Aerosol Cans
Mostly made of steel (and in certain cases aluminum), various types of
disinfectants, hairsprays, paints and shaving creams are typically
dispensed from aerosol cans and can be easily recycled through well over
5,300 US based programs as long as they are completely empty.
Aluminum Anything (aka Tin Foil, House Siding, Lawn Furniture, Pie Tins)
This 100% recyclable material, which can conceivably be melted down and
recycled an infinite number of times, is far too often absent from the
collection bin but the metal is an incredibly valuable and practical
resource! In addition to conserving a great deal of energy by recycling
it rather than refining it from scratch, consumers can sell their old
metal bits and pieces to a scrap metal facility for an extra chunk of
change. Play it safe by checking with your city government to see if
they accept used (but thoroughly cleaned) aluminum food wrap and other
aluminum-based products or consult 1-800-Recycling’s database.
Asphalt Shingles
While it may seem a little odd and somewhat surprising, it’s absolutely
true – if you’re engaging in a home remodeling project and you want to
do right by Mother Nature, you can offer up your old roofing materials
to Shingle Recycling.org. For a modest fee, they will grind up your old
asphalt shingles and repurpose them into hot-mix pavement among other
handy applications.
Crayons
How many broken, abused and plain old neglected crayons are currently
hogging up your drawers and closets? If you’re the parent of now
far-too-mature teens who have moved on to more sophisticated artistic
materials, then step away from the garbage can and dump all of your old
crayons into a large box instead. Seal it up with some packing tape and
mail your parcel to Crazy Crayons, LLC, the community education program
that claims to have successfully prevented 52,000+ pounds of the waxy
art implements from living out their days in landfills. By making new
crayons out of donated scraps, they are offering a particularly niche
opportunity which you’ve got to admit is pretty darn cool.
DVDs, CDs and VCR Tapes
Sure, you can donate your media dinosaurs to interested local community
programs (including special needs facilities, senior centers, libraries,
academic institutions and churches), but if you discover that no one in
your neck of the woods wants to accept your old hand-me-downs, here’s a
thought. Consider using Best Buy’s in-store recycling kiosks, contact
Back Thru The Future to participate in their free program, see if
Alternative Community Training’s recycling program is interested in your
goodies, or if all else fails, log onto GreenDisk’s website for a sure
fire way to responsibly address the old technotrash you have on hand.
Eyeglasses
We may not perceive old frames as being terribly fashionable or
particularly desirable, but for those with compromised financial
circumstances, a pair of donated glasses can truly be a Godsend. Quite a
few charitable organizations have for years been collecting old
glasses, cataloging them by prescription and then matching them with
needy recipients, offering them a truly valuable tool that enhances
their quality of life. New Eyes For The Needy is just one of many
programs that have a global reach and make the ‘gift of sight’ available
to deserving individuals around the world. Other reliable programs
include those operated by LensCrafters, Lions Club, and Unite For Sight.
Fishing Nets
If you live in a region that overlooks the water, then perhaps you’ve
witnessed firsthand the devastation that abandoned fishing nets bring
upon marine life. If you feel particularly motivated to clean up after
others who have carelessly abandoned old nets, the Fishing For Energy
partnership converts donated materials into clean, renewable power that
helps local communities keep their lights on. Hawaii operates a similar
“Nets to Energy” program which keeps 283 homes humming along, as does
Alaska’s United Cook Inlet Drift Association.
Hotel Soap
With 4.6 million hotels in the U.S. alone, it’s estimated that
approximately 1.5 million bars of mini-hotel-sized soaps end up in
landfills on a yearly basis despite being totally usable for weeks and
weeks of additional showers. The nonprofit group Clean the World offers a
very unique recycling service by sanitizing leftover soap bars from 80
Orlando, Florida hotel rooms, repackaging and distributing them to Haiti
(and other poor regions) where locals can resell them and often make
enough income to cover their basic expenses.
