Your Questions About Recycling

The Expert answers:

Basically most recycle facilities recycle by number… There is triangle on the container and most places can handle number 1 or 2 plastics. Look for your number “before” you buy so you’ll know that you can recycle.

The whole key minimizing impact is to stop buying single use items. Only buy things that you can recycle or reuse! If your facilities don’t recycle what your store sells, complain to the store and the manufacturer and don’t buy it. Take responsibility for the item from purchase to reuse or recycle.

Checking out your local facility by phone and inquire which recycle numbers that they handle… Also ask about motor oils, special days for small appliances, computers and especially how to handle small batteries and old batteries and tires.

They should have flat box recycle and newspaper, magazine, clear, green etc which you are likely familiar with. It’s very unfortunate that fast food places use Number 5 and such because many places cannot recycle those.

Place large appliances like stoves in the local free-cycles because people make a living collecting scrap metal and you will just make their day with one of these! Let these people take your cans while you are at it since that means less time to recycle facility for you and more for the scrap metal guy!

There may also be a free-cycle outdoor wood burner guy or gal who will take any and all scrap wood to heat his home and water.

Free-cycle as much as you can! Shop at Goodwill for nice long lasting durable items… I just bought a nice percolator (now back in style) for like $3! I added a GE switch to the plug end (for like less than $3) it becomes just like a $50 machine!
Recycle clothes at Goodwill and also buy there, quality stuff… Those old styles just keep coming back and no one will be able to buy an outfit like it.. How’s that for fashion!

We go to the recycle place to obtain newspapers and paper FROM the recycle place for our farm. We also grab newspaper coupons which we promptly give away to the local coupon swap.

We have a small farm of quail within the city and our dogs eat just about any and all of the unusable waste from the farm… Quail poop? We use all our leaves for quail bedding which is then composted with other non-edible table scraps.

What goes to the curb at my house and farm is the newspaper that lines the dog shed and the related dog poop conveniently wrapped in the paper bags that the quail feed comes in. I save the string on the bags for craft projects.

Payment for trash pickup in the city is mandatory.

Jars we get from “free” coupon or very cheap offers are used to sell home-made feed or home-made all quail meat dog and cat food to our customers.

We recycle/reuse rain water for the garden and use our personal wash water for first rinse on quail pens and equipment.

Laundry soap containers? I make my own laundry soap in a reusable 5 gallon drywall compound bucket… If I get a coupon for “free” laundry soap, I save the empty container and refill with my own laundry soap to sell to customers inquiring at the farmers market.

Many cans are cleaned and reused to hold feed and depending on what was in it.. Water for chickens etc.

Unrecyclable plastic wrap and wax paper, etc can go to our local cheese maker every week at the market who has an outdoor furnace that triple cycles the plastic burn gas until barely anything but water and carbon and heat for hot water comes from the outdoor burner.

The Expert answers:

Recycling helps in lots of ways that might surprise you. Aluminum cans for example, are made from ore that is mined in large open pit or strip mines. The overburden from the ore deposit is stripped off and stored so it can be replaced, but it still disturbs the hydrology, the biological organisms that lived there, and takes decades to recover even if restored properly.

Aluminum smelting is one of the most energy intensive refining operations that exists. Refining aluminum takes large quantities of energy, typically from fossil fuels.

Recycling aluminum saves or reduces these impacts, besides saving a non-biodregable material from filling up the landfill. Recycling all other metals has a similar benefit.

Recycling glass has a similar energy benefit. Each tonne of glass recycled saves about 315 kg of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere from refining operations.
Http://www.wasteonline.org.uk/resources/InformationSheets/Glass.htm

Recycling paper saves forests, but it also saves electricity, water, and air pollution. Recycled paper takes between 28-70% less energy than making new paper. Contrary to what some believe, recycled paper is not re-bleached and when it is less hazardous forms of oxygen are used instead of chlorine, which reduces the amount of pollutants like dioxins created by paper manufacuture.
Http://www.wasteonline.org.uk/resources/InformationSheets/paper.htm

Plastic manufacturing uses about 8 percent of the world’s oil consumption. Recycling that reduces oil consumption, energy consumption, reduces landfill space, and reduces several air pollutants like sulphur dioxide. Recycled plastics can be used in clothing, construction materials, and various other applications.
Http://www.wasteonline.org.uk/resources/InformationSheets/Plastics.htm

The Expert answers:

Does your school recycle? 40% of people recycle paper 0% of people recycle other stuff
Do the beaches you go to have recycling bins? No
How about your favorite mall? Only in the food court but hardly anyone uses the recycle bin but me
Do you recycle scraps of paper at home, or just the plastic bottles? I Try to recycle everything recyclable. I even take stuff home just to recycle. I don’t know why I do this.

