Make recycling easy around the house.
Most of us have a huge recycling can in our garage. This is the can the recycle truck picks up each week. Hopefully, it is larger than your trash can and is fuller than your trash can each week!
Some of us have a divided can in the kitchen with one side designated for trash and the other designated for recyclables. I do not have this type of single can, but do have two separate cans in the laundry room that serve the same purpose.
Because the kitchen is not the only room in the house that uses recyclables, it is a good idea to put small cans in places that are handy for collecting. We have small cans in each bathroom under the sink. They collect the rinsed out health and beauty bottles, the toilet paper tubes, and any other packaging that is recyclable. I send any non-recyclable health and beauty containers (mostly makeup containers, toothpaste tubes, or other weird shaped containers) to Terracycle to be recycled. I collect these in the same small bins and sort them out before trash day.
Because we have a bathroom on each level of our home, there is always a place for recycling to go. My kids put their recycling in the bathroom bin upstairs. If your kiddos use a lot of plastic disposable bottles in their rooms, they may need a bin in their room for easier disposal. Better than that would be reusable bottles in their rooms. My daughter uses these, but they do still collect in her room, and I have to remind her to bring them down often.
The more accessible your recycle bins are; the more use they will get. So, place them around your house in high traffic locations.
Because my small bins are under the bathroom sinks, I do not need ones with a lid, so I just went to my local dollar store and purchased a few. So, you don’t have to use a fancy can. You could even use a brown paper sack if it would fit, and then you could toss the whole thing into your big recycle bin when it is full.
A BIG reminder- do not line your cans with plastic bags! You can not put bags into the commercial recycle bin! Just throw the empty and rinsed containers in the small can and dump them into the bigger bin when full. You can always clean the can if it gets too dirty. I have not had to clean mine at all, because I always rinse out the containers before I put them in there. Keep the lids on the containers as well, which also helps alleviate any mess.
Good luck recycling, and feel free to add any other tips you use in recycling around the house!