Recycling

Top 10 Recycling Resources

Marcus — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0500

We all mean to recycle. The problem is that it’s sometimes quite difficult to actually get your recyclables to the proper facilities. If your apartment building or neighborhood doesn't have a recycling program in place, you're on your own. And even if it recycles ordinary stuff, there are always those difficult items -- like computers or big things -- that need special handling.

But fear not, friends. This handy list will help you ease those recycling woes and give your old stuff a new lease on life.

1. www.ForRecycling.info

Get motivated with this great site for general info on what happens in the process of recycling, what the benefits are, what materials can be recycled, and an extensive list of links for further information. A great overview.

2. www.Earth911.org

Earth 911’s most compelling feature is a recycling center search engine that allows you to search by location and material that you’re looking to recycle. Like ForRecycling, above, it also has general information and useful tips.

3. www.Resource-Recycling.com

Here's a huge database of links that covers pretty much everything recycling-related, from recycling and composting equipment sites to state and regional organizations and centers.

4. www.Recycle-Steel.org

Recycle Steel has everything you need to know about recycling- you guessed it- steel. There's info on how to responsibly dispose of anything from an old car to a toaster oven.

5. www.MyGreenElectronics.org

My Green Electronics provides information and resources for how to recycle those old, neglected electronics that you’re just not sure what to do with.

6. www.ShareTechnology.org

Share Technology focuses on recycling computers. Whether your computer’s still in usable shape, or only a few parts can be salvaged, this site will show you the most eco-friendly method to dispose of your Mac or PC.

7. www.rbrc.org

The Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation provides you with a wealth of information about the benefits of recycling rechargeable batteries and cell phones, and has information about where to drop these items off to ensure that they are re-used.

8. www.DressForSuccess.org

The mission statement of this non-profit that recycles women’s business clothing is to “promote the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire, a network of support and the career development tools to help women thrive in work and in life.” That pretty much says it all.

9. www.OperationFairyDust.org

This site recycles formal and prom dresses for girls who would not otherwise have the economic resources to obtain them.

10. www.NewEyesForTheNeedy.org

Instead of throwing out those old eyeglasses when your prescription changes, donate them to New Eyes For The Needy -- you’ll be reducing the garbage problem and helping out someone who truly needs it.

Want to find out more about recycling?

Recycling Tips: Did You Know You Cannot Recycle Messy Pizza Boxes?

The Benefits of Recycling: Let’s Talk Trash

Recycling the Looking Glass: When Garbage and Art Collide

Recycled Record Snack Tray

The Benefits of Recycling Cardboard

The Art of Garbage

Reduce, Reuse… FREECYCLE

Recycle Those Electronics!

Back to Basics—RRR

Picking Up Garbage TVs and Recycling as Art

Students Recycle and Reduce Garbage: Take It Or Leave It

Knight Rider Recycled—Reborn With Green Twist!

Recycling Your Garbage: Where Does it All Go?

Is zero waste possible in this consumer culture?

ellen — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 06:30:03 -0400

I'm reading Garbage Land by Elizabeth Royte.

It's an amazing book although it's now a bit outdated (it was written during the period of time in the early 2000's when the Bloomberg Administration stopped the recycling programs for a while.) I can't put it down. The author (measured/weighed) her kitchen trash and tracked its route "away" from her house. A major theme throughout the book is that there is no "away". Another major theme is how secretive landfill managers are (I haven't finished the book yet, I hope she gets to see a landfill close up).

When we throw things out, there is a huge amount of energy, labor and thought put into how to make these things inert so as to not cause damage as they become a part of our environment. Unfortunately, when it comes to fixing the world, most people just don't want to talk about garbage.

One of my favorite chapters is the one about the solid waste treatment plant and the bio-solids created from New York sludge which is then shipped all over the country. In graduate school I helped a friend photograph the West Side Sewage Treatment Plant just after it opened and Ms. Royte actually managed to capture the smell in written form.

This book is transformative. What I previously just thought of as "crap", I am now clearly thinking of in terms of their component pieces and will do my best to avoid creating more crap to be thrown out. If you liked Cradle to Cradle, read Garbage Land.

This post from Reactions discusses about the false sense of biodegradability you get with compostable garbage bags. I bought these bio bags for our countertop compost pail because it gets slimy, smelly and a bit hard to clean after a few days. However, when I pulled the bag out of the pail to drop it into the compost bin, it almost fell apart. I guess it started to biodegrade before it even left the pail. I'll have to check the compost bin in a few days to see how the plastic is doing.

