Photo credit:
Peter Kaminski, Flickr
Ever paint your house? I'll bet you still have the old half-full paint cans lying around somewhere. Don't feel bad. Lots of people do. It's because we don't know what to do with them—we know it's not a good idea to just pour the stuff down the drain, and we know we shouldn't just send them to the landfill, but what? What can we do with them that's safe for us and for the environment?
It's not just paint, either. Earth 911, recycling resource and local-recycling search engine extraordinaire, compiled their list of last year's most-searched-on recyclables.
Can you guess what else is on the list?
2. Christmas trees. Ready to give that thing up? It's looking a little dry. But never fear, you have options.
3. Light bulbs. We talked about CFLs already. Likely that's the main type of fluorescent bulb you have lying around the house, begging to be recycled. No excuses now.
4. Aluminum cans. What? People have been using their foreheads to crush cans for recycling for, well, a long time. Surely they know what to do with them after that. (I know YOU do!)
5. Plastic. Admittedly some of the numbers can get a bit confusing. Most commonly accepted in curbside recycling are #'s 1, 2, and 5. We'll cover the wonderful world of plastics recycling soon!
6., 7., 8., and 9. Electronics, motor oil, televisions, and computers. Yeah, I don't know how to recycle those either. But stick around—Super Eco's going to cover all these soon, and then we'll all know how to recycle them safely.
10. And the number-one recyclable that baffles people? Batteries. Here's how to recycle yours.
How to green your detergent usage
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At our dump we have a big dumpster labeled E-Waste that is full of Electronics, TVs and Computers. It is very easy to pull in and off load your old technology, however I just can't ever seem to part with it.
They do become friends, don't they?
I've noticed that many cities have green, recycling or "environmental services" pages on their web sites to tell residents how to recycle particular items. The greater problem seems to be a lack of awareness among the residents that that reference tool even exists! :/
Some very good news in my neighbourhood on this front yesterday. A new site: http://www.dowhatyoucan.ca/ launched with info on where you can recycle paint, batteries, and a whole bunch of other nasties. In some parts of Ontario you can also just take old paint cans directly back to the store - which is perfect.
Yes!! You Canadians are way ahead of us on that. Kudos! Thanks for sharing.
Obsessable can help with 6, 8 and 9! :D
http://www.obsessable.com/feature/gadget-recycling-how-to...
my concern is knowing what happens to the stuff we put into the recycling places. do they really get recycled? how much energy is used to recycle them? are there other safety issues? i have heard that much of our electronic 'waste' is broken down in a very unsafe manner. i would like to see some reports on this aspect. i know what happens to most of the stuff in our municipal recycling program, but not some of the more hazardous materials.
Patricia,
You raise an excellent point -- It would be fascinating to trace the life-cycle of some common recyclables.
computers/electronics are recyclable, but it's not as easy as it should be. In NYC, there's a van that parks nearby once a year and they'll take anything. I dumped four boxes of old crap a few months ago.