Recycling Woes

When gas prices got really ridiculous last summer, we decided to move closer to work. We found a really nice apartment which we dearly love. It has a lot of amenities that our previous home - while adorable and in a great neighborhood - did not. The one thing our complex does not have, however, is on-site recycling.

Let me amend that statement. They do recycle cardboard - specifically boxes such as moving or shipping cartons. That's it. Sometime before we moved in, there was a more robust recycling program on-site. Unfortunately, so many of the residents violated the regulations by not only not sorting their recyclables, but (grosser!) not even separating their trash from their recyclables, that the provider canceled the contract. As was their right.

This was not really a big deal because, a few weeks after we moved in, we discovered that there was a county recycling drop-off site just up the street from the grocery store we frequent. So, we bought these great Rubbermaid bins with lids that seal shut and every other week we took our recycling with us on our usual grocery run. In fact, we last did that on Sunday, July 12th.

In a most amazingly bad fluke of timing, Durham's county recycling program shut down all but the main drop-off site on Monday the 13th. With no posted notice that we saw. We didn't find out until we went there today...and the hoppers were just gone. There was still no sign, by the way, we had to look it up online just so we could figure out where to take the stuff. (Oh, yes, I was quoting Arlo as we drove off looking for somewhere else to put the recycling!)

So, now, it turns out that we can only take our recycling to the main center on the north side of town. It is a very nice facility - huge! - we've been there before because that was the only place you could take stuff like old antifreeze. The people who work there are all super helpful, which is good because there are multiple buildings and figuring out which one takes your stuff is tricky, but their hours are darned inconvenient if you, say, work for a living. Their only weekend hours are Saturdays from 7:30am till Noon. Saturday has traditionally been my only morning to sleep in, it's also when I talk to my mom.

So, I guess we're going to have to plan to get up early every other week so we can hike over to the recycling center. Or, go to Orange County where we can drop stuff off at Southern Season and then pop in to buy some imported chocolate. Nice perk, but I really wish folks could just figure out how to sort their stuff so this kind of thing wouldn't happen.