How to Recycle (almost) Anything...

Try to make your garbage can the last resort for items you no longer need. Hopefully you are already recycling the big 3 - newspaper, cans, and bottles. But what about the other stuff?

1. Check with your city's waste management department about what exactly your town recycles - our town also recycles office paper, magazines, and paperboard (cereal boxes, cracker boxes, etc.)

2. To recycle your computer give it to a local non-profit organization after cleaning the hard drive or if it no longer works see if your town accepts computers for hazardous waste recycling.

3. Many organizations accept cell phones for recycling including schools and charities.

4. Recycle printer ink cartridges at Staples or Office Depot.

5. Recycle old clothes at Goodwill or the Salvation Army.

6. Most counties host a hazardous waste disposal events where you can recycle batteries, paint, household chemicals, motor oil. etc.

7. When you recycle plastic bottles, the caps are thrown away. However, now Aveda has come up with a way to recycle them into shampoo and conditioner bottles. Recycle your caps at your local Aveda store - for more info check out http://aveda.aveda.com/aboutaveda/caps.asp

8. Freecycle it - your trash could be someone else's treasure. Check out www.freecycle.org

9. Still have questions on how to recycle something? Check www.Earth911.org it will tell you what and where you can recycle based on your zip code

Freecycle

Freecycle is a great way to recycle unwanted items from your home or to find something you're looking for without impacting the planet by buying a new product. What is Freecycle? "The Freecycle Network™ is made up of 4,302 groups with 4,729,000 members across the globe. It's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. As a result, we are currently keeping over 300 tons a day out of landfills! This amounts to four times the height of Mt. Everest in the past year alone, when stacked in garbage trucks! By giving freely with no strings attached, members of The Freecycle Network help instill a sense of generosity of spirit as they strengthen local community ties and promote environmental sustainability and reuse. People from all walks of life have joined together to turn trash into treasure." from www.freecycle.org.

I personally have donated many items on the network and have received many great items from other members. What can you find on Freecycle? You name it and it's there - furniture, books, clothes, bikes, plants, coupons, cameras, pets, appliances, etc. To find your local Freecycle group, go to www.freecycle.org.

Remember the 3Rs - reduce, reuse, recycle.