Garbage Land taught me how truly evil plastic is because it is practically impossible to upcycle it. However, thanks to our friends at Brooklyn Green Team, we now learn about a company called Recycline who makes new products of out old #5 plastics. You will recall how much I couldn't stand having old yogurt containers on the countertop awaiting recycling so we started making our own yogurt. Now I'll just stack them in a box until I have 5 pounds worth.

I'll re-print the requirements for sending the plastic to Recycline because the BGT's blog seems to cut off some of the information.

Many common food containers – yogurt cups, sour cream containers, hummus tubs, ketchup bottles – are #5 plastics.
We accept any CLEAN plastic item with a #5 stamp on the bottom. Please check to make sure that there are no other materials (paper, screws, other number plastics) on the items that you send to us.
Make sure that the #5 plastics are clean – the cleaner the plastic, the cleaner the recycling process.
To help make this program a win for the environment, it is important that you send your plastics back to us via ground shipping (as opposed to air). Reuse a box if you can!
Shipments should weigh at least 5 pounds and no more than 50 pounds. Any package greater than 50 pounds must be pre-approved by Recycline.
Make sure to include your return address on the box and add your name and email address inside the box so we can thank you for your good work.

Send Gimme 5 shipments to:
Preserve Gimme 5
823 NYS Rte 13
Cortland NY 13045

If you have any questions about the Gimme 5 program or need to get a shipment approved, call us at 888-354-7296.

yay garbage.

www.ehapc.com

[brooklyn green] www.ehapc.wordpress.com

Recycling Non-rechargeable Batteries

ellen — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 05:48:00 -0400

Doesn't it feel strange, holding a handful of heavy batteries and then casually tossing them in the trash? Throwing away non-rechargeable batteries is not illegal, but when in a landfill, most batteries begin to leak, causing lead contamination to our groundwater.

Recycling these batteries is not a difficult task in the least, and it is helps the environment out a lot. All you have to do is mosey on over to the nearest Staples, RadioShack, or Best Buy (find the location nearest you here), and ask them if they can recycle your non-rechargeable batteries. Yup, it's that easy! All this commotion over how to get rid of these useless burdens is really unneeded, seeing as it is so simple and easy.

Reduce, Reuse, & Recycle at Home

jchait — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 22:26:33 -0400

Green cars, solar roof material choices, how to install a composting toilet, and more; there's a lot of green info in the world to absorb. Sometimes we ignore the little things.

Recycling is a little thing, in that, it takes almost no time, and only a small amount of effort to create positive green changes.

Your first step is to learn about recycling in your community. Recycling is something that most communities support in one form or another. However, the amount of recycling going on, and what specific areas will accept as recycling varies. Today we'll look at how to find out about recycling in your community and neighborhood. Tomorrow we'll move on to what you should be recycling in your home.

Recycling is variable. In Oregon, it was rare to meet someone who hadn't heard of recycling, In New Mexico (at least my area) we barely had recycling pick up in the neighborhood, and most people didn't bother at all.

To learn about recycling in your neck of the woods visit your state's webpage; usually something like California.org or California.gov, and you'll be able to locate links about recycling and trash pick up in your area. Most of the time recycling info is mixed in with the waste info, so look there first. Your local trash center, or dump as the case may be, can also point you in the direction of recycling resources. This is going to be basic recycling though; paper, plastics, glass, and cans.

If you're looking for a recycling center that can take special items; batteries, light bulbs, old pottery, and so on, you'll need to visit Earth 911 - they have a form you can fill out and it will locate you a recycling center.

Trash Crisis Brings Out the Garbage Police

scleaver — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 09:33:22 -0400

In the city of Whitehaven in northern England (almost at the Scotland border), Britons are balking at a government crackdown on trash. Earlier this year, for example, local bus driver Gareth Corkhill was fined $215 when he couldn't fully close the lid on his overflowing garbage can. His neighbors rallied behind him, protesting the fine, but they’re not the only city facing increasing scrutiny on trash day.

New garbage rules are spreading across Europe. Britain, especially, is in trash crisis with a poor recycling record, and ever-shrinking landfill space, according to a New York Times article. Now, governments in England and on the continent are enforcing strict rules to get residents to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Two ideas that governments are trying to enforce that you can adopt:

1. Put out garbage every other week: Many countries are collecting trash every other week, instead of every week, forcing people to limit their trash output.

2. Put less in landfills: Landfill space is running out, which is why Britain and Europe have been ordered to reduce landfill waste to 50% of the 1995 levels by 2015, or incur EU fines.