Leftover Household Paint
If you inherit a home or happen to live with someone who changes the
color of your walls just about as frequently as they brush their teeth,
then your garage is likely cluttered with cans of half-used paint. Hmmm,
what can you do with them that isn’t hazardous to the environment? How
about offering leftover cans to home improvement recycling centers or
places like Habitat For Humanity, where paints and other supplies are
resold at rock bottom prices to weekend warriors? High school art
programs might also appreciate rainbow colored donations for murals and
other creative projects, and there are also municipal recycling programs
across the country that reprocess old paint into new!
Metal Clothes Hangers From Your Dry Cleaner
If you’re like many people, you probably have more metal clothes hangers
swimming around in your closet than you’ll ever know what to do with.
First created in 1869 by Connecticut’s O. A. North, what used to be
perceived as a perfectly practical item is now cast aside on a regular
basis despite being fully recyclable. According to Hanger Network,
roughly 100 tons of old wire coat hangers end up in landfills every year
when they can easily be returned to dry cleaners or recycled via
participating municipalities. Make some calls, check with Earth 911 or
donate them to an interested clothing facility like Goodwill or the
Salvation Army.
Oil
It may look a little mucky, but recycled motor oil has the potential to
become as “good as new again” through a special refining process, saving
the U.S. about ½ million barrels of crude oil annually. Conversely, if
just one gallon is disposed of improperly, it has the potential to
contaminate one million gallons of water. If you deposit old engine oil
into a leakproof container and label it clearly, many car dealerships
and automobile service stations will accept it, as will parts retailers
like Pep Boys and NAPA (but as always, it is highly recommended that you
call ahead to see if they participate). You might also want to log onto
www.cleanup.org or contact them via telephone at 1-800-Cleanup.
Styrene Packing Peanuts
Here’s a quick test – scoop up three peanuts in the palm of your hand
and run them under water for a few seconds. If they dissolve, then
disregard this entry because they’re made of biodegradable, non-toxic
crop-based starch…but if they remain in their pristine, puffed-up shape,
then they are made of expanded polystyrene foam which is a polymer
plastic that, while recyclable, rarely ever is. If you don’t make a
point of recycling them every time you mail out a care package
(tsk-tsk!), then drive them to your closest UPS store for recycling or
contact the Plastic Loose Fill Council’s Peanut Hotline (800.828.2214)
for the closest recycling option in your neck of the woods.
Surfboards
Isn’t it time that everybody catch the recycling wave…at least in terms
of giving their boards a new lease on life? Unfortunately, most boards
are constructed using perfectly buoyant yet environmentally toxic foam,
which for many many decades has been trucked to landfills where it
releases a steady stream of chemicals into the air and soil.
Fortunately, ReSurf Recycling has partnered up with Green Foam Blanks to
come up with a very practical solution – they convert materials that
are left over during the manufacturing process (along with donated
boards that are beyond repair) into concrete and asphalt volumizers.
Tyvek Envelopes
Jeesh, even this brand of super cool envelope material is entirely
synthetic in nature, constructed out of flashspun high-density
polyethylene fibers – a fancy way of saying “petroleum”. This is the
type of item that should definitely be recycled whenever possible…so tap
into your inner squirrel and once you’ve amassed a stack of them, send
fewer than 25 to Shirley Cimburke, Tyvek Recycling Specialist, 5401
Jefferson Davis Highway, Spot 197, Room 231, Richmond, VA 23234 or
contact Tyvek directly if you have a lot more to recycle at (866)
33-TYVEK.
Wine Corks
It’s a notoriously renewable resource, but it doesn’t come easy to
Portugal and Spain’s cork trees, which are stripped of the majority of
their cork-bearing bark every 9 to 10 years. The material, used to
create roughly 52,000 tons of wine and champagne corks each year, is
highly recyclable…people just forget to save it along with their other
common household items. While most municipalities don’t fuss with formal
cork collection programs, there are plenty of other companies that take
it seriously, including ReCORK America, Yemm & Hart, Korks 4 Kids
and TerraCycle. ...
Egg cartons can be reused or recycled as well. Use your cardboard type egg cartons for crafts, to store and organize jewelry or small items in your desk drawer, to store golf balls, to cushion ornaments, make fire starters (add laundry lint, some old broken crayons and/or used up candle bits), or make some seed starters just by adding some compost (or potting soil)!
