Recycling 101
January 21, 2008
My new recycling goal for the year has been quite a learning experience. Update: it’s a lot easier. No longer do you have to peel the labels off of cans and bottles before recycling, or clean them thoroughly, for that matter. Also, the greasy cardboard from your leftover pizza box does not make good recycling material – news to me! Apparently all paper and cardboard should be free of food and the like. This was quite a shock because over the past couple years pizza boxes were one of the few things I was recycling consistently. Here I thought I was doing a good thing.
I found a couple websites that have been invaluable to me in learning these new ropes:
The Internet Consumer Recycling Guide – A quick read with loads of info for recycling at your curbside, and what to do with stuff the truck won’t pick up.
Do it yourself: Stop Junk Mail Guide – I used my lunch break yesterday to call several of the organizations listed in this guide to get me off their mailing lists. Quick, detailed instructions for stopping catalogs, credit card offers and local bulk mailings.
Alliance of Foam Packaging Recyclers – An organization devoted to recycling all that strofoam from packing boxes and new products. I’ll save you some trouble and tell you right now: no one wants your styrofoam meat trays and coffee cups, but anything else is fair game. Several people also give great ideas for recycling those foam packing peanuts, my favorite being refilling a deflated bean bag chair. If you can’t find a recycling center to take this material in your area, you can mail it directly to this company for a very small price.
Ideal Bite - Gives modern day tips and tricks for recycling and green living in general.
Earth 911 – Gives extensive info on all the materials you will find yourself recycling. What is done with it, tips on storing hazardous materials like paint and oil, etc, and a wealth of information on recycling in general.
Hey, Heather, finally got to read your blog……you’ll be so proud of me since I’m a pretty good recycler (I even knew about the Pizza box thing) thanks for the info. on styrofoam….since moving we have a lot of styrofoam blocks, love mom
I am proud of you mom! And you’ve certainly had an influence in all of this! ^_^
Excellent news on the recycling front. You might note there is another alternative to recycling on the forefront. eWreckers was noted by Planet Ark recently by endorsing the eWreckers recycling solution.
The recycled guides you provided was very informative. By recycling the items we not only save on buying the product but also save the earth from pollution. hoping for more updates on these, thank you.
I was also surprised about teh pizza boxes. Th main paper that went into my bin was junk mail and catalogs. It was way too much waste, I took the easy way out to Stop Junk Mail and joined MyJunkTree it was so easy to stop the majority of the junk mail. I stopped the weekly coupons, misc junk mail, credit card offers, catalogs and even the phone books. Just a click of the mouse and my life was simplified.
For your junk mail try the site myjunktree.com. I found it very easy to use and the important thing is that it take no time at all use. Its has all the info you need in one place! Well worth the annual 20 dollar fee. And they even plant trees when you sign up!