For most Portlanders, recycling couldn’t get much easier.

Just throw paper, plastic and metal into a single bin and haul it to the curb once a week.

But there are plenty of city residents – those living in large commercial apartment buildings – who want to recycle, and simply can’t.

“It all goes into the garbage,” said Joan Bullock, who lives at Longfellow Commons on State Street. “It’s not easy.”

Where there is a will – and a frustrated, creative person like Bullock – there is a way. And the solution she came up with is getting lots of praise as a way to finally make recycling possible for a sizable segment of the city.

“It’s always that one single-minded individual who can take an idea and bring it to fruition,” said Kym Dakin, who works for the Portland Time Bank. Now, Dakin said, “We’re going to see how many other places can replicate it.”