Are you an informed consumer when it comes to recycling the most common materials? If you’re like most consumers, you probably pay special attention to many of the materials which can be recycled. But then there are the things that are poorly understood and are difficult to recycle, such as ink cartridges, motor oil, rechargeable batteries, and more. Here, we’re going look at some everyday things that should be a part of your recycling efforts: Cardboard Food Canisters
Potato chips that come in foil and paper packages may be recyclable. Most likely you are just tossing them in the household trash.
Plastic Bottles
Single use water bottles didn’t exist in the 1970’s. But today, most of us are drinking water from 8 ounce plastic bottles that is delivered by trucks. Want to help the environment more? Buy a stainless steel container for your personal water bottle use. Be active in movements encouraging business districts, communities and the shops there make public water taps again for refilling personal bottles. Yes again – there use to be public water fountains which seem to have disappeared over the past 30-40 years due to health concerns and funding issues.
Household Toxics
If you can’t consume it, should it be used? Think about that before you buy your next supply of cleaning products. If you can’t consume it, then recycling it isn’t possible either.
Compost aka Recycling Organic Matter
If you don’t consider compost recycling, think again. Compost is recycled plant matter which includes food and lawn scraps. You place them in a bin that can convert the matter to garden soil in a few weeks, reducing the volume of household material that goes to the landfill by half. Many of the things you throw away could be composted like cooking oil, dryer lint, some foam, used paper towels, wine bottle corks, etc. Just about anything natural can be composted, a natural recycling process!
Computer Printer Waste
The majority of printer cartridges can be recycled, rebuilt or refilled today. But printer manufacturers have lowered the prices of printers while raising the price of the supplies. Why do they do that? More money is made selling the supplies than selling equipment.
There are manufactures such as Hewlett-Packard are thinking forward and now provide envelopes where you can donate cartridges to a refill station for recycling. But those refill kits aren’t worth the effort. While they may save you some money, they are messy. The best way you can help the environment with your printer is to buy recycled paper and recycle the paper you use.
Recycling Car Batteries, Motor Oil, and Tires
These three products are some of the biggest environmental issues. All three can be recycled today. Take used motor oil for example. There are heavy metals and toxic substances in this product and considered to be a hazardous waste. If you change your own oil, take the used oil to a location that has recycling ability or connections such as a quick-lube shop or auto parts store that accepts used oil.
This should also include your used oil filter, antifreeze, and brake fluid. If you have old tires lying around, pay the small fee, usually $1 to $5 per tire to keep the tire out of the landfill. Sell them on websites like Craigslist, LetGo or OfferUp as Pinterest projects! Your old car battery can be recycled too and retailer that sell car batteries are now required to accept your old battery when you buy a new one.
