We have been recycling ever since we've been married, I think. It was long enough ago that, 1) we had to sort, rinse and unlabel everything, and, 2) we had to put it in the pick up and take it to the dump ourselves. We have also always had a compost pile.

We're now spoiled. We have the big blue wheeled bin, everything goes in, and no prep is necessary. It goes to the top of our driveway (a nice little walk) for pick up weekly. What amazes me is our neighbors. Our driveway has four houses; there are some that "do" and some that "don't". How any normal family can justify the amount of trash they put up there is beyond me! We usually have about a third of a small can to empty every other week. The recycle bin is about half full every week (unless we have a party). There are two humans and one kitty here. The family of four next door puts up two VERY LARGE trash bins and many times separate garbage bags. What are they doing over there???