This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Glass.’ See more responses here.
We don’t have trash pick up here. Instead, we take our trash to the transfer station, which is also the place to take items for recycling. These days, only glass and corrugated cardboard are being recycled. In the past, they also took other cardboard, paper, cans, and plastics. But those things were dropped, supposedly because of a lack of a market for them. Another factor is that it’s been difficult keeping transfer stations staffed and open. Finding staff to deal with recycling is probably impossible right now.
Even with just glass and corrugated cardboard accepted, I see people, no doubt with good intentions, putting the wrong things in the wrong places. The idea is to recycle glass, not glass in a cardboard box or plastic bag or with the cap on or surrounded by insects because it hasn’t been rinsed out!
I read somewhere that one of the reasons some nations stopped accepting recycled materials is that too many shipments were not recyclable, but were essentially trash. Still, I continue to drop my glass in the recycling container in the hope that it does some good. Incidentally, these aren’t all my bottles and jars! These were in the recycling skip.
Graham's Island 
Great photo and thoughts. Here, where I live, they stopped recycling glass, which is hard because now what do we do with it. It is sad and it is true that people (probably myself included) don’t take the time to properly dispose of their recycling. Thanks for the reminder.
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Putting together a sustainable, economically viable recycling program is hard, but it’s got to be a better way than simply throwing everything away.
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That’s a fun take on the prompt! Recycling is a challenge. We have two bins for our service, one for garbage (anything that can’t fit into the recycling categories) and one for recycling. If the item has a recycling mark on it, it goes in that bin. The garbage truck pulls up, and dumps both of the receptacles in the same truck bin, not separated. Not sure how that constitutes recycling…
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That’s a sad story, but one I suspect that happens in many places, if perhaps not so brazenly!
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Yes, indeed.
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Ah, you read my mind. Yes, in my council area, we were the first to adopt recycling measures but I’ve heard that the extra time it takes to remove caps, etc., adds huge cost and no small degree of vexation. I try to think that making some effort is far better than contributing to landfill. One of my ‘ what I’d do if I won a million dollars’ ideas is about finding some recycling solutions. Odd, I know.
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It would be a worthy cause! I also recycle because I hope it makes a difference, but it’s not really clear here whether it does.
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Nearly everything gets recycled here. The Transfer station has different bins for everything. The soft plastics are collected at supermarkets. No longer get paid as much for recycled metals as in years gone by.
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It’s more hit and miss here, and it’s not really clear where any of this stuff goes anymore or whether it all just ends up in the trash anyway.
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Being on a small island it would be difficult but not insurmountable. People just have get in and do it
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It’s always been an uphill struggle in the U.S..There was an article in the Guardian this morning that only 5% of plastic waste gets recycled, which is pretty depressing considering the amount of plastic being ‘consumed.’
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and is in the oceans of this world 😥
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Exactly!
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What a great shot of glass ready to be recycled, Graham. Recycling is non-existent in our county (Stevens). We can burn our yard waste when it’s safe, but all bottles, aluminum, paper, etc have to go to a transfer station (1 hour drive away–so no). Recycling is tricky and the process gets abused.
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I think recycling is still a problematic thing, at least here in the states. The great thing would be to find uses for the stuff locally and cut out all the transportation.
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