in which I live use a private trash company, not the city of Austin;  therefore, I cannot do curbside recycling (since my management company does not pay for the city of Austin services).  I asked the city's Solid Waste Services people if I could pay to do curbside recycling, and they said no, I can't arrange for that to be done by itself.  So my question is this:  since the nearest recycling drop-off point is 5.2 miles away (about a fifteen minute drive), would I impact the environment less by simply throwing my recyclable trash away instead of driving to the drop-off site, or should I drive the fifteen minutes and recycle at the drop-off site?  I live in the household with one other person, and I'd say on average, we would recycle about twenty aluminum cans, five wine bottles, and some cardboard every now and then.

Any advice will be helpful. Thanks.

Edited by: SuburbanTomboy on Aug 19, 2008 1:35:43 PM

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On Aug 19, 2008 1:34:44 PM SuburbanTomboy wrote:

Do you drive near or past the drop-off point when you're out on any other errands? If so, then taking your recycling to the drop-off in combination with another trip would have less impact then not recycling.

I don't know for sure about making a separate trip vs. trashing your recyclables, but my instinct is that it's better to keep that stuff out of the trash stream if at all possible. Perhaps you can ask around the condo complex to see if anyone else is interested in sharing the job, where you take turns bringing two or more households' worth of recycling each trip? If you find enough interest, you may then have some leverage to petition the management company to include recycling in the future.

alli

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I have to agree with the other posters and encourage you to keep recycling, especially if you go near the facility at some point anyhow. I live in a small farming town, that has a recycling option with our garbage pick-up. However, I find the plastic bins (which are too small to hold all that we recycle and too big to tuck away nicely somewhere) a pain. On the other side of town, (less than three minutes away) in the parking lot of our County garage, there is a recycling dumpster there. I don't make the trip unless I'm already headed out to the post office or library with the car, or out of town. That does lead to my car smelling a bit on hot days if the bags sit in my trunk too long, but I open everything up and air it out and it's fine. We have a lot of recyclables, at least one garbage size per day, so it's worth every minute for me to plan the stop into my day.

In one of the towns that I grocery shop in, they also have some recycling dumpsters there, but they're always overflowing, so I always try to stop here in town. Don't make it a huge chore for yourself, then you might not be as likely to stick with it, but every little bit counts.

Edited by: chinchillables on Sep 13, 2008 11:19:32 AM

I'm inclined to agree with the former answerers that you should try to come up with a long term community solution, but in the short term I think it would be less harmful to drive the 5.2 miles (especially if you have a fuel efficient vehicle) than to put more trash into landfills.  Ultimately the exhaust from 5.2 miles - maybe 1/6 gallon of burned fuel or less - would have a lower and shorter term impact than more trash in the dump, especially since the trash in question is glass and metal which is not biodegradable.  If you are able to save the trash up until you have a significant amount and then combine trips, the environmental impact of the trip would be negligable. 

I think it is really important to bring it up to your neighbors, though, and possibly the management company.  It is probable that some of your neighbors are already making the trip to the recycling center and would appreciate taking the week off once in a while.  If your management company is unwilling to work with you, you could even put out community recycling baskets and take donations to offset fuel costs if you need the assistance to encourage the busy or reluctant residents to recycle as well.  That way the small use of fuel to get to the recycling center is having an even bigger positive impact by getting people that would not otherwise have recycled to join in.  Good luck with whatever decision you make!