Creating A Recycling Co-Op

Imagine 64 extra tons of garbage added to our landfills every year. That figure is the amount kept OUT of dumps, ditches and roadsides thanks to the efforts of people interested in recycling. When people read statistics like that, it seems easier to take the extra time to recycle.

Many big cities make it quite simple; areas like Chicago and Dallas have recycling centers in several convenient locations. Smaller towns often have only one or two centers in far-away locations. If you live in an area where this is true, consider building an informal recycling cooperative group to help maximize your recycling efforts and save gas by making a single group trip.

If your neighborhood has three or four people who are also interested in green living and recycling, you can make a plan to share the responsibilities for delivering a weekly or monthly load to the recycling center of the group's collected recyclables. Be sure to separate glass, plastic and paper into their own individual containers. Some recycling centers offer special containers or bags for this purpose.

If you keep track of the amounts you send to the center each month, you will be surprised at how much you and your co-op partners are keeping out of landfills. These amounts truly add up.