If you live in an apartment, how many times have you carried your trash bag to the garbage cans knowing it was full of recyclable bottles and newspaper?  Don’t you wish they’d put some recycle bins out there for you and your neighbors to live a little greener?

Well, SB 137 is one of the 150 new Nevada laws that went into effect October 1st, and it says that recycling bins will be made available for residents of apartments and condos in Clark County.  Haleluah, right?  Not exactly.  There are some challenges with the new law.

It will be easier for new apartments and condos to abide by it because SB 137 says ALL NEW construction of apartments and condo projects must have dedicated areas for recycling bins - separate from trash bins - worked into their building plans that must be approved by the county before ground is even broken.  But as you and I both know - the new apartment construction is at a slow drip now.

So where does that leave apatment complexes that have been around for years?  According to the new law, ALL aprartment and condo complexes must have recycling bins available - separate from trash - for recyclables.  That means your plastic bottles, cans and newspapers should have a place for them OUT of the garbage bins.  Because existing apartments have limited space, it may make it more challenging to make room for recycling.  But they will have to, according to the new state law.  And frankly, for many of those older complexes that have tried to provide bins in the past, it seems they oftentimes get contaminated with plain ol’ garbage being thrown into them.  So most of the residents have to be on board for it to work.

If you don’t have it in your complex, you can contact your apartment manager and ask for them.  You can contact your Clark County Commissioner.  And then if you still don’t get results, you can contact the Southern Nevada Health District and file a complaint.  They have a hotline just for complaints.  It’s 759-0600.  If apartments still don’t comply after a warning, then the fines kick in.  And they can run from $500 to $5000.  So I’d say, it really can pay to live green!