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Recycling in a Small Kitchen
I have a small kitchen. My house was built in the ’60s, when storage space was still considered a luxury not a necessity. Because of this, I’m forced to find clever ways to fit all the pots, pans, plates, glasses, serving dishes, small appliances, and oh yeah, food into my small kitchen. My seriously limited space makes recycling. The fact that there is no recycling pickup where I live makes things even more complicated.
I only have a system in place for aluminum but I’ve been inspired to add plastic, paper, steel and glass to the list. The fact that my local recycling drop-off just increased the list of items that it will accept had a lot to do with my newfound enthusiasm. The challenge is working out a system that will make it easy to add these new recyclables in my small kitchen and be able to store significant quantities so I am not making frequent trips to the drop-off.
First, I looked at the space I had already devoted to trash collection and recycling. I have a trash can under my sink and an aluminum receptacle in the island. When I try to fit another trash can under the sink, it dislodges the plumbing. I found that one out the hard way. So I can either use my one recycling container for all my recyclables instead of just aluminum, or add another.
I have a 16-year-old son who travels in a pack of friends and they seem to land at my house more often than not. All of them drink soda so we go through a lot of aluminum cans. OK, I drink soda too. So I think that I’m probably going to need more receptacles if I’m going to recycle more items.
As small as my kitchen is, I did have some room at the end of the island where I could put a narrow trash can. When I went to the local housewares store, I didn’t find anything that was made specifically for recycling. I settled on a really pretty stainless steel container that is heavy duty, holds 40 liters and cost around $90. I know that all steel has some amount of recycled content and I like this as much as I like the look of the can. Now I use this can for all my recyclables other than aluminum. When it’s full, I take it downstairs to the garage (where I have more room) and sort it into separate bins. This way, I manage to keep my small kitchen neat and clean and use multiple bins in my garage for storage so I make the trip to the recycling drop-off once every two or three weeks.
Quick tips for small kitchens:
- In the kitchen, use one container for all recyclables.
- Rinse all your recyclables before tossing them into the recycling can.
- If you have curbside recycling pickup, you’re probably set. If you have to drop off your own recyclables, then you’ll also need to create a sorting station.
- Set up your sorting station someplace you have room, like a garage.
- Have individual bins in this sorting station that correspond to the containers at your drop-off.
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More from Kelly Magill (8 articles available)
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- Linda S. says
- May 7, 2008 3:32 PM
Rinsed plastic and cans for recycling could be stored in an open recycle bin (with drainage holes) a toss from the back door (if the back door is near the kitchen) as rain won't hurt them.
- Jerri M. says
- May 7, 2008 2:43 PM
I, too, live in a small apartment in a senior high-rise. Recently, my friend and I started recycling all the junk mail, newspapers, laundry room trash(detergent bottles,etc), cardboard, aluminum cans, and tin and steel cans. A lot of the other residents who are disabled or elderly bring their "stuff" to us to recycle. We sort and store it in plastic bags(which we also recycle) and boxes and take it to the drop-off center once a week when we do our weekly shopping and errands. Sometimes it gets a little junky in my living room, but I figure it is for a good cause, so I just live with it till drop-off day. I am amazed at the amount of things that we have kept out of the landfill. I have always reused stuff but there were not any opportunities to recycle things as there are today. Everyone should recycle and reuse whatever they can-it is for the future of our grandchildren and great-grandchildren!!
- Diana T. says
- May 7, 2008 12:34 PM
I live in a very small apartment. No garage or shed, so no where to store anything. I have a huge recycling can out front that gets filled & the town picks it up every other week. I put a kitchen sized trash can under my kitchen sink & that's where the kids & I put the recycleables until it's full. Then my youngest son takes it to the larger one outside. As others have said before me, I have also noticed much less trash to take out! I love it! I actually have to take it out because it smells not because it's full. I love being future conscience. And I love teaching my kids about it too. I actually think about that movie Water World & wonder will we ever have to live like that? We live in such a disposable world it makes me sick. People throw away electronics etc....just because it's old not broken. No one recycles anything. It all goes into the ground we walk on & someday it will be full & our water travels through all that dirt & trash. Every bit helps!
- Billie Jo M. says
- May 6, 2008 6:33 AM
We live in a mobile home, so space is non existant. I have a box that sits in front of my fridge...lol I put everything in it. All containers get washed out before put it in, bottles crushed, boxes flattened, and I use a big plastic bag to put my plastic containers in(cottage cheese, my 3 year old loves it!). So once it's full I move all the plastic(seem to have more of this) and cans to a cheap outside trash can. Then Saturday mornings, I load everything up and drive it to the nearest drop off. We've been heavily recycling the last few weeks and discovered we have very little trash to put out every week. Now thats GOOD NEWS!!
- Holly Zahoor says
- May 4, 2008 7:46 AM
Ditto here. I actually bought some of the bigger plastic storage containers with lids (the kind you store the christmas decorations in) and I wrote "paper", "plastic", etc on the lid with a sharpie. I keep these on the back porch and we just put the stuff on the kitchen counter after we wash it out and then whenever we go outside (alot since we use the door to exit and enter the home) we take the recyclables out and put them in the containers. When the containers are full I just latch the lids and take them to the center. They stay clean, organized, look nice, and are weather proof. The system works great!
- Debbie Kent says
- May 2, 2008 11:09 AM
I have a small kitchen, apartment, no curbside pickup. Crush the soda cans, remove bottom lids from aluminum cans & slide the lids inside, stomp on the plastic bottles to make them flat, saves space. Oh, recycling, I love it!
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