Dealing with non-greenies

Medium Green Wife + Red Husband (oppposite on color wheel)

I live with someone who would not recycle if he lived alone. It has been a long road, but time and repetition are what eased him into(no longer grudgingly)doing it. I also cut out all my eyerolling and perturbed exclamations when I found the odd can in the garbage.
You probably have the requisite bins, all labeled and accessable, but no one is using them, eh? That sucks and I do empathize. I know that this sounds "bitchy", but seriously, it is so like breaking a bad habit or training your dog. You have to start small, encourage "good" behavior, and either GENTLY discourage the unwanted behavior or provide a substitution for it. No one likes to be nagged and hounded. Especially, by your main support system, as in your mate or spouse. Now this is just my opinion and what worked for our family.

I made sure that all the bins were labeled and indoors. Up her in Alaska it really was a pain to keep going outside to the bins, so it stacked up or got pitched. Then I got a nicer looking set and put them right by the garbage. I ended up getting a seperate can down in the tv room, as that is where the empties always ended up.

As for the Anti-greenie thing, maybe, in a very offhand and NONconfrontation way ask exactly WHY he doesn't like it. What reasons he has to NOT do it. My aunt used to complain to no end about the required recycling in her D.C. area and when I asked her why, she said it was the label removal and washing out that got her. I just remarked that if you dont rinse the cans you get bugs, right? That made her actually think about it and she calmed down a little. She still won't take off labels. My hubby never removes the labels either, but since he gets them into the bin, I bite my tongue and do it myself. Compromise is the name of the game here.

Another thing we do with plastic and tin cans is when you empty it, put it in the sink and fill it with water. You come back and the ookie remains rinse right out. Usually the labels come off easy too. Then what we used to do was designate a spot on the counter where they would be out of the way. Then Hubby would leave them all there instead of making me fish them from the garbage and do the eyerolling gripe thing. Once that became a habit we went one step more, which was in the bin!

A nicer form or psych warfare/manipulation was that if everything made it into the bins all week, I'd make his mother's reciepy fav. dinner or I would buy him some fancy microbrew. The trick is to be nonchalant about it. Then, in an offhand manner, as if they were TOTALLY unrelated I would thank him for really HELPING me with the recycling. (He is doing you a FAVOR and you are acknowledging it.) Don't make a big DEAL about it, though, or he'll feel like a kid with a potty chart prize. We want gentle, positive reinforcemnet with a side order of respect. Good luck. Just take deep breaths, hold your patience and tongue and stay calm and Zen.