Tag: recycling

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Eco Tips Recycling Uncategorized

Online Social Recycling

It’s happening again. You’re online connecting with friends, posting pictures, and responding to event invites. Eventually, you become vaguely aware that clearing out the closet is fast becoming a fading dream, but it doesn’t have to be. You can do it all with social recycling.

Invite Friends to Spark Online Chatter

With social media, you can invite your friends to an event, group page, or hangout without using your personal homepage as a source of contact. Instead, you can create an alternate way to exchange information for your online recycling project:

  • Facebook events: set a date and time for a recycling event and invite your friends
  • Facebook groups: create a group page focused on exchanging and recycling items
  • Google Hangouts: have a video chat with friends to plan upcoming recycling plans
  • Twitter: tweet about your upcoming event or post photos of items looking for a home

Events

If you can create an event to meet friends for dinner or a birthday, you can create one to host a recycling party, event, or both. Do yourself a favor and ask if a few guests can arrive early to help sort clothing types and sizes, books, toys and other items. Consider these event ideas as a starting-off point:

  • Throw a clothing-swap party in the day for kids or at night for adults
  • Schedule a yard-sale event or combine forces, making it a neighborhood event
  • Create an online flea-market event or page, so everyone can post photos of wares to share

Volunteer Meet-ups

Sometimes it’s not possible to host a gathering in your home, but you can still host a meet-up with your Facebook, Google and Twitter friends at an organization looking for volunteers. Here are a few suggestions to consider:

  • Meet at your local animal shelter and bring blankets, sheets, bath- and beached-sized towels
  • Choose a non-profit, such as Dress For Success or Career Gear, and donate gently used clothes
  • Volunteer at a local library and donate your used books, CDs, cassettes, records, and DVDs
  • Roll up your sleeves and build your own Little Free Library or your neighborhood

When you create events with friends and family, you create memories. These are special because of the company and the intention. So the next time you’re whiling away the time online, have some productive fun with social recycling—create new memories and clear that closet out.

~Maureen F.

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Featured Lawn & Garden

How to Make Soda Bottle Greenhouses

After you have grown your own veggies for a few years, you may be tempted to start your own seedlings. After all, a packet of vegetable seeds is much less expensive than a six-pack of vegetable seedlings, and you will get 25 or 30 seeds in each packet. Starting seedlings in peat pellets on a windowsill is fairly easy. However, if you don’t have a grow light, your seedlings will quickly become leggy. Most windowsills just do not have enough sunlight for a growing seedling, but the seedlings may not be quite ready for the outdoors. The weather of early spring can be notoriously fickle, and seedlings can freeze on an unexpectedly cold night or become damaged by an unexpected hailstorm.

Soda bottle greenhouses can help your seedlings grow tall and strong by allowing them to be outdoors with plentiful sunlight. However, they also provide protection from unexpected cold snaps and harsh spring storms. Additionally, they are an eco-friendly way of reusing trash that would end up in a landfill.

To make soda bottle greenhouses, you will need one empty soda bottle for each seedling, a craft knife, and potting soil. You can start your seedlings in peat pellets on your windowsill. Alternately, you can directly plant the seeds in the soda bottle greenhouse.

To make the greenhouse, first remove the label from the soda bottle and rinse any soda residue from the inside of the bottle. This sticky juice could attract ants; the ants will not damage your plants but will definitely be annoying.

Using the craft knife, pierce the bottom of the soda bottle to create a small drainage hole. Next, about halfway up the bottle, cut around the circumference of the bottle. Do not cut all the way around. You probably just need to cut about 85 percent of the way around the soda bottle. You can then fold back the top half of the bottle.

Fill the bottom half of the bottle with high-quality potting soil. Dampen the soil by pouring water into the dirt until it comes out of the drainage hole at the bottom of the bottle. Next, plant your seedling or seeds in the dirt.

Carefully move the top of the bottle back over the top of the seedling. Do not allow the plant’s leaves to become pinched in the plastic. Set your soda bottles outdoors in a sunny area. The soda bottle will protect the plant from cold weather and bad storms. You can leave the top of the bottle on if cold weather is an issue. However, if it gets hot, you will want to remove the lid to allow for ventilation and airflow. When the garden spot is ready and the last frost date for your area has passed, cut away the top of the soda bottle and plant your seedlings in the garden.

~April F.

