[Boston1945]

The U.S. recycles 31.5% of its waste, making it 7th in the world for recycling.
Thank God we don,t live in Germany. The average home has at least five distinct color-coded bins for different kinds of waste. These include bins for packaging, paper, glass, compost, and trash.

[aldeana]

All waste (garbage, recyclables, yard waste) goes to Covanta in Okahumpka, where it is incinerated indoors, and the heat converted to energy, then sold. Just Google Covanta and get a virtual tour of the plant. And for info on Villages services, always get it from the horse's mouth: Village Community Development Districts

[Tankerrich]

Enjoy it.

[GATORBILL66]

Originally Posted by scottgo

is there recycling ? This is the 1st time in over 40 years i have not.

all items put out for trash is burned. I take anything to recycle to the sumter county solid waste. I take cans, bottles, newspapers and cardboard there for free.

[GATORBILL66]

Originally Posted by dan9871

everything you put out in the trash is recycled here.

home | covanta

dan, you are inncorrect. Anything you put out for trash is burned, even the yard waste.

[Linda Taranto]

About 6 months ago, there was an article describing why everything was now collected as trash. Trash is taken to a new plant that separates everything into trash or recycle. There was a wonderful video of the plant (I think it's in Oklawaha). I will try to find that video and post it here.

[rmd2]

Originally Posted by Dlbonivich

They separate out metals and burn the rest for power. No one should believe anything that went to China was recycled fooled. They dump it. So does India. Really has never been a market for most recycling except metal ever. My husband ran recycling companies for 30 years.

Well there is the real story about recycling. I found out that the things we were recycling (in the Federal gov't) were being sent to the dump. We had federal employees at $100K sorting out recycled paper that was sent to the dump so not only did we pay these high salaries to do the sorting, we also paid more for the "recycling" which was never done. That's recycling for you! But it makes people "feel good".
ps That's your tax dollars at work for another boondoggle.

[crash]

Originally Posted by merrymini

No toxins? Well maybe. I think that china no longer accepts recycling so the bottom fell out if the market. There is, supposedly, a recycling plant being planned in Tampa in the near future. I think it is unconscionable that glass and aluminum are being dumped. Aluminum and glass are both terrific items for recycling. I keep my aluminum cans to bring to recycling. Probably not worth much but also keep my glass jars for storage of food items. There is still stuff that goes to the dump, even after it is burned.

neither glass or aluminum burns and is pulled from the waste stream before heading to the incinerator.

[Silver Streak]

Originally Posted by GATORBILL66

all items put out for trash is burned. I take anything to recycle to the sumter county solid waste. I take cans, bottles, newspapers and cardboard there for free.

Do you know what they do with the cans and bottles? I had a long email exchange with someone in charge at Covanta last year and specifically asked about glass, which doesn't burn. He said there was no market for recycling glass, which seems crazy to me since it's SO recyclable. I always feel especially bad about putting bottles into the trash. I assume glass just goes into landfill somewhere.

[Linda Taranto]

So, I couldn't find the exact video I watched many months ago, but found a youtube Video that is similar to what I saw; I thought it was pretty amazing. Click on this link: Virtual Tour of a Recycling Center - ReCommunity - YouTube

[coffeebean]

Originally Posted by tuccillo

Trash is now being recycled into electricity by Covanta. I believe they are extracting metal from the trash.

Why do folks think that trash to energy is not recycling? IMHO, it most certainly is recycling. Energy is a wonderful end result for all of our trash. I LOVE the fact that I do not have to separate anything any more and I can put yard waste in the same bag as kitchen trash. WIn Win in my book.

[coffeebean]

Originally Posted by Duppman

This my first year here and it still feels strange not to recycle. Different program here.

I recycled for many years as most people in the US have done. It took me all of, oh, about 3 minutes to get used to not having to separate trash. Easy peasy.

[coffeebean]

Covanta virtual tour. This will explain how our trash is recycled to energy.......

Energy-from-Waste Facility Virtual Tour - YouTube

[coffeebean]

Originally Posted by GATORBILL66

dan, you are inncorrect. Anything you put out for trash is burned, even the yard waste.

Yes, all waste is burned with the exception of glass but it is converted to energy in the process. Isn't that what recycling is all about. Take the trash and turn it into something else that is useful. What am I missing here?????

[Skunky1]

China has decided to quit accepting our trash that was mixed in with the recycles