Recycling: How we do it in Palo Alto

Recycling can be a way of life, especially if you get help that makes it easy. In the city where I live, Palo Alto, California, the city is making major efforts to become a zero-waste city. This means that the city is spending money to give us the tools to make it easy to recycle.

How is this done? Each home has three types of trash bins.

First, a black bin is for landfill. People can save money by getting a small black bin, which motivates them financially to limit what goes into the landfill.

Second, a blue bin is for recycled items. This includes bottles and can, and recyclable plastics, and metal items. By putting items into this bin, we can make sure they are recycled and don?t go into the landfill. Also, this keeps the black bin from getting filled up with the wrong items.

Third, a green bin is for compost. In the past this has meant yard trimmings and leaves that are swept up. Now it also means compostable food waste.

To help us put compostable food waste into the bin, the city has given us a table-top size kitchen bucket, about the size of a large lunch basket, for our kitchens. This way, food scraps can go into the kitchen bucket, and then that can be emptied into the larger green bin outside.

Also, we are encouraged to put paper plates, food containers, milk cartons and pizza boxes that are covered with food waste into that bin, as long as they are made of recyclable material.

On top of this, on the weekends we are allowed to drop off for free hazardous waste items like paint cans and batteries, to make sure these do not go into the landfill.

Finally, once per year each household is allowed a ?spring cleaning day,? where oversize items can be put out in front for collection, like old appliances, furniture, or other items that need to be disposed of. In this way, a large metal stove would be taken to be recycled.

In all these ways, I am glad that my city supports recycling, and I look forward to the day when we are a 100% zero-waste community.