Those policies are being enforced today, but on the horizon are policies that make Britons pay according to the amount of garbage they produce, using a weight sensor inside every garbage bin to calculate each household’s bill. With what they see as the Big Brother of garbage looming, Britons are up in arms. What do you think? Should the government enforce trash policies? And which do you think will work?

Photo from Green Living Online.

REUSE REUSE REUSE RECYCLE! The NEW 4 R's!

edahmen — Mon, 26 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400

We all understand the importance of recycling, but there's an extra little step we can take with our recyclable materials on the way to the recycling bin to help reduce our waste even more! To master this new technique we must ask ourselves this question, “How can I use this item again before I recycle it?” The answer will have you reducing waste and getting organized at the same time!

Here are a few fun examples to help you get started!

Tea-boxes as drawer organizers?
I enjoy a yummy Yogi Tea every now and again. The boxes are recyclable, but I’ve discovered that by cutting off the top of the lid they fit snugly in my kitchen drawer and I can use them for organizing twisty ties and rubber bands. If they start to look old you break them down and put them in the recycle bin and replace it with a newer box.

Glass jars for my cleaning pastes?
You may not be used to green cleaning, but a lot of green cleaning methods involve making a paste out of baking soda and water, or oxygenated bleach cleanser and water. I find that reusing glass peanut butter or jam jars are great for this purpose.

Salad boxes for organizing outdoor party supplies?
Many organic salad mixes come in PETE plastic #6 boxes made from corn, like these from Earthbound Farm. While these can be recycled (though many cities won’t take #6’s) they work amazing as containers for organizing outdoor party supplies. I like to separate plastic utensils (that we will re-use, not dispose of!) into these boxes. It makes it easy for guests to find the utensil they need and it allows me to store them clean and separated during the winter. These boxes are lightweight and surprisingly durable, you can also use them for organizing anything from colored pencils to batteries.

Wine bottles in my toilet tank?
Ok, this one does sound funny! But a lot of people are getting wise to the fact that their toilet tanks use way more water than necessary. However, we can offset the water in our tank by putting an object inside that is dense enough to displace the water. Filling a wine bottle with water, sand or pebbles and placing in your toilet tank is a great way to re-purpose a recyclable wine bottle. You can also use recyclable plastic bottles for this as well. For more info on how to do this, click here!

Plastic bags in my purse?
The greener you are, the more you probably HATE the ubiquitous plastic bag. You try to BYO-bag as often as possible, but they just keep multiplying under the sink, don’t they? A little known fact is that plastic bags (when left alone) will breed, especially if left in dark areas. Be that as it may, it is impossible to deny the gazillion uses you can put them to before you recycle them. Here are a few of my favorites.

First, fold them into little triangles so they don’t take up more space than necessary. Instructions on how to do that are here.

For wet umbrellas, keep a triangle in your purse so that when you come into work/ a store/ the car from being out in the rain you can bag it and not worry about making a puddle. This won’t work for long handled umbrellas, but why you’d want to carry around a long handled umbrella is beyond me.

For packing cushion, wad them up and use them instead of bubble wrap or peanuts.

For travel, use them to separate socks and underwear or to store groups of soft items. Once items are in a bag, squeeze all the air out and it will save you space in your luggage. They will also keep your clothes clean in case something from that darn bath bag you had to check leaks!

For when you forget to BYO-bag. Keep a triangle in the bottom of every purse or bag you have. That way when you forget a reusable bag (or) just need an extra one you don’t have to take a new one from the store.

And that’s just the tip of the ice…bag!

The Benefits of Recycling: Let's Talk Trash

RiverWired.com — Wed, 14 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Sure, recycling benefits the environment in a variety of ways- it uses fewer resources, reduces landfill waste, etc etc. We’ve all heard about the three R’s (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, in case you live under a rock) a thousand times before. With that in mind, we’ve compiled this list of seven facts about recycling that you may not have heard before, in the hopes that this newfound information will invigorate you to take your own personal recycling initiatives to the next level (which, if you’re looking at this website, are probably already pretty stellar in the first place). Here goes:

1. To produce each week’s Sunday newspapers, 500,000 trees must be cut down. If every American recycled just one tenth of their newspapers, we would save about 25,000,000 trees a year.

2. A used aluminum can is recycled and back on the grocery shelf in as little as 60 days, creating a highly efficient closed recycling loop. If thrown away, aluminum cans will stay intact in can form for over 500 years.

3. Over the course of one year in the U.S., the recycling of steel saves enough energy to heat and light 18 million homes.

