Recycling, Doing Our Part To Save The Planet

Each Sunday this year I'm going to try to make a post about environmental impact issues, saving our Earth, and how we can help out.  Today's post is about recycling.

Recycling is just a small step that we should take daily in helping out our planet.  Before you go shopping plan your purchases carefully.  Do you really need the item that's on sale that has packaging that can't be recycled?

Take a good look at your bulk store purchases you currently have in your home.  Are you saving money only to have more trash piling up?  Try to make purchases of reusable products not disposables, ie: disposable batteries, non-cloth diapers, paper plates and plastic utensils.

Remember to recycle your newspapers, plastic, glass, aluminum cans, and paper.  Recycling, done properly can save about 2, 400 pounds of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere yearly per household.

If you are unsure of what you can actually recycle, hey even I wonder at some of the codes on the bottom of plastic containers,  go to The EPA website.  Or you can take a look at this particular link on  recycling plastics.  Did you know that PETE plastics, labeled with a 1, are recycled into common day objects like the fiber filling in your winter coats, furniture, car bumpers, rope and bean bag chairs?  Of course they are also remade into plastic bottles again.  So don't forget to take your #1 PETE medicine bottles, water bottles, and soda bottles to the recycling center.  I don't want to find out that my readers are just throwing them into the main trash.

For my beer drinking friends I have a recycling website for you that you can bank recycling points.   Miller Coors  is offering up points that you can cash in for rewards later on.  Now you can get a bit more out of your aluminum beer cans.

Don't forget to recycle your newspapers and other paper products.  Just make sure there is no food residue on the paper when you put it into the recycling bin.  Try to buy products that say that they are made from paper not trees.

Did your computer die and you had to buy a new one?  Now you have no clue what to do with the old one?  Don't just put it to the curb, check with your state laws on computer recycling first.

From: Do The Benefits Of Recycling Outweigh The Costs:
Here is a list of some of the recycling programs and information from various manufacturers:

• Acer Recycling Program
• Apple Recycling Program
• ASUS Recycling
• CyberPower Recycling
• Dell Recycling
• Electronics Industries Assocation Recycling Information
• Fujitsu Recycling of Electronic Waste
• Gateway Trade In or Recycle
• HP Product Return and Recycling
• Lenovo Product Recycling
• MSI Recycling Program
• Redemtech Enterprise Recycling
• Shuttle Recycling
• Sony Recycling Program
• Systemax Recycling Require Form
• Toshiba Trade-In and Recycling Program
• Velocity Micro Recycling Program

If you can't recycle try upcycling.  Okay a few of you are probably scratching your heads on the term upcycling.   Upcycling is basically taking an item that can no longer function in its intended purpose and ripping it apart to use as parts for another creation.  Remember WALLE?  Walle's job was to recycle and compact trash from the landfill.  He would find parts from broken items and re-purpose them which is called upcycling. Then of course there are a few of my craftier friends who have told me that they are going to take old computer monitors, those big ones that had tubes in them, gut the monitors, put rug in them and make them outside habitats for feral cats.  I think its a great idea. 


Take a look around your house and go through your "trash", you might find something that can be upcycled.  ETSY.com was the first place that clued me into upcycling.  Maybe you could start an account on their site and earn some money for your new creations.  Who wouldn't want to earn money from their trash?