Say you consider yourself a top-notch recycler. You buy in bulk as much as possible, compost all your food scraps, can recite the recyclables bin allowable item list from memory. When trash day rolls around, what's in your discounted black mini-can?

According to Sunset Scavenger Spokesman Robert Reed, San Francisco residents should have nothing but "film plastics" (like plastic bags from stores and dry cleaners) and polystyrene, aka Styrofoam.

But the life of a recycling ascetic ain't easy. First of all, it means learning the rules of your particular community, since recycling practices vary depending on where you live. Probably, It means forgoing juice boxes, disposable diapers, complicated, multi-material packaging. It means you've scraped out your cat food cans ("contaminated" recyclables are often tossed). If you're a paper shredder, you've put all the scraps into a paper bag labeled "shredded paper." (Tiny pieces of paper are too hard to collect – sorters usually landfill them.) In short, you've earned a PhD in recycling. (And if you think that's complicated, consider the Japanese.)

Some experts have argued that this is all too much trouble – that instead of aiming for zero waste, we should accept a certain amount of landfilling. Others say that the more citizens recycle, the more efficient the program becomes – hence the movement toward mandatory recycling. One point that nearly everyone seems to agree on is that products on the shelves must be designed to be more easily recyclable than they are today.

Is This Recyclable?

On that note, we interviewed two recycling experts: Mark Murray, director of Californians Against Waste, and Kurt Standen (no relation, amazingly to both of us), general manager of the Sacramento Recycling and Transfer Station. We came armed with six recycling stumpers, including a rubber boot, a juice box, and that much-maligned item of transport, the plastic bag. See what Standen and Murray had to say by clicking on the images below.

Listen to the Getting to Zero Waste radio report online.

The recyclable aluminum in these packed bundles fetches around $1.50 per pound on the commodities market.

There's something about recycling that brings out the OCD in me.

A brown paper bag filled with scrubbed-out cans and neatly stacked newspapers; corn husks and coffee filters in a compost tub; a garbage bag so light it barely makes a thud when it lands in the black bin. Things falling into their rightful place. So satisfying!

And yet for all the care we take with recycling (and I know I'm not the only one), much about the process is mysterious to most of us. Why don't municipal recycling programs pick up plastic bags – even the ones with the chasing arrows symbol on them? What's the deal with yogurt containers? Or bottle caps? Greasy pizza boxes?

Part of the problem is that these rules change depending on where you live, the result of a schizophrenic system wherein local municipalities contract with private companies or non-profits to design their own, local recycling programs. Berkeley, for instance, declines to recycle most plastic on the grounds that while technically recyclable, plastic is an environmentally unsustainable substance that we should use a lot less of. San Francisco, in contrast, picks up everything from coffee cup lids to plastic buckets and flower pots. (San Francisco was also one of the first cities in the country to start picking up compostable food scraps – which emit methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, when landfilled.)

Meanwhile, economic and policy shifts are changing the way recycling happens. In this story, we look at how recycling programs find themselves at the mercy of sudden swings in the global commodities market. Meanwhile, Moore's law and the digital conversion have helped turn toxics-laden e-waste into the fastest growing waste stream. And what about San Francisco's recent decision to become the first city in the country to make recycling mandatory? Is it a PR move, or an enforceable policy? Just some of the issues we'll be looking at later this year.

In the meantime, check out the slide show, below, to see what happens to your recyclables once they leave the curb:

Listen to the Economics of Household Recycling radio report online.

What are the options for eco-friendly cat litter?In researching this blog post, I continually ran across the word "conundrum" – which is defined as a puzzling question or problem. Used in a sentence, one might say, "I am a cat owner who cares about the environment. What to do about their poop presents quite a conundrum."

Let's explore the facts around this puzzle.

Fact: There are approximately 88.3 million companion cats in the United States, according to the Humane Society of the US.

Fact: All of them poop. The poop and the kitty litter must go somewhere.

Fact: The traditional clay litters have been criticized for being resourced through strip-mining, and may contain harmful chemicals that cats can lick from their fur.

These three facts alone are reason enough to feel the effects of a conundrum, but let's explore further.

Fact: Flushing cat poop down the toilet is an option once suggested by environmentalists, but is now an eco- No-No. Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite found in cat's intestines, can be passed through the feces.

When flushed, the T. Gondii travels with the toilet water from your house to a treatment center (where it resists treatment) to the bay to the Pacific Ocean and into the habitat of many sea creatures, including the Sea Otter.

A UC Davis study of otters that live in areas near freshwater runoff, found that 42% of live otters and 62% of dead otters tested positive for T.  Gondii.

In fact, recent legislation will require kitty litters bags to include warning labels about flushing.

(Editor's note: QUEST's very first TV story, ""What's Killing the Sea Otters?" – 2/6/07- " covers this topic in detail.)

Now that we are clear on the conundrum, let's explore some options.

Reclaimed Wood Litter: Litter made from reclaimed wood is an greener option. Pine and cedar sawdust that would normally end up in landfills is concentrated without the use of dangerous chemicals to produce environmentally safe litter. Feline Pine, Nature's Earth and Catfresh are options.

Recycled Newspaper Litter: Try litter made from recycled newspapers. The paper absorbs just as well and re-uses resources. Two great brands are Yesterdays News and Good Mews.

Plant-based Litters: Plant-based litters are made from materials such as corn, corncobs, cornhusks, wheat by-products, wheat grass and beet pulp. These biodegradable materials, have no odor, are very absorbent and don't produce the same kind or volume of dust as clay litters.

Biodegradable Bags: These are available at most pet stores. Use the biodegradable litter with them.

Composting: Being a Zoo employee, we are BIG composters of our herbivore poop, creating rich and wonderful soil to grow our botanical paradise at Knowland Park. NatureMill, makers of the pet-friendly composter claim that it is possible to compost pet poop, as well.  This composter, made from recycled and recyclable materials, is an easy to use alternative. Just add food scraps and the computerized composter heats up the ingredients to the 140 degrees (the EPA suggests over 130 degrees). Out comes soil for your flowerbed.

Make Your Own Kitty Litter: The DIY-crowd may even wish to attempt a hand-crafted solution.

These are all great alternatives that, of course, present more questions. Like all environmental issues these days, each solution may lead to a new puzzle or conundrum for us to wrap our greening brains around. Let's keep on exploring!