Sunday, February 7, 2010

What else can I recycle besides cans, glass clear bottles and Newspapers?

I have three trash cans in my basement for these three things.


We give the cans to the church for money raised there, then the clear glass and newspapers are collected a few times a year.





What else can I do to recycle?What else can I recycle besides cans, glass clear bottles and Newspapers?
Vegetable things. Buy a compost bin. Put vegetable rinds, left-overs etc in bin and eventually you will have wonderful soil to grow things in.


I put in onion skins, top ends of vegies, fruit skins, like orange, old potatoes, those tomatoes that fall to the bottom of the fridge etc.. You can even use the soil for window boxes.What else can I recycle besides cans, glass clear bottles and Newspapers?
If you community has a recycling program, start by making sure you have the appropriate blue or green bin and be sure use it every week. Even if you start with just a few items, your neighbors will see that you care and perhaps a trend will start. Read the directions on the bin as to what is acceptable in your community's curbside pick-up program. Cardboard boxes often are, while pizza boxes are not, for example. (My apartment neighbors don't seem to get that, so I end up sorting through their garbage quite often. We also save our cardboard egg cartons - I refuse to buy styro cartons - and donate them to local food banks.)





Check your local directory for commercial recycling centers in your area, if you do not have a community recycling program already in place. (If you don't, it's time you called your local politicians and insisted soemone get this moving.) Your nearest private recylcing centers should take plastics of all types (codes 1-7), paper and cardboard, bottles of all colors (green, brown, etc.) and steel/tin as well as aluminum cans. Of course, remember the old 3 Rs of recycling has now grown into 4Rs: REDUCE your own consumption/purchase of non biodegradable objects and anything that comes in non biodegradable packing materials. The new ';R'; is to REFUSE to purchase things in wasteful or unrecyclable packing. Your greatest power may be in your pocketbook, but don't forget to let your local merchants know WHY you are NOT buying certain products...or using paper much less those evil plastic sacks. (Be prepared by keeping canvas sacks in your car so you can avoid the excuse of just having to make a small ';pick-up'; shopping trip.) You also have the right and the voice to address these companies directly. Write to their consumer affairs divisions...and ';cc'; their CEOs about excessive packaging, plastic bags/containers, etc. The trick, of course, is to buy fresher and fresher whole foods with less and less packaging. All things being equal, I buy produce with the least amount of packaging possible. Visit your local farmers' market and bring your own sacks to aid in this effort, but be sure to still educate your local supermarkets.





AVOID polystyrene/styrofoam altogether. I bring my own container when we go to restaurants and envision there might be ';take outs.'; Ditto for carrying your own refillable water bottle and coffee/tea/yerba matte mug. (I have lived in a Third World country overrun by styrofoam waste that has NO WHERE to go besides the ocean, reef and the nation's very limited landmass. Their future is not very pretty.) If you don't like the taste of your local tap water and use it as an excuse for buying bottled water, buy a filter pitcher and chill the H2O before drinking. There is no excuse for the abominable mountains of plastic bottles discraded by our so-called health and environmentally-conscious generations.





You can also recycle your clothing by donating anything usable. (Remember, your standard for ';usable'; may be somewhat higher than on the receiving end, but that does not mean you should drop your junk there either.) Likwise for buying ';gently used'; clothing for yourself. Tear up unrecyclable fabric and use in place of PAPER towels, PAPER napkins or SPONGES. It is less harmful to wash a daily use ';rag'; than to keep buying paper products (even recycled ones). Recycle your printer's toner cartridges as well as your old electronics. If you don't know where to do that, call a local non profit like Goodwill or Easter Seals and see if they can point you towards a needy recipient. Recycle your home/office printer paper, of course, but start by reducing what is printed. Just today we saw a story about ';green printing'; software that scans your documents and reformats them to cut out all the nonsense that no one ever reads...anywhere from 20 - 40 % of the pages that run through our machines. It seems worth the $35 it'll cost to download.





Oh, and then there's composting - recycling your food waste. If you are a non gardener perhaps one of your neighbors, a local school or a nearby nursing home might have a garden and be willing to take your ';dumpings'; every week. This will also reduce your overall trash load.





Thanks for caring enough to ask this question.
It depends on your municipality. You can call the agency that picks up your recycling, and they will tell you exactly what you can recycle. There are different types of plastic. My city only recycles 1 %26amp; 2. But you may also be able to find recycling centers for a number of things. Cardboard, old lightbulbs, scrap metal, old fixtures, or just about anything in the world on freecycle. Before you throw something away, if you think anybody might be able to use it, you can offer it on freecycle.com for your local community. I have recycled some stuff that I thought was complete junk. You don't have to pay a white goods disposal fee for old appliances either. There is almost always someone who wants your old appliance at least for parts. Check it out
Computers and cellphones are a big one. Lots of people get new ones every couple years and just throw them out in the trash. Most retailers, such as Best Buy, will recycle them for you.
Dont use toilet paper, grow all of your own vegetables in your backyard, let all of your pets go free because they have they're own souls and hate to be imprisoned by selfish humans.


There is more wait. Use a peddle bicycle for transportation everywhere, plant a tree for every hour of flight time you log per year, donate money to Barack Hussein Obama, never smoke cigarrettes becuase tobacco plants dont deserve to die so you can smoke.


And finally, they're a few more things you can do to recycle. Blame corporations for everything. Seriously it works, dont even name a real company, just say the ';coporations'; want you to stop recycling. Throw away your televisions because they waste energy, and finally dont eat meat its really mean.
It is called ';precycling'; and it means taking into account the recyclability of an item before buying it. Is it packaged wastefully? Is it styrofoam (forget it)? In the case of paper, is it made of recycled paper? That is the best. Then, ask yourself if you really need this thing. I have started saving money and the environment by answering no to that question many times and walking out of a store empty handed and fat walleted. Buying less means less stuff to go to the landfills.





Also, I always donate old items to charity when possible/appropriate. It is a great way to recycle, you get to feel good about yourself, and keep the receipt, because it is tax deductible. One good charity that I like is St Vincent de Paul. Do a google search on it to find out if there is one near you. They will come for scheduled pick up if you call them.
most plastic containers are now recyclable, but they may or may not be picked up by your city. Also, the plastic grocery bags can be recycled , just carry them back to the store, they usually have a barrel in the front portico for them!
You can recycle pretty much anything. Here are a few tips:


-Add another garbage can to your list and start recycling your plastic goods as well. Green and brown glass can also be recycled.


-Don't throw away old clothes -- donate them to a local (or national) good will. Same with used children's toys, DVD, CDs and books. Try selling things online rather than tossing them!


-If you use plastic bags when you shop, either bring them back to the store for recycling, or, for small purchases, ask for no bag at all!


-With your organic waste protucts (meal leftovers, food waste), collect them in a small bin in the house, then transfer them out back to a small compost pile. You can use the compost to fertilize flowers when gardening.





Save the world :)
batteries and other electrical devices that are useless..
cardboard
For a large list, see:





http://www.obviously.com/recycle/guides/鈥?/a>








Practically speaking, materials worth recycling economically have been recycled since the dawn of time. Iron, steel, gold, silver, rags, copper, etc.





So a lot of recycling now is to reduce volume in landfills, and keep hazardous waste out of landfills, that is not economic but is the price of environmental stewardship.

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