Now if idiots would just read the guide on what can be recycled. I walk to the transit stop every day and here is a partial list of what I see, usually at a select few houses week after week: pizza boxes stained with grease, recyclables in tied-off plastic bags, styrofoam, motor oil containers, wood (!), and shards of glass.

It should be noted that broken glass is a hazard for those who must handle the sorting of recycled materials. This sort of problem should be minimized.
I'd also like to suggest that reusing materials when possible is at least as good as recycling. For example, many containers can be reused for storage. I still have glass peanut butter jars that i have been using ever since I established my household in the early sixties. Cloth shopping bags replace the stores plastic ones and last for years. My oldest ones have been in use for 20+ years and are faded from washing, but are still able to hold a couple of half gallons of juice and a gallon of milk, unlike the plastic ones from the store.
Newspapers are excellent for catching drips when painting, and also for cleaning windows.

Make the recycling container larger. My trash can goes out almost every week almost empty, while the recycle can is full. Switch the two sizes.

Cloth Shopping bags are indeed a fabulous solution to all the plastic bags. To not use stuff is clearly so much better than recycling! Whenever I am at Schnuck's, I see only a very small number of people bringing their own bags. Most everyone leaves with massive amounts of plastic. How quickly this would change if the grocery stores started charging 10 or 20 cents per bag. In SF they have been banned since 2007. What prevents U City from being just as smart?

Many towns charge $10+ dollars to recycle hazardous waste, electronics, appliances, etc. when you take it to their recycle facilities. I imagine some people won't pay to have that done so they just pitch it in the trash.

That's what is so fabulous about charging money for each plastic bag that walks out of the grocery store. You can opt out by bringing your own bag. It is an incentive as it starts at the beginning of the cycle. Saving money and doing the right thing. Can't beat that.

Even if I use plastic bags at Wal Mart or Schnucks, I recycle them in the stores. (I also have some cloth bags that I use but I don't always grab them when I shop.) Doesn't recycling them through the store collection area(s) keep them from being actual waste? I was taught recycling in the 70's before it was the hip thing to do. We definitely recycle #1 thru #5 and #7. Unfortunately foam containers, ice cream containers and dirty pizza boxes cannot be recycled...yet!

Here is an awesome blog from a woman who has reduced her families waste to virtually nothing. She has many great tips for "Reducing" waste.
http://zerowastehome.blogspot.com/

I tend to agree with Dave as the last report I read from St. Louis County is that they were doing great with the single source sytem and yes people were putting in items that were not approved but they said they would rather have it that way than putting in not enough. They showed a large conveyor belt with people sorting stuff as it went to the machine so I don't know how anything could contaminate a load unless they miss something large?

Here's a good list of what to NOT recycle (pretend the recycling hauler hasn't sent this to you already and double check what you put in!)

http://www.ecocycle.org/dirtydozen

"One of the challenges to single-stream recycling is the increase in contamination. Folks tend to get a little recycling happy, tossing additional items into the bin. But, sending us non-recyclable materials jeopardizes the success of the whole program."

Is there a link to the survey results?

Why does St.Peters take all of their trash to their recycling center Tony?

They sort it all then bail it up and sell it to recyclers.

They don't seem to complain about contamination.

I don't know. Ask St. Peters. Those who handle single stream recyclables separately say it contaminates. It might be that St Peters only pulls out aluminum and select other material, or that their recovery rate of things like paper is much lower.

Tony you sound like you know a lot more about this than I do but I think I am like most people in that I may not be a perfect recycler but I am trying. Hopefully I'll get better like you said not to recycle pizze boxes, I didn't know that, my waste company bulletin does not say that, only not to recycle "waxed" cardboard. They seem to be happy that a lot less is going into landfills. It's like aluminum, they would love to have all clean alum. (more profitable) but they will take all the dirty alum. they can get. I hope everyone continues doing what they can toward being a better steward of the earth but I also hope people don't quit because they might not be perfect. I'm sure that if it don't work out they will go back to the old way but I personally don't think that will ever happen. The part that I really don't get is why they don't have compartmentalized trucks. The idea in the county was to have one trash hauler per city so the number of trucks would be decreased wearing out the streets and make them safer with less stopping of traffic. Now you have 1 truck to pick up yard waste, another truck to pickup recyclables, and another truck to pick up garbage, not counting another truck if you need to get rid of bulky items. Just my $.02.

Hey, Audrey, are the results available broken down by individual communities? Or is it only available for the St. Louis County area at large?

If you are looking for a place to recycle any sort of electronics, please contact RNA Worldwide. Here is their listing in the Arnold Patch: http://arnold.patch.com/listings/rna-worldwide

They are a truly remarkable business and have a 0% landfill policy. Plus they guarantee that any confidential information is destroyed if applicable.

We are working on getting the survey results posted to the web. I will link it in a future blog post.

Oh, and thanks for the pizza box tip.

What is St Louis county's budget for recycling? As in, we pay for our recycling containers, but how much money does the county bring in from selling the recycling?

Forty two Earth Days and only a 31% participation in U. City recyclying, oh well!

Some recycling services offer a large, wheeled container as big as a regular, household trash bin. It may cost a little more, but it will hold 5 times as much and is easy to get to the curb. Check with your local company or city to see if this is offered in your area.

U. City does offer recycling containers the same size as the black regular trash ones -- my next door neighbor has one. The story said that St. Louis City had a 31% participation, NOT U. City -- I'm sure ours is much higher than that. U. City was a pioneer in recycling, offering "treesaver" yellow plastic bins for newspapers at least 30 years ago.