Wauwatosa, Wisconsin is the next city to get rid of all those cumbersome bins in favor of a better option. They realized, like many recycling enthusiasts, sorting recyclables has far too many problems. What if you need two bins for bottles? What about the stuff that's just too big?

So the city is adopting an innovative concept - single stream recycling. Imagine that! You put everything in one bin, no sorting, no bags, no extra bins, and it's big enough to fit the box from your new IKEA couch. Of course, those are not the only benefits of single stream recycling.

Encouraging Community

"The biggest hurdle for some residents was remembering to keep the space around the recyclable cart so the driver could access it, but, Lampe said, most people caught on quickly after their cart was not emptied a few weeks in a row." - Wauwatosa Now

The message between the lines is "if you make it easy for me, I'll make it easy for you." Wouldn't it be great if we had an economy full of cities, businesses, and consumers that thought this way? And even though it is financially rewarding for cities to implement these programs, I'm sure that doesn't make residents appreciate it any less.

Hilarious Failures

Two months ago, Blue Ion implemented an in-office recycling system. This is one of those "best laid plans of mice and men." Starting out with high hopes and a bright future in mind, they soon realized there was a major fault in the logistics of their idea.

They got carried away with the pizza - but neglected to assign someone to carry away the bins. Hey Blue Ion - go single stream!