The Expert answers:

I recycle.
It’s kind of the way i was raised.
I don’t look at something with the little recycle sign on it as garbage, i look at it as a recycable.

It’s kind of my upbringing really.
Throwing a plastic bottle in the garbage can stays on the concious for a few hours.

Then again, i really feel like i’m helping out.
I’m starting to get a little extreme with my recycling now,
but if people could just throw the stuff into the recycle bin instead of the garbage,
i feel there’d be that much less waste produced.

The Expert answers:

Yes, we definitely recycle. My family has a regular trash bin and a recycling trash bin. We reuse all our water bottles as much as we can and then recycle them. Most of our store-bought food containers have recycling symbols on the bottom and if they do, we throw them into the recycle bin. My school also has a recycling bin. I went to Ireland recently where they were pretty big on recycling and America isn’t as into recycling as Ireland is but we do care about it and we definitely recycle.

The Expert answers:

Actually, a LOT cannot be recycled, and in the case of things that can be recycled, it’s simply not feasible in many places.

For example, many plastics (like the ones with the higher recycling numbers on the bottom of the product) are not recyclable with the technology we have now. Others are recyclable, but only with certain (sometimes expensive) technologies. And still others (like pop bottles we all recycle) can only be recycled once before the plastic cannot be converted again.

In other cases, some things are just too complicated to pull apart to be recycled. A car, for example, has a ton of metal, plastic, fabric and various other chemicals that cannot be separated from each other to be recycled.

But don’t be discouraged. A lot of materials, like paper products, aluminum and glass, are easily recyclable, sometimes indefinitely. And companies are working on the technology to make more and more things recyclable.

Lastly, there’s a reason “reduce” and “reuse” come before “recycle.” Make less waste and reuse what you have before you turn to recycling.

The Expert answers:

The act of recycling itself needs energy. Just think, machines need energy to run itself. The energy required to process material into a new material varies depending on your starting material.

And even though for the average consumer the process of recycling does not have any direct costs, think about the companies that have to invest in recycling methods. Recycling is VERY costly and for companies this is a strong reason they refuse to recycle.

Even though you did not ask this, I must say that I believe recycling is a good idea. There needs to be more direct funds invested to the research of recycling systems, waste-to-energy methods, and sustainable design. More research into the process will lower costs and environmental impacts of recycling. It is the same idea about computers–which were initially ridiculously expensive relative to the wealth of the common man when they first came out but now can be seen as reasonable in our day and age.

The Expert answers:

Material What To Recycle How To Recycle Do Not Include
HIGH GRADE PAPER
Computer paper
(greenbar or white),
letterhead bond stationary,
index cards, copy paper
envelopes (no windows),
white manila file folders,
legal pads (no backing),
SEPARATE,
CLEAN and DRY Cellophane
windowed envelopes,
Paper clips,
fax paper.

Material What To Recycle How To Recycle Do Not Include
MIXED PAPER
books(hardcover/paperback),
foreign cardboards,
bags other than brown
shopping bags (Kraft paper),
flat cardboards,
i.e. Cereal/shoe boxes,
gable top containers
(milk, juice containers). Brochures, pamphlets,
and junk mail. SEPARATE,
CLEAN and DRY.
Please FLATTEN boxes. FOOD RESIDUE,
waxed paper/cardboard,
plastic wraps, ribbons
non-paper products/samples
i.e. Disks, credit cards,
or carbon paper.

Material What To Recycle How To Recycle Do Not Include
“MAINE PACK”
Newspapers – INCLUDING all the glossy inserts,
magazines and catalogs,
SEPARATE,
CLEAN and DRY.
Please deposit LOOSE,
not tied in bundles. NO plastic bags,
brown paper bags,
string, staples, tape,
or any non-paper items.

Material What To Recycle How To Recycle Do Not Include
CORREGATED CARDBOARD
Non-Asian
CORREGATED cardboards,
brown paper grocery bags
i.e. (Kraft paper). All boxes should be
FLATTENED,
CLEAN and DRY.
All STAPLES and
glass fibre or duct tape
should be REMOVED. NO yellow/grey, bamboo/rice
light foreign cardboards
NO flat cardboards
i.e. Shoe/cereal boxes,
6-pack containers.
NO waxed/plastic coated cardboard.
NO food or oil
contaminated cardboard.

Material What To Recycle How To Recycle Do Not Include
GLASS
Soda Bottles, Beer Bottles,
Juice bottles, Ketchup Bottles,
Wine and Liquor Bottles,
or Food jars Rinse CLEAN.
REMOVE all metal or
plastic caps and rings.
Labels may be LEFT ON.
Must be separated by color:
Clear, green and brown.
Window glass, light bulbs,
ceramic cups and plates,
mirrors, drinking glasses,
yellow or blue glass,
windshields, Clay Pots,
Heat Resistant Ovenware.
I.e. Pyrex.

