It's rude to make disdainful remarks, period, when you're someone's guest.

This. (And needless to say, also rude to go through their cabinets for dishes you approve of. WTF, meara's "friends"?!?!)

I am very spoiled living where even if we don't compost, we can add food-touched paper products to our big green bin and Oakland takes it and composts. But I've also lived in places where I had to save my aluminum cans separately and drive them to a recycling plant (summers in Nebraska - my grandfather was STRICT about recycling back when it was not very popular). I wish more towns and cities would make it easier by having curbside programs. I know it's common where I live, but not so much in other locales.

hello?

We have single stream recycling - most things just go into the bins all together - and curbside. We try to recycle as much as possible - it's funny when Em calls us out on stuff.

We don't have composting in our township, which is a shame. I would love to get my HOA to get some of those barrel ones or set up some composting areas in the sub, but 90%of the residents are over 75 (how we ended up in a retirement community I don't know.) and wouldn't use it.

smonster, thanks for the link to Preserve. I'm buying some of their stuff right now.

We have single-stream recycling now. Makes things so much easier, and of course tons more stuff gets recycled than when recycling depended on people actually separating their garbage.

I'd like to start composting, but I don't have room for a huge compost bin - too much of my yard is sloped too steeply to put anything on. Anyone know of a small, one-person's-garbage-worth composter?

See, I would just ask people like that how often they replace their electronics, how often they fly, or what kind of car they drive, etc.

Hah! And I figure much as I am blessed to live in Seattle where I am required by law (and the trash company picks up) to recycle and compost, and I can walk everywhere, and only drive my car to the airport...given my job and how I fly everywhere, I lose. :)

Anyway, those "friends" are the same ones who disdainfully made remarks about the coffeecake (that had to rise the night before! And was baked that morning!) I brought to a brunch, because it was not local and organic. They were joking about how the coconut yogurt was organic, but not local. Oh, how funny. ....I am not friends with them anymore. But mostly because they stopped talking to me when I started dating someone they didn't like. But I have better friends now. They were my starter friends in Seattle, I guess.

Suzi? hello back.

We have a smallish garbage bin (I fill it every 2 months), a huge green bin and a huge ALL recycling bin. Wish everyone had it this easy.

The compost bins in my building's backyard are about the size of large trash cans, but there are also much smaller ones like this.

New Orleans is troubling with its lack of recycling, and I don't want to get into it because then I would have to admit the amount of waste that we've produced since we moved down here.

Oooh, Jess!! I could totally get one of those once Joe finds a job!!