On average, individuals throw away 4 pounds of garbage every day. About a third of the waste is from product packaging. If you recycle all your home’s newspapers and newsprint ads, cardboard, glass and metal, you can reduce carbon emissions by 850 pounds a year. Use this list as a handy reference guide for all of your recycling needs:
ALUMINUM
Aluminum refining is a major source of greenhouse gases. Recycling a ton of aluminum saves 37 barrels of oil. When you recycle a beverage can, rather than tossing it in the trash can, you’ll save enough energy to run a computer for 3 hours or a TV for 2 hours. If you have a party and recycle 125 aluminum cans, you’ll save enough energy to power a home for a day.
BATTERIES
Battery acid can be converted to sodium sulfate for laundry detergent, glass and textile manufacturing. For a list of retail chains with drop-off sites for recycling batteries, check with the Rechargeable Batter Recycling Corporation: (678) 419-9990, www.rbrc.org. Battery Solutions will help you dispose of batteries from cell phones, laptop computers, flashlights, cameras, watches, hearing aids, clocks and electronic devices: (800) 852-8127, www.batteryrecycling.com.
CARDBOARD BOXES
Contact local no-profits to see if they can use your boxes, or offer them on www.freecycle.org, or www.craigslist.org. UsedCardboardBoxes.com offers “box rescue” services to businesses with 1,000 or more of the same-sized boxes and resells the boxes to consumers.
CELL PHONES
About 500 million cell phones are taking up shelf space rather than being recycled. You can drop off your old cell phones at large retail chains like Staples, AT&T, Best Buy, Office Depot, and Sprint PCS. You also can donate to recycleplace.com or Collective Good, which refurbishes old cell phones for developing countries: (770) 856-9021, www.collectivegood.com.
COMPACT FLUORESCENT BULBS
CFLs contain up to 5 milligrams of mercury and should be disposed of properly. For nearby drop-off sites, call 1-800-CleanUp or visit www.epa.gov/bulbrecycling (click “where you live”), or www.earth911.org. You may also deposit CFLs at some large retail chains such as Ikea (www.ikea.com).
COMPOST
Use the searchable database at www.findacomposter.com to locate a composting facility in your area.
COMPUTERS AND E-WASTE
Electronics, such as old computers and televisions, contain chemicals and lead and should be recycled. For computer re-use programs, visit www.recycles.org a non-profit exchange that connects businesses and consumers with nonprofit organizations.
For disposal centers, visit www.earth911.org or call 1-800-CleanUp. The EPA website also provides a list of corporations, such as HP and Dell, that accept computers. For all your other “technotrash,” contact the Consumer Electronics Association at www.mygreenelectronics.org or GreenDisk at (425) 392-8700, www.greendisk.com.
GLASS
By some estimates, it takes about 1 million years for a glass bottle to break down in a landfill. When purchasing glass, look for recycled products. Producing glass from recycled glass requires 30% less energy than producing it from virgin materials.
INK TONER CARTRIDGES
More than 3 quarts of oil are used to produce one laser printer cartridge, and the plastic body takes more than 1,000 years to decompose. Check Earthshare for recycling locations: www.earthshare.org/marketplace.html, or deposit cartridges at participating office supply retail chains. Recycleplace.com will even pay for your old ink cartridges and cell phones: (877) 348-5319.
JUNK MAIL
Junk mail produces more CO2 than 2.8 million cars. To keep junk mail and catalogs out of your mailbox, contact the Direct Marketing Association’s free Mail Preference Service at www.dmachoice.org or try www.41pounds.org which charges $41, donating about 1/3 of proceeds to environmental organizations.
MOTOR OIL
If you recycle just two gallons of used oil, it can generate enough electricity to power the average household for almost 24 hours. Find recycling centers for used motor oil at www.recycleoil.org or call the American Petroleum Institute at (202) 682-8000.
PAPER
If you convince just 3 of your friends to recycle newspapers, you’ll save about 17 trees, 2 barrels of oil, 7,000 gallons of water, and 4,100 kilowatt hours of electricity.
When you buy paper, buy recycled! It takes 60% less energy to produce recycled paper and 58% less water than to produce paper from virgin wood pulp. It also generates 74% less air pollution and 35% less water pollution.
PLASTIC
Two-thirds of the 40 billion plastic bottles produced annually in the US end up in landfills, where plastics need 100 to 400 years to break down. Every ton of plastic bottles recycled saves 3.8 barrels of oil.
Recycling rules for municipalities vary but, in general, most recycling programs accept PET bottles, usually used for soda and water, and HDPE bottles used for milk and laundry detergent. The following items generally should not go into the recycling bin: automotive, pesticide, or solvent bottles, lids or spray pumps, toys, trays, tubs or containers, plastic bags or film.
STEEL CANS & APPLIANCES
Recycle 1 ton of steel, which is used to produce may household appliances, and you’ll save the energy equivalent of 3.6 barrels of oil. That’s 2,500 lbs. of iron ore, 1,400 lbs. of coal and 120 lbs. of limestone.
Check out the Steel Recycling Center’s database of recycling locations for steel cans and appliances: www.recycle-steel.org or call (800) Yes-I-Can. Some charities, such as Goodwill, accept working appliances.
STYROFOAM PACKAGING
Many pack-and-ship stores will accept foam packaging for reuse. For additional foam peanut drop-off locations, contact the Plastic Loose Fill Council at (800) 828-2214. To dispose of large quantities of styrofoam block packaging, go to www.epspackaging.org or contact the Alliance of Foam Packaging Recyclers at (410) 451-8340.
Thanks to Eco Hatchery for providing the recycling tips.
