Recycling
The average person throws out 17.5 pounds of garbage each week, or about 1/2 ton per year. And yet there are so many ways to reduce this! Here are a few places and ideas about recycling which many don't know about.
Recycle Everything. Here's how from the World Recycling Organization.
Recycling Technology -- The fastest growing problem in our tech-society. Here are ways to make it a community action project.
GCycle.org is another site (kinda fun, too!) to help you find local places to recycle technology
www.aureltech.com refinishes CDs, DVDs, and video games to make them work again.
www.ban.org/pledge/locations.html has lists of responsible tech recyclers.
Re-Use a Shoe -- Recycle destroyed tennis shoes with Nike's program to create tracks, playground mats, etc.
The Freecycle Network: www.freecycling.org allows you to reuse and recycle products with others
Find Eco-Friendly Products: www.eco-labels.org/greenconsumers/home.cfn
Syrofoam peanuts and bubble wrap: www.loosefillpackaging.com to find business sites who will accept and reuse.
Paper
Shredding paper should be reserved for specific items you wish to keep confidential. Shredding everything in an attempt to make it compact, etc. is actually wasteful. Recycling companies don't want shredded paper; they want whole pages where the long fibers can be reused. Small shreds of paper are discarded as waste at most recycling plants. In addition, most recyclers want white paper recycled in clear plastic bags so it can be spotted and sorted out easily. What to do with shredded paper? Try using it as mulch in the garden. Buying recycled paper products saves about 65% of the energy costs of buying new paper.
Cardboard. Like paper, keep the cardboard as large as you can. Tearing boxes us makes them less useful. √
Plastic windowed envelopes. Machines can handle removing these now. Recycle them. √
Wrapping paper. Shiny papers are clay-based, and so they can be recycled. Foils and plastics (ones that don't tear like fibrous paper) can't be recycled. √
Plastics
Buying recycled plastics saves about 80% of the energy costs of buying new plastic products.
Cans
Recycling cans in big plastic bags is actually counter-productive. Machines rely on the weight of an item to determine what it is; bags of cans foil the sorting machines.
Aluminum and Steel
These are turned into cans, construction materials, auto parts, and cookware. Aluminum and steel remain aluminum and steel after recycling and so can be used forever. And, buying recycled aluminum and steel saves 80-95% of the cost of manufacturing from virgin materials.
Glass
This, too is reused essentially forever, turned into bottles, tiles, marbles, asphalt, etc. Buying recycled glass products saves about 50% of the energy costs of new manufacturing.
Washing Items
Most of it doesn't need to be washed, unless there's sticky stuff on it. Oily paper can't be recycled. But be careful of bees and rodents drawn to unwashed containers.