apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

i'm going to ikea tonight to get this trofast system for my recyclables: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S19819557

i have an old mop bucket under the sink for glass/plastic recycling. (we don't have to separate in our bldg - yeah!) and i paper bag for paper tucked behind the front door.

i also like ikea for recycling systems... here is my pick from them.
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60045656
however, now that i have seen what World Market has i may change my mind.

a milk crate next to the non-recycle, non-compost trash can. if we have any paper bags lying around, we'll use those to keep things neat and tidy, otherwise it all gets emptied into the big blue bin outside every few days.

i bought this three-compartment garbage/recycling can:

http://www.organize.com/3-compartment-recycling-bin.html

it looks good (which is why i bought it), but it was pricey and not the most practical thing. the grocery-store bags don't really have a way to stay put. it doesn't look like it holds a lot, but it does. and since we have a compactor chute down the hall, i'm trying to get off using 13gallon bags and start making smaller trash packages :)

Not sure about the fabric bags - I rinse out my plastic containers after use and before they go to the road. I think I'd prefer they go in something plastic to hold the drips.

But I need something - currently everything goes under the sink. The paper usually goes into an empty paper bag or cereal box, and the plastics kind of pile up. Not pretty.

Good point about plastic. The bags were actually pretty heavy-duty scratchy jute - halfway between baskets and bags. If they were machine washable it would still be good but they might get a little icky.

I need MAJOR help in this area! I currently just collect in in a paper bag or box, that way I recycle the container as well. But I live in a tiny apartment, and it tends to pile up. PLUS I have a hard time finding a place to deposit it, because the only place anywhere nearby that accepts glass is WAAAAY out of my way! My bf is getting really annoyed with the recycling pile up.

I have two plastic rectangular wastebaskets under my kitchen sink, sitting on either side of the drainage pipe, and they fit perfectly. (I used those plastic wastebaskets you usually find in corporate offices next to someone's desk -- not pretty but they're rectangular which helps with getting more storage without taking up any space). One is used for regular garbage and one is for plastic/glass/metal recycling (those don't have to be separated here).

For paper recycling, we have a wastebasket under the desk in the living room. The storage isn't huge, but we find we only need to empty the recycling once every 2 weeks or so, so its works just fine.

Three stacking plastic containers with flip-top lids. It sits in a corner under an island overhang, so I'd love to have a pantry for it one day.
Something like this:
http://www.containerstore.com/browse/Product.jhtml?CATID=70654&PRODID=65119
but I'm sure Ikea has similar and cheaper items.

Top gets curbside recyclables (glass, cans, and plastic). Middle gets paper and cardboard (which I have to take to a center). Bottom stores linens.

Oooh I REALLY like the ikea product in the first comment!!! If only I had room for that!

I live alone in a tiny apartment so my space is limited but then so are the number of items I recycle. I try to reduce and reuse as much as I can.

For paper, I put it into the bin for my shredder. I don't have much shredding so there's plenty of room in the bin for other recyclable paper. When the bin is full I dump it into the big recycling bin for my apartment building.

Plastic, glass and metal all end up in the same bin so I toss them all in a cloth tote bag that hangs inside the door to the cabinet under my kitchen sink. Once every few weeks I wash that bag out. It usually isn't too dirty since I rinse all of my recycling before putting it in that bag anyway.

I live alone and keep small bins for recycling. I would consider TROFAST if it were a bit less expensive. If it were $25 I'd go for it, but $62? No way. Its kind of nice, but if you think about it, its just a couple of buckets on a wood frame - an unfinished wood frame if I remember correctly. The buckets themselves sell for $5 each. So the rest of that cost ($47) is the wood frame. Maybe I'm too much of a cheapo, but that seems to be a bit pricey for something that really does look like a few pieces of wood slapped together, holding up a couple of buckets.