Material What To Recycle How To Recycle Do Not Include
METAL CANS
Steel and tin
food and beverage cans.
PLEASE CLEAN THOROUGHLY.
Remove labels.
Paint cans OK if empty.
Aerosol cans
(provided plastic caps, and nozzle removed and propellant is gone). No residue, paper labels,
Plastic caps or lids,
porcelin, or enamel.

Material What To Recycle How To Recycle Do Not Include
ALUMINUM
Aluminum foil, pie plates, beverage cans, cooking utensils. Only CLEAN aluminum.
A magnet will not stick
to Aluminum
Aluminum screening.
Aluminum cans must
be kept separate. Food residue.
Webbing, steel, screws, glass.
No non-aluminum
i.e. Bakelite handles

Material What To Recycle How To Recycle Do Not Include
#2 HDPE PLASTIC
Milk and water jugs, detergent and shamoo bottles, bleach bottles.
Look for #2 symbol on bottom of containers.
RINSE thoroughly.
PLEASE FLATEN.
Labels may remain on.
Natural plastic (no color) must be separated from colored plastic Plastic or metal caps/rings. No containers except #2.
No oil containers.

Material What To Recycle How To Recycle Do Not Include
COOKING OIL AND GREASE
Used vegetable and animal cooking oil and grease. Pure uncontaminated cooking oil and grease. No contaminants such
as motor oil, chemicals,
or detergents.

Material What To Recycle How To Recycle Do Not Include
USED AUTOMOTIVE OIL
ONLY used motor oil, transmission fluid, hydraulic oil and differential oil are acceptable. Used uncontaminated oil in closed containers. Oil mixed with water. Anti-freeze, carburetor cleaner, paint thinner cleaning fluids, solvents.
NO leaking containers.
NO cans more than 5 gal.

Material What To Recycle How To Recycle Do Not Include
YARDWASTE COMPOSTING
Leaves, grass, wood ash, garden waste, sod, manure, hay, straw, and sawdust. Clean, loose, organics that can be used to build soil. NO food, wood chips, branches, logs, rocks, trash, plastic, glass, nails or contaminants undesirable in vetetable or flower gardens.

Material What To Recycle How To Recycle Do Not Include
BARGAIN BARN
……………………… Any USABLE item that might normally go to the “dump”. ………………………………….. Clean it up.
Check with attendant on duty. Fees charged where applicable. Place in Bargain Barn for reuse. ………………………………….. Non-reusable, broken “junk”. …………………………………..

If you have any questions about the above guidelines, please feel free to call 864-5610. If no one is there to take your call , please leave your NAME and NUMBER and we will return your call as soon as we can.

——————————————————————————–

THANK YOU FOR RECYCLING, YOUR EFFORTS DO MAKE A DIFFERENCE

The Expert answers:

Recycling takes materials from the “waste stream” (things on the way to garbage dumps) and puts them back into the “manufacturing stream” (things that will be sued to make consumer products).

What you can recycle depends on your area. For example, my state has deposits on soda bottles and cans. You can get your deposits back by going to the supermarket with your cans and bottles and putting them into a machine that readies them for transportation to a recycling center. In addition, my town has curbside recyclable pick up, which means that once a week, a truck comes by to pick up my paper, cardboard, tin cans, water bottles, etc. If these options aren’t available to you, then you should look for a nearby recycling center and see what they take; many will give you some money for your recyclables.

Paper and cardboard can both be recycled. Watch out: Paper plates, napkins, tissues, or anything else that involves food or bodily fluids cannot be recycled.

The numbers for plastics indicate the type of the plastic. Simply put, #1 plastic can only be recycled with other #1 plastics. Many places will accept #1 – #3 (the most common plastics) together and sort them themselves.

Most metals are recyclable. Just like plastics, recyclers need to avoid mixing them together. Mixing alloys (of steel, for example) leads to a weaker product. It is important to try and recycle metals. For one thing, metals can be toxic if they leak from dumps into water supplies. Additionally, it usually takes half as much energy to recycle metal as it does to produce new metal.

Rubber tires can be recycled. They can be turned into asphalt or even playground substrate (the stuff you walk on).

Electronics should all be recycled. They contain some very valuable metals and often have very toxic components. (These toxic components can leak from dumps into our water supply; it is actually illegal to send these toxins to dumps). Most computer and computer accessory (like printers or music players) manufacturers have free recycling through their websites. It is also easy to find recycling for cell phones and batteries (both rechargable and alkaline).

Of course, don’t forget the other two R’s: Reduce and Reuse. Reuse is just as good as Recycling (since they’re the same thing in the end).