Most states have a recycling program that either picks up at your curb weekly or has a drop-off receptacle where you are able to drive your recyclables to another location and drop them off. Many of the programs allow for common everyday items to be recycled. The recycling program for my city will recycle glass, aluminum, newspaper, and plastic. Check your cities website for a list of acceptable items.
What about the stuff that your recycling program will not accept? There are simply some items that are either not cost effective to recycle or a local facility is not available. My recycling program does not accept cardboard boxes, yet I receive a package in the mail once a week on average over the course of a year. Instead of discarding these boxes in my weekly trash, I can take them to a recycling center that will accept them or I can Freecycle them. Freecycle is an organization created to reduce waste by transferring ownership of your items to someone who can use them.
Recycling requires creativity. It takes creativity to think outside the box on how an item can be reused. Recycling saves you money. The more you recycle, the fewer trash bags you need to purchase. Recycling requires your time. Less than half of the houses in my neighborhood set their recycling bin out on the curb each week even though it is curbside, yet they always remember to set out their trash bins. Our trash program allows for two trash receptacles at each house which is calculated into our water bill. Any additional trash receptacle would add an additional fee. What if our city offered a discount for those opting to only have one trash receptacle? This would reduce the amount of waste going into the landfills, and hopefully mean that more people would be recycling. Here are a few of the ways my family recycles:
- compost food scraps (not all items should be composted)
- utilize public recycling system
- reuse or re-purpose items (we use some items for craft projects, and for some reason my good towels end up in our “old towel” pile)
TerraCycle has come up with a creative way to recycle juice pouches, candy bar wrappers, cookie wrappers and other miscellaneous items into colorful totes and bags. It’s a great way to cut down on garbage going into the land fill and a fun way to see how these items can be re-purposed. I have actually seen recycled plastic Kool-Aid juice pouches that were sewn together to form a bag. The bag was cute and would make a great tote to take to the pool.