Your Questions About Recycling

The Expert answers:

Tin cans such as soup cans and etc can be recycled at cash value . Places listed under scrapmetal (in the phone book) should be able to accomidate your locality needs and they are very helpfull in answering questions

The Expert answers:

You pay a 10c deposit when you purchase the can (in MI) and when you can turn them in for 10c a piece, basically just getting your deposit back, a few states let you do that but MI is the only one that gives you 10c, the rest of the states only give you 5

The Expert answers:

In michigan we get 10 cents for bottle refund. I believe that they put deposit on unhealthy drinks.

The Expert answers:

You get paid by weight, not by can, if you are returning them to a recycling center. Some states have a deposit law, like Michigan, you can get $.10 a can. A few years ago, I took a full 30 gallon trash bag with all the cans compressed down, to a recycling center, and got $5.

The Expert answers:

It really depends on where you live. Where I live you cannot get money for recycling, and unfortunately there is no pick up service. We have to gather and deliver all our recyclables.
You should look into your local salvage yards and recycle centers. Just call them and they can give you the price per pound if they are buyers.

The Expert answers:

Well lets c The food packaging goal is to recycle paper cups and foodservice packaging into valuable, high-quality materials. Every year, 4.1 million tons of paper, prepared food packaging is landfilled in the United States. The collection and recycling of this material would decrease greenhouse gas emissions by ~15 million mtCO2e, equivalent to removing 3 million passenger vehicles from the road.

Foodservice Recycling Pilot Held at Seven Starbucks Stores in Manhattan:
Results Indicate that with Appropriate Signage and Messaging, 90% Purity is a Realistic Target

Dec. 2009 – An eight week pilot was conducted at seven Starbucks stores in Manhattan in the Fall of 2009. For the pilot, Western Michigan University’s Coating and Recycling Pilot Plants tested the recyclability of a
representative sample of the cups and sleeved used in Starbucks stores and found that they offer
equivalent recyclability and repulpability as old corrugated cardboard using the Fibre Box
Association’s Wax Alternative Protocol. The material collected from the store had a purity level greater than 80% was acheived and strategies for achieving a 90% purity identified. Learn more.
Starbucks Announces Participation in Global Green Recycling Pilot at June CoRR Meeting

June 2009 – Global Green’s Coalition for Resource Recovery, convened 80 participants for a “value chain caucus” aimed at diverting prepared food packaging from the nation’s landfills. The Manhattan meeting followed a Recyclable Cup Summit arranged by Starbucks at their Seattle headquarters in May. Starbucks’ Jim Hanna announced that a first trial will ask customers to assist by pre-sorting their cups. Learn more.
Global Green USA and Western Michigan University Release
White Paper on Recycling Paper Food Packaging with Corrugated Cardboard

May 2009 – Global Green USA and Western Michigan University release a
white paper, entitled Recycling Paper Food Packaging with Corrugated Cardboard: A Proposal for a New Recyclability and Repulpability Protocol and Preliminary Test Results for Fiber-Based Hot Cups. The paper proposes that the Fibre Box Association’s Voluntary Standard for Repulping and Recycling Corrugated Fiberboard Treated to Improves its Performance in the Presence of Water and Water Vapor could be modified to pre-screen foodservice packaging for its recycling along with corrugated at containerboard mills. The paper also contains results from bench top testing of hot cups. Learn more.
Global Green Presents Foodservice Packaging Recycling Concept to Western Michigan University and Foodservice Packaging Institute

Oct. 2008 – Global Green present concept for recycling foodservice paper packaging along with old corrugated cardboard. Original presentation can be downloaded here.
Our Approach

The Expert answers:

The University of Michigan often donates used computers to various charitable organizations in your region.

Check with Goodwill and (if someone in your family is a veteran)Local Veteran Organizations.

Lastly, the group “Freecycle.org,” is dedicated to reducing the human footprint on the environment through the recycling of usable items by giving them away.

Give them a look at “http://www.freecycle.org” select your state and city or county, join the group and if what you need isn’t posted, simply post a “wanted ad.”

The best part is that it’s all free!

The Expert answers:

Depends where you at, in some states you can bring them to almost any grocery store and actually get money for them; states like Michigan, New York and Delaware do this because when you buy a bottle you’re putting a deposit down on them. Most areas have a recycling plant or recycling service, where they pick any recyclables outside your house. When I recycle bottles and cans I just go to the local dump and they have certain bins to put them in to be recycled

The Expert answers:

Many cans and bottles will have a list printed on the container. There are a long list of states that refund $0.05, and then there’s Michigan, which refunds $0.10.

There’s a good Seinfeld episode that revolves around this opportunity for arbitrage.