Where we live we are required to box up paper every other week. On another day every other week we have to roll out our non-recyclable bins. On another day we do our plastics. All require us to haul it 200+ meters away. Glass we have to haul to the supermarket 5 km away, which is often full. I go nuts trying to remember which days to do what.

Most developed countries allow you to put all of our waste, paper, glass, plastic, and non-recyclables at your curbside. Some do the sorting after collection, others require you to do it before collection. Either way, it is so much easier than here in Holland.

By Quest | February 4, 2010 2:45 PM

In the U.S., plastic, paper, glass, and even aluminum cans are collected at curb side weekly, which makes all households an easy way to recycle. As mentioned in a previous comment, here in the Netherlands, glass and paper recycling is difficult, the containers are almost always full, not in really accessible places, which makes it difficult to recycle. Most people want to do this, but the system here is really putting more emphasis on the public doing it, which probably most people find takes too much time. Although I make every effort, my neighbors throw their glass in their garbage. The recycling needs an overhaul in NL

By Joe | February 4, 2010 3:41 PM

I am happy to sort my rubbish and think it's worth the effort if it's going to help save our planet.

By Expat | February 4, 2010 4:39 PM

Where I come from all houses have non-recyclables, paper and biological waste bins. As the previous writer said, things are made too complicatedly here. If I would have the spirit to recycle biological waste, I would have to carry it 2 kilometers.

By z | February 4, 2010 5:48 PM

in certain regions of italy, not only you have to recycle paper, plastic and glass+cans but also humid waste (coffe, eggshells, fruit and vegetables) from dry one. besides, there are special containers, of course, for pharmaceutical waste, batteries and so on. The difference, however, is that it is collected outside your home. but that also happens in different days of the week. i agree that it is annoying to take everything to supermarkets or containers, probably home collection is the best way, or a mix of that+undifferentiated waste when they can be effectively separated afterwards

By andre | February 4, 2010 6:15 PM

More importantly than separating plastic: how do they want to automatically tell polyethylene from polysterene, polypropane, PET, PVC, etc.? Because that's what effective recycling means. And to my knowledge, that's still very hard.

By Hans | February 5, 2010 4:51 AM

We have a very simple system in Sydney Aus and it seems to work well.
We have 3 bins: red ,green and yellow.
Red for all kitchen waste collected weekly
Green for all garden waste same day as the red bin but every 2nd week.
Yellow for paper,glass and cans same night as red but alternating with the green bin .
Very simple to remember and you only ever have to put 2 bins out .
Leon B.

By leon belgrave | February 5, 2010 8:24 AM

When they are looking at the total costs, I wonder if they are including the savings for the individual households and not just the councils? This plastic separation scheme has seen my need to put out the trash for collection drop from once every four weeks to twice every six months. Since we have to pay for each pickup, that is a real savings for our house. Helps off-set the need to put out the green waste at every opportunity.

By Jay | February 5, 2010 9:11 AM

I am FOR this system for one good reason.. it saves ME money. We live in an apartment building with 2 HUGE dumpsters to put our trash in. With this system I don't mind tossing it all in one bin. We got a notice in December that these dumpsters are being replaced with a small bin with an underground container. We have to scan our pass and then place our bag in the top of this bin (similar to recycling textiles, etc) and then it goes in the container below. This costs us 1 euro for every bag we put in. Now that we separate Plastic and Cardboard, I can send those out on the street once a month for free. It cuts down on the garbage I have to PAY to toss out. This means we won't pay a regular fee anymore, only the 1 euro per bag of non recyclable waste.

Yes, recycling can be annoying but it saves MY family money and is better for the environment so I'm happy to do it.

I live in Limburg btw, in Heerlen.

By LJK | February 5, 2010 9:38 AM

I do recycle, but instaed of putting the emphasis on the public, why not target the makers of non-biodisposable waste. All packaging could be biodegradable by now. I heard of a very big company in South America who produces this ( forgot the name)

By AW | February 5, 2010 9:51 AM

When the lazy humans go the way of the Dodo (not soon enough) and we can reduce the number of humans infesting the planet... then and only then can we do something to reverse the pollution the ignorant humans have deposited. Good story on Der Spiegal today ( http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,676049,00.html ) It is about the millions of tons of trash washing up on our beaches. In the middle of most oceans there are Gyres (circular currents ) that collect the floating trash and kill young sea life. When do we finally do something? When the last fish is fried?!

By Paul Martin | February 5, 2010 12:27 PM

I don't mind recycling, but the amount of junk mail I get through the door every week means I have to haul as much as a small person of paper to the end of the road (10 houses down!)
I never remember what day is paper, what day is card or what day is the green bin! Good thing the neighbours know!

By Tina | February 5, 2010 4:01 PM

I would be happy to recycle, BUT there should be a regulation and standards about the packaging. The simplest example is the plastic bottles. The body is made of PET, and the cap is polypropylene. AFAIK these cannot be recycled together. The parts of the packaging which are different materials need to be easily separable. No paper labels on the recyclable plastics should be stuck. The logistics of the collecting should be carefully considered - it appears most of the waste is actually plastic, so why it is not collected more often than twice a month?

In short - the authorities need to do quite of a job until the proper solution is found. And the companies which sell their packed articles which are the source of the waste need to be kicked hard.

By George | February 5, 2010 11:47 PM