Recycle

I've been really quiet.

The baby prep is occupying a lot of time and the baby blog is occupying a lot of my words...so for today I present a list of lesser known recyclables I got from Co-Op America

1. Appliances: Goodwill accepts working appliances or you can contact the Steel Recycling Institute to recycle them.

2. Batteries: Rechargeables and single-use: Battery Solutions

3. Cardboard boxes: Contact local nonprofits and women's shelters to see if they can use them.

4. CDs/DVDs/Game Disks: Send scratched music or computer CDs, DVDs, and PlayStation or Nintendo video game disks to AuralTech for refinishing.

5. Clothes: Wearable clothes can go to your local Goodwill outlet or shelter. Donate wearable women's business clothing to Dress for Success, which gives them to low-income women as they search for jobs, 212/532-1922. Offer unwearable clothes and towels to local animal boarding and shelter facilities, which often use them as pet bedding. Consider holding a clothes swap at your office, school, faith congregation or community center. Swap clothes with friends and colleagues, save money on a new fall wardrobe and back-to-school clothes – then donate the rest.

6. Compact fluorescent bulbs: Take them to your local IKEA store for recycling.

7. Compostable bio-plastics: You probably won't be able to compost these in your home compost bin or pile. Find a municipal composter to take them to at www.findacomposter.com.

8. Computers and electronics: Find the most responsible recyclers, local and national, at www.ban.org/pledge/Locations.html

9. Exercise videos: Swap them with others at www.videofitness.com.

10. Eyeglasses: Your local Lion's Club or eye care chain may collect these. Lenses are reground and given to people in need.

11. Foam Packing peanuts: Your local pack-and-ship store will likely accept these for reuse. Or, call the Plastic Loose Fill Producers Council to find a drop-off site: 800/828-2214. For places to drop off foam blocks for recycling, contact the Alliance of Foam Packaging Recyclers.

12. Ink/toner cartridges: Recycleplace.com pays $1/each.

13. Miscellaneous: Get your unwanted items into the hands of people who can use them. Offer them up on your local Freecycle.org or Craigslist.org, or try giving them away at Throwplace.com or giving or selling them at iReuse.com. iReuse.com will also help you find a recycler, if possible, when your items have reached the end of their useful lifecycle.

14. Oil: Find Used Motor Oil Hotlines for each state: 202/682-8000.

15. Phones: Donate cell phones: Collective Good will refurbish your phone and sell it to someone in a developing country: 770/856-9021. Call to Protect reprograms cell phones to dial 911 and gives them to domestic violence victims. Recycle single-line phones: Reclamere, 814/386-2927.

16. Sports equipment: Resell or trade it at your local Play It Again Sports outlet, 800/476-9249.

17. “Technotrash”: Easily recycle all of your CDs, jewel cases, DVDs, audio and video tapes, cell phones, pagers, rechargeable and single-use batteries, PDAs, and ink/toner cartridges with GreenDisk's Technotrash program. For $30, GreenDisk will send you a cardboard box in which you can ship them up to 70 pounds of any of the above. Your fee covers the box as well as shipping and recycling fees. 800/305-GREENDISK.

18. Tennis shoes: Nike's Reuse-a-Shoe program turns old shoes into playground and athletic flooring. One World Running will send still-wearable shoes to athletes in need in Africa, Latin America, and Haiti.

19. Toothbrushes and razors: Buy a recycled plastic toothbrush or razor from Recycline, and the company will take it back to be recycled again into plastic lumber. Recycline products are made from used Stonyfield Farms' yogurt cups. 888/354-7296.

20. Tyvek envelopes: Quantities less than 25: Send to Shirley Cimburke, Tyvek Recycling Specialist, 5401 Jefferson Davis Hwy., Spot 197, Room 231, Richmond, VA 23234. Quantities larger than 25, call 866/33-TYVEK.

21. Stuff you just can't recycle: When practical, send such items back to the manufacturer and tell them they need to manufacture products that close the waste loop responsibly.

Recycle

Part of being a good "green" citizen is living the "Reduce, Recycle, Reuse" mantra. In Nashville we are fortunate enough to have curbside recycling in most neighborhoods. They pickup paper, aluminum and plastic. I have faith that these items are actually being separated and recycled. I'm sure I could find out if I wanted to but I have faith. You'll notice they don't pick up glass. Well that's where "The Recycling Center" comes in. Just enter your zip code and you'll see all recycling centers in your area. I happen to have a full service recycling center within one mile of my house. Tara and I have been cleaning out the garage and the basement; in the garage we found some ancient household cleaners and volatile liquids and whatnot, my recycling center will take them from me.

Our recycling combined with our composting reduces our waste by something close to 90%. We have neighbors with 2 or 3 people in the house who put out 2 40gal trashcans each week and rarely put out the recycling container, which is picked up monthly. Tara and I put out 1 of the 40gal containers every other week and they rarely have more than 3 or 4 tall kitchen trash bags in them and we put out a full recycle container every month!

So, please rethink what you throw out and try to reduce, recycle and reuse more than you do now.


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