It so bugs me when I see someone at work just toss their soda can in the trash. We HAVE recycling here. It's in the kitchen, and in our small office of 20, that's not far for ANYONE to walk. Or, as I do, pile up the can(s) on your desk until you're already GOING to the kitchen, then put it in there. I just saw the IT guy (well, rather HEARD him) clunk his can into his trash can. So not cool. It's effortless to do.

People throw away pop cans? That's like throwing away money in Michigan!! While I hate paying the deposit up front, I am glad Michigan does it. You rarely see pop cans laying around or not being recycled.

It's not throwing away money here in NC. You don't pay a deposit, and therefore, there's no money back for it.

I put mine next to the recycling bin and the custodians take them.  I think they save them up and buy pizza dinners with them ;)

People throw away pop cans? That doesn't happen in Michigan! It would be throwing money away. While I hate paying the deposit, I am glad Michigan does it. You hardly ever see cans on the side of the roads, especially in this economy.

We're trying to get people to do more in our office.  I'm in charge of making eye-catching signs to help them understand. 

We're doing signs about the right bins for recycling, and what kind of paper can be put in the bins. 

We're putting up signs about how to print double-sided so as to not waste paper.

And also signs for composting.  We used to do just veggies and grains, but now are doing meats and compostable cups and stuff, because we're sending it out a big composting co. locally.  Cool!

Also signs about turning your computer and lights off, as well as calculators and printers too. 

People throw away pop cans? That doesn't happen in Michigan! It would be throwing money away. While I hate paying the deposit, I am glad Michigan does it. You hardly ever see cans on the side of the roads, especially in this economy.

Wow that was creepy. It was like re reading my post all over again. LOL

No kidding, Colleen!  I flipped back and forth between the two posts thinking I was seeing double!

Another Michigander chiming in...not only do we take our own back but I pick them up when I walk our rural road.  That deposit has made a real difference in our state.  Now if only drinks other than carbonated ones would be packaged in depositable cans or bottles.  Why the difference?

When our family gathers (4 kids and their sig. others) I put out one or two grocery sacks to collect all the cans and bottles from the "liquids" being consumed.  I gladly sort it once they are all gone.

Although NC doesn't charge a deposit, it is not like throwing away money, it IS throwing away money.  All you have to do is take the cans to the recycling center and they give you money for your "trash."  I have a large trash can in the garage.  I crush the cans and put them in there until it is full.  Then I take them to the recycling center and get cash for the cans.  Then I take the money to the gas station and fill up with it.  It is like a free tank of gas for each full garbage can in my garage.  Depending on what the going price is at the time, I may have money left over. 

We recycled toner cartridges and got paid for it.  There are usually local companies who will gladly recyle them for you, or look on line.

I am amazed at how much food gets wasted and stuff doesn't get put in recycling where I work.   I work at a high school and most of the problems are the students, which does not make me feel good.  There seems to be no environmental interest among the kids which makes me very sad.

On the bright side, we are attached to a university and they handle our garbage.  I don't think they compost (too bad), but they do pull recycalables out of the garbage.  I don't think the kids know this, though, so it isn't why they are so casual.

Before recycling, though, I'd like to see them not print so much that just gets left in the printer!  Talk about an utter waste!

I always bring my cans home from work to recycle, even though there is a recycle bin for cans. If I'm at someone's house and they don't recycle, I bring the cans home. I don't understand why people don't recycle aluminum cans around here anyway, because we can get money back for them and everyone likes money. :)

We, also, are blessed with a wonderful paper recycling program at our school. The children are fairly discipline to throw paper in the recycle box and trash in the regular can. We have high school students who wheel a large can around every other Friday and deposit it in the paper bin out in the parking lot. We have pop can "recycle" boxes in the common eating areas.

I wish I could say that they JUST want to go GREEN. It's really more about the money they get for the recycling. I guess we all do things for positive reinforcement...we've got to work...would we go if we weren't getting paid? Maybe, maybe not

If you're in California you can get free bottle/can recycling bins for the office/school here:

http://www.bottlesandcans.com/

At my office we recycle cans, bottles, newspapers, magazines, and we clean containers with lids for the local church to give out left over food after there free lunch meals. I'm hoping to get them to do more.

We also have trouble with people putting garbage in the paper recycling bin. It's more laziness than anything else, I think.

However, since we are a small printer (about 110 employees) we actually make $60,000 per year in recycling our paper alone.