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Featured Recycling

Recycling Your Old Electronics

According to the EPA, of the roughly 2.25 million tons of used and unwanted electronics each year, 18% is collected for recycling and roughly 82% winds up in landfills. We all have that junk drawer in our home, filled with discarded cell phones and chargers we don’t want to throw out (don’t!) but don’t quite know what else to do with. Here’s what you do: Recycle them for cash. Sites like SecureTradeIn.com, YouRenew.com and Gazelle.com will pay for your used phones and other electronics.

Even if you find your old hunk o’ junk has been sitting so long it has no value, remember that the parts in it are still valuable (and potentially toxic if not disposed of properly) so clear the clutter and recycle your electronics — or look into donating cell phones to charity.

Where to Donate

Freecycle.org and sites like it (including Freesharing.org and Sharing is Giving) make giving away your stuff super easy.

Goodwill has teamed up with Dell in the Dell Reconnect partnership. Computers, keyboards, monitors, and printers are among the items accepted at more than 2,600 Goodwill locations.

National Cristina Foundation will find an organization that can use your computer, printers, and other peripherals and software, as well as cameras, fax machines, answering machines, and more. The group will arrange with you for pickup or delivery of the equipment.

Recycling for Charities will donate cash to a charity of your choice, with a percentage of the market value for every item to be refurbished or a set amount for recycled items, ranging from a penny to $100.

The Salvation Army accepts computers, monitors, printers, DVD players, VCRs, typewriters, stereos, copiers, radios, and more. Call your local office or check the organization’s website for more information.

 

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Lawn & Garden Recycling

3 Simple Steps to Create Your Own Rain Bucket

You have heard the old saying “April showers bring May flowers…” but did you realize you can save on your water bill and the environment just by investing in a rain bucket? A rain bucket can be anything you want it to be. Whether you use an old plastic moving tub, a plastic bucket, or even an old garbage pail, you can use those to collect greywater. A type of grey water is rainfall and while you can’t drink rainwater, your plants can certainly use it! You probably won’t collect enough water to water your plants throughout the entire season but it will certainly help keep the soil moist during the hot summer months.

Make sure to put your rain bucket near downspouts, that way the rain buckets can collect the water that lands on the roof. Your roof normally is the largest surface area so you will be able to collect the most water from these areas (a shed can work too!)

It is really easy to make your own rain bucket it just takes a little time and a trip to Lowes or the Home Depot (you might even have some of the materials in your garage!) For this project you are going to need:

1 – 32 Gallon Vinyl Trash can with Lid (preferably)
1 – 1″ PVC Male Hose Adapter
Drill with 1″ Spade Bit
White Caulking Plumbers tape

Step 1.  Once you have found the location you would like to place your rain bucket, measure and cut the downspout above or near the top of the rain bucket. Normally you would cut off part of the down spout so the end sits a little higher than your bucket. Cut a hole in the shape of the downspout near the top of the bucket. You can also cut an overflow hole about the same size on the other side to allow excess water to escape when it’s full.

Step 2. Next, drill a 1″ hole about 3-4 inches from the bottom of the rain barrel. Using some common plumbers tape, wrap the threads of the adapter to keep water from leaking through the hole. Screw adapter from the inside so the threads are exposed to the outside of the Rain.

Step 3. Insert the downspout pipe from the roof into the rain bucket and attach the overflow to the other side. Attach a garden hose to the bottom adapter and caulk around the gaps to ensure the unit is sealed. This is important as mosquitoes would love to nest in your rain barrel (if you don’t have a top for your rain bucket buy mesh netting.) Once everything is connected, fill with water and test. The pressure from the amount of water contained inside the rain bucket will allow you to water your plants without much difficulty.

You are now ready to sustainably water your flowers and vegetable gardens well into summer!

Sources: ezinearticles.com, (http://ezinearticles.com/?Make-a-Rain-Bucket-in-3-Easy-Steps&id=2441701).

 

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Featured Recycling

6 Surprising Items That Can Be Recycled

Ever looked at an old pair of eyeglasses and wondered if it could be recycled or have a collection of old wine corks and didn’t know what to do with them? We have compiled a list of some surprising things that can be recycled.

Eyeglasses

When your prescription changes or you decide you want new frames, don’t just throw away your unwanted glasses! New Eyes for the Needy is committed to providing corrective eyewear to people who need them in the United States, or elsewhere on the planet or in developing countries.

