I’m in Ontario, Canada and recycling/composting/yard waste pickup is widespread here.

The municipality does hot composting so all food scraps go in the compost bin (including meat) and a variety of other things that will break down (we get a list of what can be put in each type of recycling bin). Every spring they have a weekend when you can go to the municipal yard and load up on compost and mulch for your gardens. The balance is then used in municipal plantings.

During my travels to the US I have been shocked at the lack of general recycling programs, never mind composting. I remember being at Universal Studios in Florida and getting a talk from a docent about how important the environment was and fuming – as we had been searching high and low for plastic recycling drop off so we didn’t have to put all our waste from the condo we rented in the garbage.

On the other side of the coin when travelling in Italy we discovered roadside bins for drop off. It was great. We would stop at the drop off site nearest the villa we rented while we were on our way to and from the village.

Interesting! I’m not surprised the California would be on the forefront of a recycling/composting program. It’s too bad it doesn’t seem to be nation wide but every new program and new City that joins helps the cause!

I hate all the excess packaging everything comes in and even worse how much recyclable materials make it to the dump. It would be nice not to have such excessive packaging/food waste to begin with but one step at a time I guess!

Interesting! Thanks for the reply and good point about older pipes. I’ve always wondered what our neighbours to the south did for recycling/composting. Is it also common not to bring your pop cans back for the 5cent deposit? I remember the last vacation I went to in the USA and I noticed a ton of aluminum cans in the garbage.

I’m sure even here some of the smaller towns/hamlets etc probably don’t have the same options for recycling but all of our the major cities in Canada and most of the medium sized towns have some sort of program to help combat excess garbage

I just moved from the west coast to Ohio and I am so sad about the garbage situation here! Little recycling and composting and not really any expectation that things will improve. On the west coast there is a strong push toward eliminating plastics, recycling as much as possible and composting. Even businesses are expected to participate.

Brooke, I think it depends on where you live in the US. I’m in California and we have widespread recycling but it is actually up to the individual cities. I just learned a few months ago that in my city we will also be going to a mandated composting program. I know my sister lived in Napa and they have had one in place for many years.

I wouldn’t speak for the entire country but I don’t think it is very common at all for recycling/composting pick up. We used to have a township tax paid recycling center at my old house, but our new township has no option so we have to pay for a recycling bin from a trash provider. I also don’t think composting pick up is common (maybe in a larger city?) We have our own composting pile.

We did not replace our garbage disposal because we’ve heard it is not good for old plumbing pipes and also not good for septic systems, which we have. Canada sounds like it has really nice options for less garbage waste.

I’ve got to say that is a pretty disposal though 🙂

The city takes all the food scraps/lawn clippings etc to help reduce the waste going into landfills/stressing water treatment plants and composts it to use in City parks. As an individual you can also go get free compost for your gardens from what the City produces (if you don’t want to make your own). Between the recycling and composting we barely produce any real garbage.

I’m curious to know if large scale recycling/composting programs aren’t available in the USA?

On a side note, if we did need a garbage disposal the Moen is really nice looking!