Recycling in an apartment complex?

Question

I live in an apartment complex that does not have recycling bins. How can I get other people to recycle in the complex. Me and my family just put our recycling in our garage and just take it 5-8 miles to the recycling center. Other people are more lazy and do not care about what kind of materials they are putting in the landfill.

So any ideas would me much appreciated.

Thanks :)

Answer 1

Maybe you could just get these bins that say RECYCLE HERE and put it by the garbage bins (if there are any) and people might actually put stuff in there...

Answer 2

There are easy ways to recycle even without a recycling program for your apartment's occupants.

For example, Shoeboxed.com recycles receipts for free. If you mail your receipts, they scan them, upload them into a free digital account and then recycle the receipts.

Check it out:

http://deals.shoeboxed.com/earthday/free...

Answer 3

does your council have a recycling policy. If so don't they have the green box or whatever.

Answer 4

It may be a dead end but have you talked to the apt. mgr.

or the trash collector to see what can be done?  

Some recyclables are more valuable then others, if none of the above works out, you might be able to make arrangements for free cardboard, news paper, glass and/or metal  pick up with an independent.

It might even save the complex on trash collection fees so every wins.

Answer 5

Perhaps you can have fliers about recycling and eco-friendly practices dropped in each resident's mailbox. My apartment complex sends out a monthly newsletter and often talks about stuff like this. Maybe explain how to recycle, and what can actually be recycled and what can't. You'd be surprised how many people don't know what to do. Refer them to www.freecycle.org and www.treehugger.org as well. They are great starters to a more sustainable future. Keep up the good fight. They will learn by example.

Answer 6

This is a tough one!  

Even recycle-happy cities like Seattle are struggling with this problem.  In my experience, you can put a recycling dumpster in the garage of an apartment complex, but people would rather not go down the stairs to recycle when there is a trash chute on their floor.  Hopefully, recycling chutes are something you will start seeing in multifamily complexes as green building practices become more mainstream.  

The truth of the matter is, even with the dumpster for recycleables, the real challenge is community participation.  Just for some perspective: I think the single-family recycling rate for Seattle is above 50% and the multifamily is around 16%, and most complexes have recycling facilities available.  

On the note of increased cost:  The average household can recycle at least half of their solid waste (70% or more if you compost).  Therefore, with sufficient participation your management could reduce their garbage dumpster capacity by 50% and replace it with additional recycling volume.  Depending on the rate structure of your garbage/recycling hauler, this will usually reduce the cost of garbage pickup.  If it doesn't, your local government and hauler are not doing their part to incentivise recycling.