Is it rude to recycle your recycleables in your neighbors' recycleable bin if yours is full?

Just curious... on your side of the fence or on theirs? I have a wonderful compost corner in the back of my property where I have my bins, my hotpile and my worms. It's on my side of the fence, so there should be no issue with my neighbor, but now your post has me curious why you were offended (and if I should be worrying that I'm offending my neighbor). If done correctly, compost does not smell or attract flies.

BTW, I have experienced that people toss branches over the fence in that back corner. I suspect it's my one neighbor's gardener (who is too lazy to drag it to the street), but I haven't been able to confirm it. We are very fortunate to have weekly pickup of yard waste in our town.... no green bins. Just put the pile in the street, no bigger than 5x5x5'.

 

I remember this from when I lived in Davis. It was a really good service.

They don't do anything like this in Sac County - you can have (2) 90 gal green waste containers that get picked up and emptied every other week. If you want/need additional containers, you have to pay extra. They do 1 street pickup per year, but that is a mess because people will go through the piles to see if they want to take anything and leave a big mess behind. The county will pickup the stuff if it is in a pile, but not the stuff that gets spread around.

 

It's a metaphor! It may not be your business if your neighbor recycles or not, but in the broad sense we should care. We should set an example, as well as encourage public policy that rewards eco-friendly behavior, and penalizes waste.

Our county was I believe one of the first in the country to mandate garbage pick up and recycling. If you have an address you MUST have commercial garbage service unless you can prove you generate no garbage. It was instituted to reduce midnight dumping. There was great resistance at first, but it has wide acceptance and little resistance now.

There is a carrot and stick system that works very well, and other jurisdictions should, IMHO, adopt them or something similar.
The carrot is that three bin recycling is free, twice a month. Glass, cans plastics in one bin, mixed paper in another, and newspaper in the third. Cardboard flattened next to the bin is also picked up. If you have too much, place it in bags or boxes and they take that too. Every year they adjust your bill based on the value of the recyclables sold. The system is based on the cost of the landfill tipping cost of ~$100/ton. Everything they get more than that is credited to you bill.

The stick is based on how much garbage you generate, and how often you have it picked up. If you have 1 30 gallon can per month, it costs, $6/month. If you have that same can twice a month it doesn't cost $12 but costs ~$14. If you get it 4 times a month it would be ~$35. Bigger containers have similar sliding scales. It is a reverse economy of scale that rewards those that use the system the least.

My wife and I fill the mixed paper about every two weeks, the cans and glass (we don't have a deposit law here!) every two weeks, and the newspaper about once a month now that the paper has gotten so small. I also keep a bucket in my shop for scrap metal that I put out each time. What little packaging we can't avoid it taken apart such that the unrecycleable plastic is separated from the paper etc. We struggle to fill a 30 gallon can twice a month. We were on once a month, but I generate enough in the shop that we were always overloaded at once a month.

It amazes me to see these huge 50 gallon toter cans overstuffed in front of the trophy houses each and every week.

So the metaphor is that yes, it is all of our business if our metaphoric neighbors recycle.

Icarus

 

around here we get unlimited recycling as well. in fact, the garbage company pays a kickback based on value of recycyled items as a whole (not individual cans) but always good for a buck or two off the bill.

our recycler comes every other week so hard to be full and i try to recycle everything including misc garbage pickups (we live across street from park and frequently will pick up stuff that we recycle instead of tossing in garbage that someone managed to miss (hard to do since park has a can every hundred feet or so)

 

We have three recycle bins - one for paper, for for glass and cans, and one for garden waste. The garden waste is emptied every 4 weeks, and you can put more out, as long as it is in cardboard boxes, which also go into the truck. The other two are alternate weeks. We rarely fill the glass and cans bin, and our neighbours, on both sides, help fill it, but we have used their bins when we really do fill ours. None of us fill the paper bins, so no issues here.

In each case, we know that once the bins go out the front, and we have discussed it at some time, each household has put all their stuff in, so if you have extra, the agreement is to put in the neighbour's.

 

I also agree. I doubt they would mind as long as they have enough room for their stuff.

 

The neighbours I mentioned live on the other side of the back lane, so the fence isn't really shared. They have plenty of room on their own property for a proper compost, and no need to cross the lane to dump their kitchen waste under a shrub against my fence.

 

You live in Burnley?
I have been there three times, my friend lives in Parliament Street, Burnley Wood at the end of the Straight Mile. The bridge over the canal (Finsley Gate) is visible from her front door.
Oh with a 40 metre long driveway I suspect you are in the posh part of Burnley.

I'll go with the crowd on this one, ask the neighbour, it's what they would do on Neighbours.

I compost all my green waste on my property except big tree branches which I give away for heating fuel, so I gave my neighbours my green waste bin.

 

i live in Lacey and use and independent garbage pick up service. but in other cities, recycling is mandatory, and failure to do so, increases your garbage rates (obviously, since the less you recycle, the more you throw away and the bigger the can you would need right?)... so i dont see an issue with "topping off your neighbor's recycle can especially first thing in the morning on recycle day.

now, one must be careful of this, because i put out my bins monday morning before work, but my recycle bin sits out all the time (dont have room for it anywhere else, its in alley anyway and most people have their out all the time as well) so maybe not quite topping it off would be recommended just in case they have a few last minute items to toss