In my search for tips to help me become more organized, I came across the really great article about recycling to share. This may not be a cooking topic, but a topic that I’m passionate about and well worth adding to the blog.
We ALL must do our parts to create a habitation to promote healthy lifestyles. This may be crass but I can’t help but think of a world where everyone has some form of cancer or disease because of contaminated water and air. No matter how small the effort is, it will make a difference.
How to Recycle Anything by James Baigrie
I have listed my favorites in no particular order, but the the list offers a guide from A-Z. So please check out the link below and find a recycling center. I’m certain we all have something to be recycled or reused for a good cause.
Backpacks.
The American Birding Association accepts donated backpacks, which its scientists use while tracking neotropical birds (www.americanbirding.org).Books. “Hard covers are too rigid to recycle, so we ask people to remove them and recycle just the pages,” says Sarah Kite, recycling manager of the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation, in
Johnston. In many areas, paperbacks can be tossed in with other paper.
Compact fluorescent lightbulbs. CFLs contain mercury and shouldn’t be thrown in the trash. Ikea and the Home Depot operate CFL recycling programs; you can also check with your local hardware store or recycling center to see if it offers recycling services.
Crayons. Send them to the National Crayon Recycle Program (www.crazycrayons.com), which melts down crayons and reforms them into new ones. Leave the wrappers on: “When you have black, blue, and purple crayons together without wrappers, it’s hard to tell them apart,” says the program’s founder, LuAnn Foty, a.k.a. the Crazy Crayon Lady.
Holiday cards. After they’ve lined your mantel for two months, you could throw them into the recycling bin…or you could give them a whole new life. St. Jude’s Ranch for Children (www.stjudesranch.org), a nonprofit home for abused and neglected youths, runs a holiday-card reuse program in which the kids cut off the front covers, glue them onto new cards, and sell the result — earning them money and confidence.
Makeup. Makeup can expire and is none too pretty for the earth when you throw it in the trash (chemicals abound in most makeup). Some manufacturers are making progress on this front. People who turn in six or more empty MAC containers, for example, will receive a free lipstick from the company in return; SpaRitual nail polishes come in re-usable, recyclable glass; and Josie Maran Cosmetics sells biodegradable plastic compacts made with a corn-based resin — just remove the mirror and put the case in your compost heap.
Makeup. Makeup can expire and is none too pretty for the earth when you throw it in the trash (chemicals abound in most makeup). Some manufacturers are making progress on this front. People who turn in six or more empty MAC containers, for example, will receive a free lipstick from the company in return; SpaRitual nail polishes come in re-usable, recyclable glass; and Josie Maran Cosmetics sells biodegradable plastic compacts made with a corn-based resin — just remove the mirror and put the case in your compost heap.