Foam Peanuts

Even though they protect your fragile package from breaking, foam peanuts have to be one of the most annoying things ever when they escape from their box. Since they have been such a nuisance filling up our landfills some companies are making the “foam” peanuts from vegetable starch. The peanuts made from vegetable starch are non-toxic and biodegradable (if you put one in water and it disintegrates you have the earth-friendly ones)!  If you have the other kind of foam peanut you can call The Peanut Hotline (not a joke!) at (800)828-2214 for a list of places that will take them off your hands.

Holiday Lights

Got burnt out holiday lights? The folks at HolidayLEDs will gladly take your old lights, shred them, and sort the remaining PVC, glass, and copper. Those raw materials are taken to another recycling center and resurrected as something new. They start collecting lights at the end of October and it accepts lights until the end of February.

Crayons

Don’t toss those broken and stubby Crayolas! Instead, mail them to the National Crayon Recycle Program, which takes unusable, broken crayons to a better place. They’re melted in a vat of wax, remade, and resold. The program has saved over 47,000 pounds of crayons.

Fishing Line

Fishing line is made from monofilament, a non-biodegradable plastic that you can’t put in your everyday recycling bin. At Berkley Fishing, old fishing line is mixed with other recyclables (like milk cartons and plastic bottles) and transformed into fish-friendly habitats. So far, Berkley has saved and recycled more than 9 million miles of fishing line.

Wine Corks

Your recycling center probably doesn’t accept wine corks, but companies like Terracycle and Yemm and Hart will. They turn cork into flat sheets of tile, which you can use for flooring, walls, and veneer.

 

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Recycling

6 Simple Ways to Get Kids to Recycle

With Earth Day quickly approaching it’s important to start to teach kids how to recycle, now. It normally takes about 21 days to form a new habit, which will leave a little wiggle room in time for Earth Day. Recycling is one of the easiest ways to help reduce your impact on the Earth. It is so important teach children about recycling at an early age so they will develop lifelong habits. Here are some easy tips and tricks to get your children excited to recycle!

Craft Time! Save a large storage box and fill it with old scraps of paper, milk cartons, left over ribbon, etc. Once a month have a craft afternoon and let your children’s creativity take over! You are going to be surprised with what creative and crazy ideas they come up with!

Decorate! Have your children decorate your recycling bins. When the children have a sense of ownership, they will be more inclined to take recycling more serious than before! Also you now have a one of a kind piece of yard artwork, that is sure to brighten up the curb! (If you have a city issued recycling bin be sure to check with your local officials to make sure it’s okay.)

Compost! Create a compost bin with your children. Creating a compost bin will help your children learn the difference between what is biodegradable and what is not. You can also use your compost to start a vegetable garden! Click here for tips on creating a simple compost!

Sing Along! When we were children we were taught life lessons through songs and recycling is not any different! Find a recycling tune and sing it when taking the recycling to the curb. We are a fan of Jack Johnson’s Three R’s (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) from the Curious George’s soundtrack.  Check out the song here.

Sell! Have a garage sale. Make sure to explain the reasoning behind having a garage sale to the children. Be sure to explain that you do not just throw away things. Have your children choose a couple of toys to sell at the garage sale and let them keep the profit.

Donate! After your garage sale or after cleaning out your closets, be sure to donate all unwanted items to your local Goodwill or Salvation Army. Don’t forget to bring the kids along to drop off the donated items. Make sure to stress to them that nothing will be thrown away and every item will have a place to go.

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Featured Recycling

How to Safely Recycle Prescription Bottles

While all prescription bottles may look the same, there can be subtle differences in disposing of them safely for your family and in an environmentally-friendly way. With spring cleaning underway, now is a good time to finally clean out your medicine cabinet and get rid of expired or empty prescription bottles.

However don’t just toss the bottle in the recycling bin, here are tips to keep in mind to properly and safely recycle your prescription bottles.

  • Don’t flush unused or expired medications down the toilet. This water eventually ends up in our waterways, where trace amounts of your medicine can cause contamination.
  • Do figure out ahead of time if you can recycle your prescription bottles with your regular trash. Most of the “brown” prescription bottles are #5 plastic, which is polypropylene. The clear prescription bottles, like the kind you get from Target, are #1 plastic or PETE. This is the same stuff that soda bottles are made from. While many recyclers now accept plastic #1 through #7, not all do. So double-check that you can recycle the bottles with the rest of your household containers before assuming you can and tossing them in the bin.
  • Don’t trash prescription bottles if you can’t recycle them—reuse them instead. There are plenty of reuses for prescription bottles—after you give them a good washing. I’ve heard of scouts who put matches in these bottles as a way of keeping them dry. I know crafts people who used them as mini containers that hold like items, such as push pins, beads or needles.
  • Check to see if your local town or city offers a take-back program for unwanted prescriptions/expired prescriptions before just tossing the medicine in the trash.
    • If no instructions are given on the drug label and no take-back program is available in your area, throw the drugs in the household trash, but first:
      • Take them out of their original containers and mix them with an undesirable substance, such as used coffee grounds or kitty litter. The medication will be less appealing to children and pets, and unrecognizable to people who may intentionally go through your trash.
      • Put them in a sealable bag, empty can, or other container to prevent the medication from leaking or breaking out of a garbage bag.
Categories
Eco Tips Recycling

