recycling

Did you even search first? That subject has been beaten to death.

Boxes and boxes of blue bags at South Walton county annex.

Boxes and boxes of blue bags at South Walton county annex.

Time to recycle the recycle bags?

The Blue Bag program is still featured on the County's website. Did they cut funding or something?

I don't think they cut funding. It's been widely reported in the newspapers that the blue bags don't work - they don't survive the trip to the landfill and the split/damaged bags that arrive there have contaminated the contents. This is also in the other thread on here, wherever it is. I think many people just stopped using them because they don't accomplish the goal.

The program was funded by a grant that was not renewed due to budgetary constraints. blah blah blah. Anyway, they still go through everything at the landfill. , so there is still the chance that they pull it out. The best chance you have though of actually recycling anything is using the trailors that are around the area.

Funny Thing

Funny thing about recycling; When the kids and I were in Austin, Texas last year, I was organizing and cleaning out the van, I was using a shopping cart for help. I was at Wal-Mart anyway two different people came out from nowhere to ask for the recyclable trash I had in the cart. We had Florida tags on the car so they knew we were not from Texas. I thought man they are serious about recycling here in Austin, Texas. I kid you not you want to get a real dirty look from everyone put a plastic bottle in the wrong trash can. When I setup my trash company at the house it was like 4.00 dollars for a 80 gallon trash can for recyclables only. It turned out that a family of four needed two of those cans and one small can for normal trash. I got a real lesson on that whole recycling thing.

Boxes and boxes of blue bags at South Walton county annex.

Just picked up my latest supply. Seems this is still going. One way to insure your bags don't split is to pre-sort. I'm pretty sure my plastics and paper all make it to the dump in one piece. Glass and aluminum, probably not so much but I still bag them up just in case.

You can always just double blue bag.

Boulder is doing a very umpressive recycling/composting program that has more than halved their trash -their goal is 85% reduction by 2017.
Boulder Colorado CO Commits to Zero Waste - Boulder Magazine Feature Article

It's insane how much is wasted!

Tidbits and Facts


Recycling and Environmental Facts

• Recycling 1 ton of paper saves 17 trees, 2 barrels of oil (enough to run the average car for 1,260 miles), 4,100 kilowatts of energy (enough power for the average home for 6 months), 3.2 cubic yards of landfill space, and 60 pounds of air pollution. Trash to Cash
• Americans throw away enough aluminum to rebuild our entire commercial fleet of airplanes every 3 months. Environmental Defense Fund
• About 80% of what Americans throw away is recyclable, yet our recycling rate is just 28%. Environmental Protection Agency
• Over ? million trees are saved each year by recycling paper in Boulder County. Eco-Cycle
• There are more roads in our National Forests than the entire U.S. Interstate Highway system. National Forest Protection Alliance
• Recycling creates 6 times as many jobs as landfilling. Colorado Recycles
• Recycling glass instead of making it from silica sand reduces mining waste by 70%, water use by 50%, and air pollution by 20%. Environmental Defense Fund
• Recycling just one aluminum can saves enough energy to operate a TV for 3 hours. Eco-Cycle
• If we recycled all of the newspapers printed in the U.S. on a typical Sunday, we would save 550,000 trees--or about 26 million trees per year. California Department of Conservation
• The energy saved each year by steel recycling is equal to the electrical power used by 18 million homes each year - or enough energy to last Los Angeles residents for eight years. Steel Recycling Institute
• If every household in the U.S. replaced just one roll of 1,000 sheet virgin fiber bathroom tissues with 100% recycled ones, we could save: 373,000 trees, 1.48 million cubic feet of landfill space, and 155 million gallons of water. Seventh Generation Co.
• The U.S. is 5% of the world's population but uses 25% of its natural resources. Environmental Protection Agency

There are still a few out there at different locations, but when they're gone they are gone. The District 5 Road Office used to have them, and so did Commissioner Jones' office. Not sure if they still do.

The best chance you have though of actually recycling anything is using the trailors that are around the area.

The trailer behind Publix on 395 works well for me. I'm there two or three times a week anyway, so it only takes an extra few minutes to dump stuff in the trailer. You get some reassurance that your stuff will actually get recycled, unlike the blue bag program.

In addition, Publix has their own green bins out front for paper bags, styrofoam, and plastic bags. With those and the trailer, you won't be throwing out much.

Boxes and boxes of blue bags at South Walton county annex.

they are no longer available. The reason for the post was that a commissioner has been rumored to be considering pushing a solid waste recycling program. Would anyone support it now?

they are no longer available. The reason for the post was that a commissioner has been rumored to be considering pushing a solid waste recycling program. Would anyone support it now?

Yes, although many would argue that 1.) it's too costly 2.) they don't want to pay the additional tax.

they are no longer available. The reason for the post was that a commissioner has been rumored to be considering pushing a solid waste recycling program. Would anyone support it now?

I would want to hear the details. There are a lot of places that do curb side pick up, just like your trash, that works very well and you get pretty close to 100% participation.