4. Approximately 1 billion trees worth of paper are thrown away every year in the U.S.

5. Americans use 2,500,000 plastic bottles an hour (!), most of which are thrown away. Recycling plastic saves twice as much energy as burning it in an incinerator.

6. Every year, each American throws out about 1,200 pounds of organic garbage that could have been composted.

7. On average, every American produces about 4.4 pounds of solid waste per day, amounting to almost a ton of trash per person, per year.

You already knew recycling was important. When you examine some of the statistics, however, the numbers are pretty staggering. So pack up your plastic bottles and head to a processing plant already. What are you waiting for?

Sources:

Recycling-Revolution.com

BuyRecycled.com

Want to find out more about recycling?

Recycling Tips: Did You Know You Cannot Recycle Messy Pizza Boxes?

Recycling the Looking Glass: When Garbage and Art Collide

Top 10 Recycling Resources

Recycled Record Snack Tray

The Benefits of Recycling Cardboard

The Art of Garbage

Reduce, Reuse… FREECYCLE

Recycle Those Electronics!

Back to Basics—RRR

Picking Up Garbage TVs and Recycling as Art

Students Recycle and Reduce Garbage: Take It Or Leave It

Knight Rider Recycled—Reborn With Green Twist!

Recycling Your Garbage: Where Does it All Go?

Do You Read the Paper Online or on Actual Paper?

ellen — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 22:39:49 -0400

We used to subscribe to the NYT daily paper. I loved it. I loved being informed of world events over breakfast but it made for so much paper recycling that we were overwhelmed. Since our recycling day is Monday, there were so many city holidays when the recycling truck didn't come that we were often drowning in paper.

So we switched to weekends only. The recycling was more manageable but still it seemed to be an incredible amount of paper to be processing in one household so we went cold turkey and quit all newspaper delivery.

We missed it too much.

I just re-subscribed for weekend delivery and we'll just deal with the piles of paper. We can use some as a splat mat for the toddler table and I hear that newspaper works wonders on cleaning glass instead of paper towels.

Ellen

The Benefits of Recycling Cardboard

RiverWired.com — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0400

So as you probably know, cardboard, like all other types of paper products, is recyclable. At the same time, though, you’re probably saying to yourself, but cardboard is just so cumbersome to dispose of! Can’t I just put it in the dumpster behind my building and be done with it? The answer, my friends, is no, you cannot. Despite the fact that cardboard often comes in large, box-shaped forms that are not the most conveniently recycled refuse you’re likely to encounter, it’s still just as important to recycle it as it is anything else. That said, the following is a list of the benefits of recycling cardboard, in the hopes that you’ll think twice the next time you’re contemplating leaving your cardboard boxes on the curb in the middle of the night.

Economic Benefits: Since cardboard is bulky and takes up a lot of dumpster space, businesses and apartment complexes that generate large volumes of cardboard may rack up costly disposal fees for the extra volume the cardboard refuse creates. Recycling will not only eliminate those fees, it’ll also potentially generate a profit for businesses able to sell large amounts of collected cardboard.

Social Benefits: Corrugated cardboard boxes can be donated to charities for resuse, or to schools for creative/educational purposes.

Environmental Benefits: Recycling cardboard (like any other type of paper) reduces the demand for new paper from virgin pulp, thereby saving trees and decreasing the amount of pollution generated in new paper production. Finally, because cardboard is such bulky waste, recycling it saves significant amounts of space in landfills and reduces pollution in areas where trash is incinerated.

Want to find out more about recycling?

Recycling Tips: Did You Know You Cannot Recycle Messy Pizza Boxes?

The Benefits of Recycling: Let’s Talk Trash

Recycling the Looking Glass: When Garbage and Art Collide

Top 10 Recycling Resources

Recycled Record Snack Tray

The Art of Garbage

Reduce, Reuse… FREECYCLE

Recycle Those Electronics!

Back to Basics—RRR

Picking Up Garbage TVs and Recycling as Art

Students Recycle and Reduce Garbage: Take It Or Leave It

Knight Rider Recycled—Reborn With Green Twist!

Recycling Your Garbage: Where Does it All Go?

Guess what we're recycling now?

ellen — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 01:00:00 -0400

So my husband let me sleep in on Sunday. I woke up to find odd gray lumps spread out over our little backyard. Thinking they were dead mice I asked him to come look.

Turns out he looked online and found alternative uses for dryer lint. It seems that the birds love it and use it for nest-making materials. Here's the original link .

Maybe the next rainy day we'll make dryer lint clay!