Stop Drinking Bottled Water

Bottled water isn’t as healthy as marketers would lead us to believe.  Not only is it a waste of plastic it is potentially dangerous to your health. So why do we keep using bottled water? It could be a variety of different reasons, (habit, convenience, taste), however you really should switch to tap water, a reusable filtered pitcher (such as Brita or Bobble) or a reusable water bottle with a built-in filter. Here is a great infographic from JasonPollock.tv, it has a lot of great information on why you should kick the bottled water habit. Some of the points that really struck home was the fact that bottled water isn’t that much different than tap water at a fraction of the cost!                                                                                                     Make the switch from plastic water bottles to reusable water bottles, to not only save the environment and landfills of unnecessary plastic bottles but help keep your family healthy and happy. Source: JasonPollock.tv

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Eco Fashion Featured Recycling

4 Places to Recycle Your Gently Used Clothing

It’s spring time which means it’s time to start cleaning out those closets and making room for new summer clothes! While you’re cleaning out your closet why not consider donating all your gently used clothing? It’s not only a tax deduction but it will help out others in need. Of course you can donate your old clothes to places like Goodwill; however there are some other great options available to you as well.

American Red Cross

Clothing you donate to the American Red Cross benefits victims of natural disasters. For instance, the American Red Cross provided much-needed clothing to Gulf Coast evacuees during Hurricane Katrina, and for Northerners that were stranded by Hurricane Sandy.

Vietnam Veterans of America

Vietnam Veterans of America provides support and services for veterans returning home after serving. These services include counseling, hospital treatments, and aid for homeless and disabled vets. The Vietnam Veterans of America sells donated items in resale shops, and the proceeds benefit the charity. The VVA accepts clothing, shoes, and accessories in good condition. You can schedule a pickup online here.

Big Brother Big Sister Foundation

The Big Brother Big Sister Foundation pairs at-risk kids with adult mentors. The foundation accepts any type of clothing in good condition. Your donations go to the foundation’s resale stores, and up to 100% of the proceeds benefit the charity.

Donate My Dress

Have a couple old prom dresses hanging in the closet? Donate My Dress collects new and gently used formal dresses, which are donated to low-income women so they can have the dress of their dreams for a special occasion like high school prom night. You can find a local donation center on the Donate My Dress website, here.

 

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Featured Gadgets & Gear Recycling

Solecan™ is Your Single Can Trash & Recycling Solution!

Watch out world there’s a new product on the market that has the ability to change recycling as we know it. The product is called Solecan™ and it was designed and invented by Liz and Jeff Helfrich.

What exactly is the Solecan™? Liz and Jeff have “reinvented” the traditional trash can. The Solecan™ is a dual-sided trash can; the two halves snap together in the middle, with one side designated for trash and the other for recycling.  By unsnapping the two halves, you can easily empty trash into the larger trash can and the recycling into the family’s main recycling bin. You can still use traditional trash bags in the Solecan or you can go without. The Solecan™ is made in the USA and it is made with recycled plastic, so its eco-footprint will be as small as possible. The Solecan™ honestly looks the same as a traditional trashcan but has a lot more functionality. It is a perfect way to get the whole family to recycle and can be used in virtually every room in your home.

Right now they are seeking funding on a website called Kickstarter. Kickstarter is a site that allows creative projects to raise funds from “backers” in exchange for rewards. You can be a part of bringing this product to market by pledging as little as $1. If they reach their target investment (which is preselling about 3,300 Solecans by April 22, 2013, Earth Day) then you will be charged your pledge. For $17 and up you will receive one of the trash cans.

Want some more information or want to get your hands on the perfect Earth Day gift? Check out www.solecan.com for more information or to pre-order your own Solecan™ directly go here!. You can also find them on Twitter or on Facebook.