Our recycling (here in Edmonton, AB) goes into a blue transparent garbage bag and it is picked up with the garbage pickup. No sorting, no questions. If you put something in there that isn't recyclable, they'll sort it out at the plant. Heck, even if you didn't recycle, they still pick all the recyclable and compostable items out of the regular garbage before it goes to the landfill. Pretty awesome, eh?

I keep my bottles and tetrapacks in a seperate bin (just a regular rubbermaid bin) at my backdoor and when it's full, I take it to the depot for the refund.

pretty easy!

Recycling comes every week, and while it's tempting to set up a post for various components, I find it's easier and more satisfying to take it out to the community bins every day. Remember, REDUCE is the first rule in recycling...if it's possible to buy in bulk, do it.

Great post... I've been curious as to others recycling solutions, while deciding on the best method for my small apartment.

I've been eyeing these bags from Gaiam for some time now:
http://www.gaiam.com/product/eco-home-outdoor/household/kitchen/folding recycling bags -set of 3-.do

Great reviews, and I like the material and the interchangeable labels. I think bags are a nice solution to "pick up and go" to recycle.

Also, while I like the IKEA solution (TROFAST), I agree with Plaid Ninja - too expensive. I do think the simple SORTERA boxes would be a nice solution stacked though...

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/90076364

oops.

http://www.gaiam.com/product/eco-home-outdoor/household/kitchen/folding recycling bags -set of 3-.do

hm. or not. :)

I too have Ikea's Trofast but in this set up:

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S89842470

It works as both a recycling center and a bench with a nice cushion on top. And I love that the bins are plastic and can be easily rinsed.

I have the Gaiam bags that I think mspants was trying to link to. They work pretty well, but I would have rather had something similar but machine-washable (the bags I have are plastic).

Dealing with the same problem. I like some of these tips! Thanks all.

Emily

hey... so i just got back from ikea and have set up the Trofast in my kitchen. i skipped the solid wood and went with the white one... a couple of inches taller, a finished look, and only $40, not $60. awesome. it has a much smaller footprint than you'd think, too. love it.

We store things under the sink alongside our regular bin. We group bottles and cans together in a cardboard box if one is floating around. I'm always on the lookout for a permanent tub with the right dimensions whenever I'm out and about.

The city I live in takes all recycling items together, so due to the fact that we're cheap and have a fairly large kitchen, most items go directly into the Big Blue Bin. We usually keep paper separate in a used shopping bag if one's available, then stack that on top or in one of the spare bins we share with the downstairs apartment when trash day comes. It's not glamorous, but it makes things easy.

it all goes into our green recycling bin outside.. it all gets compacted and sorted by someone else. nice. although, never in my life of recycling did i know that leaving a plastic lid on a soda or water bottle would cause them to toss the whole thing. i think maybe our comunities should make us aware of those sorts of things.. at least send out a list of recycle "rules" with our cps bills or sooomething@! some of us care to know..

Although I use reusable shopping bags when I shop. I will usually pick up one paper bag from the checkout when I'm at the supermarket. I use it to store my paper in a corner of the kitchen and at the end of each week when it's time to take it out to the curb for recycling I just take the whole bag out with it's contents as is. Make's it very easy. I store plastic, glass and metal recyclables in a bucket under my sink.

I really like our recycling system. We have a big, flat-shaped bag, it seems like woven plastic. There's a separator in the middle splitting it into two sides. One side we fill with containers, the other with paper. We keep it under the sink.

I use a standard, large, flip-lidded, kitchen trash can for my garbage and I have an identical one next to it for my recycling (except glass).

To the left of those are three small, non-lidded, trash cans for glass, returnable soda cans and bottles, and other recyclables that I take to the local co-op regularly (plastic wrap, straws, freezer boxes from ice cream, anything that the regular recycling won't take and I can't bear to throw away).

All of these 5 trash cans are lined up along an empty wall in my apartment's kitchen with a home-made shelf/countertop above them where we have the microwave, blender, crock-pot, and rice-cooker.