Do you recycle?

Last month USAG Baumholder asked what three things are recycled on post. Only five people answered and only one got it right. I hope that statistic isn't reflective of the rest of our post! 


Obviously a lot of folks don't know this but we are required to recycle here in Germany. It's part of our agreement with our host country and it's in our housing handbook. It's much stricter off post in the local community. We have it pretty easy on post. There are recycling bins for paper & cardboard (the blue dumpsters) next to every building here in Baumholder. In Smith housing there is a recycling point next to the commissary. You can take glass, metal, paper & cardboard, clothes and even bulk items such as electronics, tires, and scrap metal. There is another recycling point in Wetzel between the elementary school and the gate to the golf course. It's not hard to do. We have a couple extra trash cans next to our fridge and we use one for soda cans, soup cans, ect. We use the other for our paper and cardboard. When they get full we take them out. I don't have a lot of glass but I save it in the built in wastebasket.  I often times see trash in the blue bins and cardboard in the black bins. I hope this is just a lack of information and not due to laziness. We all need to do our part so please take advantage of the recycling bins. There are other ways to recycle as well. You can turn an old newspaper into a pinata, as packing paper, or line a cage. Use a plastic bag from the commissary as a trash bag, to pack a sack lunch in or pick up dog poo (that's a whole different post LOL!).


For more ideas and information on recycling in general click here
For more information about recycling in Germany click here
For hands on information from an eco-smart blogger click here

What ways do you recycle?


**UPDATE: There are now receptacles near each building for Paper/Cardboard (blue), Glass (red), Cans (yellow), and Trash (black)!!! Please make sure you're using them :D