How to handle recycling in an apartment

The U.S. and Dalton have seen a boom in apartments in the past few years. They can be a great option for space and you can enjoy not having to handle home repairs.

Living in an apartment can come with unique challenges when it comes to recycling. Smaller space and having to use drop-off recycling instead of curbside can make it more difficult. It doesn’t have to mean that you have to give up on recycling, however, with a couple of adjustments and pre-planning, recycling can be part of your routine even in an apartment.

It is typical to always feel like you need more space in an apartment. Storing your recycling is important, though, so that you don’t have to travel to a convenience center to drop it off too often. Stackable bins, collapsible containers or wall-mounted organizers can let you store your recycling and save space. You can also look around to find underutilized spaces for recycling containers or bags. This could be under your sink, above your fridge or the back of closet doors. With some adjustments, you can store recycling without cluttering up your apartment.

If you do have enough space you can choose an area to be a recycling station. Find a corner of a room, a closet or even a covered balcony. You can then place separate containers for different materials to make it easier when you visit the convenience center. Make sure to label these containers to make it easier on any guests to recycle.

You can also prep your recycling to work better in your apartment. Start by rinsing cans, bottles and jars to remove any food residue. This is going to make sure that there isn’t any chance of pests being attracted to your recycling. Make sure you remove any Styrofoam or plastic bubble packaging, throw it in the trash because it isn’t recyclable. This also keeps it from taking up any extra spaces.

Part of prepping can be compacting recyclables whenever possible to help save space. All of the recyclables in Dalton are hand-sorted which means you don’t have to worry about confusing an AI robot with an item’s shape. You can flatten cardboard boxes and crush plastic bottles and aluminum cans. By making sure your recyclables are crushed or flattened you are going to save space and reduce how many trips you have to take to the convenience center.

Once your recycling bins are full you can take them to any of the four convenience centers in Whitfield. You can find which is closest to you and their hours by visiting https://www.dwswa.org/conveniencecenters. Cardboard typically takes up more space than any other material, especially with online shopping leading to more cardboard stacking up at home. Luckily, there are also special cardboard drop-off bins throughout the city of Dalton so it can be even easier to recycle cardboard. You can find their locations at https://www.daltonga.gov/publicworks/page/cardboard-recycling-dumpster-locations.

Changing a few of your habits can also help decrease how much trash and recycling you are bringing into the apartment and have to deal with. When shopping, think about how you are going to dispose of an item before buying it. Choose items with minimal packaging or that are longer lasting.

Keep this in mind especially with single-use plastics such as cups, straws, cutlery and food containers. Any time we choose a single-use item instead of a reusable one we are going to create more trash that takes up space in our homes and, when not recyclable, in our landfills. Reducing your single-use items can make a big difference in the size of your trash bag very quickly.

Living in an apartment doesn’t mean you have to give up on living eco-friendly, it just means you might have to get creative. By handling our recycling with care we can make our apartments and the world a better, cleaner place to live.