DOOR-MOUNTED bins are inexpensive and can be used for garbage, recyclables or compost. Around $20-$30. Photo courtesy Richelieu

RICHELIEU’s Pullout recycling bin for corner cabinets. Around $50. Photo courtesy Richelieu

A chrome Newspaper stacker suits minimalist style or fits in a cabinet. Around $35. Photo courtesy containerstore.com

Built-in cabinet bins for invisible storage. Prices vary. Photo courtesy Sterling Publishing Co. Inc.

Binvention brightens any room. Around $130. photo courtesy Binvention

Polypropylene containers
are low-cost, durable and
suitable for outdoor use.
Around $15-$40. Photo courtesy recyclingbin.com

Refining Recycling

From built-in cabinets to sophisticated pods, there’s a recycling system for every home, with low-tech, high-tech or do-it-yourself alternatives to unsightly recycling bins.

By Julie Kailus

Although it performs an important task, the typical recycling bin isn’t pretty. With recycling programs more prevalent than ever and Boulder County homeowners doing their part to save a half-million trees every year, there are plenty of ways to recycle—without sacrificing good taste.
Look to the north: Canadians (and Europeans, for that matter) tout modern kitchen designs that incorporate recycling spaces into the cabinetry. But one local homeowner is taking recycling a gigantic step further.

Julee Herdt, an environmental pioneer and architecture professor at the University of Colorado, is currently designing the next generation of eco-homes. The building materials for her “Serial Box” house, to be built in north Boulder, read like cereal ingredients: wheat, soy, rice, corn, coconut and flax. But instead of pouring these in a bowl, she’s combining them—together with wastepaper—into structural panels for her new home.

The house will also feature a centrally located “techno jewel box”—a two-story glass pod that will show off all the home’s energy components, from a solar heat and hot-water system to a dumbwaiter for recycling.

Since the home’s main living spaces will be below ground, the dumbwaiter will carry recyclables to the ground level for transport to curbside bins. While Herdt recognizes that people typically put recycling bins “under the kitchen sink, for the most part,” she intends to use brightly colored containers, so the system will be as visually appealing as it is easy to use. She calls it the “guppy effect”: as clearly as a fish in a bowl, passersby will see the recycling containers moving up or down in the dumbwaiter inside the transparent jewel box.

“I hope to demonstrate home recycling as an interactive, fun-to-watch process,” Herdt says, “and to show that recycling should be an important and constant process in any home.”

Conscientious Cabinets
As inventive as Herdt’s eco-model will be, most of us are stuck with the traditional two-step recycling process: Cans, plastics, glass and paper move from containers in or near the kitchen to the garage, where they are transferred to curbside bins for pickup. That said, the recycling space that most likely needs upgrading is in the kitchen.

David Adamson, owner of Eco-Build in Boulder, suggests installing two opposing recycling drawers—one near the sink and one on an island—with four large plastic removable inserts for mixed containers, compostable paper, trash and office paper. Adamson builds his cabinets with maple FSC (Forest Stewardship Council)-certified lumber to help complete the reuse circle. In addition to pullout bins, homeowners can outfit existing pantry and corner cabinets with pie-shaped recycling receptacles to save space or put an awkward, under-utilized cabinet space to better use.

Margie McCulloch of Red Pepper Design in Boulder doesn’t retrofit kitchens, but she does build recycling areas into all her new designs, including her own line of “green” European-inspired cabinets. She’s also helped clients incorporate compost-only receptacles into their blueprints. In one kitchen, for example, she cut a hole in the counter by the sink and inserted a removable stainless-steel bucket with a rubber gasket top so the client could scrape plates directly into the bucket and seal it to keep smells contained. In another home, she attached a stainless-steel compost bucket with an easy-slide lid to the inside of the kitchen sink door.
Today, even kitchen lines at mass-market home-improvement stores have dedicated recycling units. According to Beth Hayes of Home Depot’s kitchen design center, all three standard lines—Thomasville, American Woodmark and KraftMaid—include recycling receptacles tucked inside cabinetry and customized spaces for trash compactors. One special-order line, Rev-A-Shelf, also offers options for retrofitting existing cabinetry to suit a homeowner’s recycling needs.

Posh Pods, Metal Monsters
For homeowners who prefer a stand-alone bin, a growing number of inexpensive units are available that are much more attractive than the typical plastic milk crate. Mercuri makes a set of angular stainless-steel recycling bins, and the Metropolitan series on recyclingbin.com is worth a look. Sprout Design Ltd. out of the United Kingdom offers the Binvention, a colorful, standalone, low-tech metal unit. Resembling a magazine holder, the Binvention has small indentations along the top, where you can hook on rows of plastic shopping bags to fill with your recyclables.

For homeowners who want a higher-tech stand-alone, Williams-Sonoma’s ecopod hints at the future of home-recycling units. Touted as the world’s first home-recycling center with stylish functionality, the ecopod is essentially a foot-powered compactor that crushes aluminum and plastic beverage containers (up to 24 fluid ounces apiece) and stores up to 50 in a slide-out plastic pod for easy transfer to a curbside recycling bin. Two additional pods hold newspapers, glass bottles, plastic bags and other recyclables.

Of course, do-it-yourselfers have plenty of choices, too. From storage benches to folding tennis ball caddies, hundreds of unusual recycling bins can be found at flea markets and garage sales—all that’s needed is a little creativity and imagination.

Freelance writer Julie Kailus’ hus­band’s near-weekly dedication to washing rancid recycling bins inspired her to write this article.

© 2007 Brock Publishing Company
homes@brockpub.com