How We Recycle: Don't Throw That Away!

We live in a disposable society. You’d be amazed at what people discard—everything from food to furniture. But what we fail to realize is that there is no such place as “away.” According to the EPA, every day in the United States, roughly 690,000 tons of materials are dumped in landfills, but only a small fraction of that is legitimate waste.

The amazing truth is that depending on where you live, 75 to 90 percent of your waste can be recycled. Things that can’t be collected through curbside recycling—such as electronics, paints, and batteries—may still be recycled at a local drop-off center. Recycling is a special responsibility here in America, where we produce more than a third of the world’s garbage. It’s a great incentive to recycle more, compost more, and buy items with less packaging—all of which saves us money and helps the environment.

More with Less | Advertise Your Trash | Compost | Learn More

Have More with Less: Reduce, Reuse & Recycle

Waste Watching – It’s hard to know how much we actually throw out when we don’t actually keep track of what gets thrown out. To get a better idea, you need to start auditing your garbage. After your review, begin making plans to improve your recycling and consumption.  

Estimate the total trash you produce in a year by weighing a week’s worth of trash in garbage bags and multiply the weight by 52 weeks. To determine the make-up of your family's trash, you’ll need to save a week’s worth of garbage in garbage bags. Collect food waste and yard waste in separate sealed containers. At the end of the week, put on some rubber gloves and separate the contents of the garbage bags into various garbage bags by category, such as glass, newspapers, plastic bottles, aluminum cans, white paper, magazines, and other non-food waste.

If you want to check your progress, spend a month implementing your own personal waste-reduction experiment and then do another trash audit to see what a difference you are making. Consider getting permission to do the same at your workplace.

Be Electronic – Getting paid, paying bills, buying things, writing checks. All these activities add up to nearly 405,000 trees cut annually to make the paper required to complete every transaction. Thankfully, electronic billing, statements and payment have become much more sought after. And why wouldn’t it? Paying your bill online is not only simple and safe; it is also fast and convenient—saving us time and money (on postage.) For those of us who have trouble remembering when payments are due, signing up for automatic bill paying can eliminate late fees as well. By arranging for individual online payments and direct deposits, you’ll save many emissions-producing trips to the bank and reduce paper’s impact on the environment. Make the electronic switch today.

Say No to Styrofoam – 25 billion Styrofoam cups are thrown away by Americans each year. Sure, it keeps your coffee hot, but a thousand years after your last gulp, your empty Styrofoam cup will still be around. And there is so much of it, even though it takes3.2 grams of fossil fuel to make a single Styrofoam coffee cup.

The challenge isn’t just coffee cups and packing peanuts—it’s the over packaging in all shapes and materials. If one million people reduced their packaging trash by 10 percent, we’d keep 600,000 tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere per year. Find Styrofoam recyclers in your area.

Get Rid of Junk Mail – Every day, catalogs and junk mail fill our mailboxes with the temptation to buy things we don’t really need.

All the resources used to produce and transport these unsolicited mailings are harmful to our environment. Luckily, there is the “opt out” legislation provides websites and phone numbers that allow consumers to say no to junk mail and catalogs. Start by canceling your catalogs. Most companies have online catalogs for their merchandise and services. You can also opt out of catalog mailings and cut down on junk mail by calling 1-888-5OPTOUT.

While you’re at it, decline unsolicited credit card offers and be one less contributor to the unopened mails in landfills.

Where does this go? – Hazardous household waste should not be disposed of in your regular trash. If old computers, cell phones and other electronics are still working, consider donating them. Otherwise, they must be recycled to recover the valuable materials they contain and prevent hazardous materials like lead from entering the waste stream, which are harmful to our health and environment. Learn how to dispose of hazardous household waste.  

Buy & Sell Everything: Advertise Your Trash

Even though you may no longer have any use for your old coffee table or computer, someone else will. Don’t believe us? Try placing something you no longer want out on the curb. Chances are, it will be gone within a matter of hours. Clearly, one man’s tacky eyesore is the piece-de-resistance of another man’s Haiwaiian-themed den. So strike a deal and advertise your unwanted items on the Internet and sell them to someone who wants them.

Auction it Off – Set up an eBay account and start selling your unwanted stuff for a profit. It’s quick, easy and only clicks away. Shop for Free –The Freecycle network has more than 4 million members in 75 countries. It is a grassroots, non-profit movement of people who are giving and getting stuff for free in their own towns.

Craigslist – Look for bargains and sell anything online. Craigslist offers online classifieds for 450 cities worldwide. Sell anything from cars to a toaster oven though this massive centralized network of online communities.

Swap with Me – Most of us have trouble with overstuffing our wardrobes. The most unfortunate thing is that chances are, the majority of the clothing occupying valuable closet space either outdated in style and ill-fitting or hasn’t seen the light of day since 1999. Donate older clothes to vintage stores. Refashioning old clothes into new pieces is becoming very trendy. If you’d rather not pay full price for new clothes that will only be worn for less than three months (i.e. anything infants, toddlers or fashionistas would wear) swap meets and websites may be your best bet.

Round Up the Neighbors –Before Craigslist and eBay ever came about, people used to sell their unwanted belongings out on their yards and garages, all while sipping lemonade and chatting with neighbors.

Your donations is also tax-deductible as well, just be sure to save your receipt. Learn more about tax deductions through your charitable contributions.

Do the Worm

Compost –It is the oldest form of recycling. Since most waste in homes is 1/3 compostable, composting makes sense. Managing organic material at your home not only decreases the amount of material you send to landfills, it is also a great complement to your landscaping efforts. Compost improves both plant and root growth, helps the soil hold moisture, binds nutrients in the soil and can help inhibit plant disease. Using friendly bacteria, you can turn organic waste into vibrant soil that plants love. No special equipment is necessary.

The first step is understanding how and why composting works. The organic waste you put in compost naturally degrades with the help of fungi, bacteria, and other microorganisms that live off the waste. Water and air are also important factors in helping the compost process from waste, to nutrient rich soil. The entire process takes about 6-9 months.

The second step is either buying or making a compost bin. Simple starter compost can be made by drilling holes in a garbage can and setting it up on bricks or wood to keep it off the ground. If you plan to put large amounts of yard trimmings in it, you might require a larger one. You can use anything that will be durable, keep things in (or out), and is easy to drag and move around.

The third step is deciding a good place for your compost. An ideal place would be in a spot that will receive adequate sun and shade throughout the day. The act of composting itself generates heat, but heat helps the food break down faster. However, too much sun will dry it out. Moisture is crucial; therefore make sure your compost is close to a water source.

Lastly, knowing what you can and cannot compost is essential to getting compost up and running. Here are 75 things you can compost, but thought you couldn’t.

Just do one green thing today—it will lead to many more.

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