Recycling is good for the environment.
My mom is the queen of recycling -- she knows what the local recycling center accepts and what they do not -- and has several collection bins in her home to divide out before depositing at the center! If you are like me, I know a few basic items to recycle - plastic and cardboard, but my eyes start to glass over above that limited knowledge.
Here are some tips on items to collect and where to deposit:
METAL:
- Aluminum Beverage Cans - must be rinsed out. Deposit into Aluminum Only
- Steel food cans and aerosol spray cans -- rinsed out or emptied. Deposit into Scrap Metal
- Aluminum Foil and aluminum pans - Deposit into Scrap Metal
CARDBOARD:
- All cardboard construction boxes, breakdown and flatten. Deposit into Cardboard
- Brown grocery and shopping bags. Deposit into Cardboard.
- Food cartons, with the exception of delivery pizza boxes. Deposit into Cardboard.
- Paper, newspaper, shredded paper, cardstock, etc. Deposit into Cardboard.
GLASS:
- Glass Bottles and Glass Jars--must be rinsed out. Deposit in Glass.
- Some facilities may require glass to be separated out by color: clear, brown, green, blue, red, etc..
- Remove the lids. Labels are okay to remain on bottles and jars.
- Lightbulbs - Ask the attendant, as some fluorescent and CFL bulbs may be accepted, else they would go into Household waste.
PLASTIC, TRIANGLE RECYCLING SYMBOL 1 - 7
- All plastic containers with these symbols, rinse out but do not flatten.
- Remove all lids, pumps before depositing.
- Frozen meal trays, berry containers
YARD WASTE
- Small limbs, bagged leaves, pulled weeds
- Broken furniture, doors, carpet, flooring, etc.
Some items cannot be recycled no matter our good intent. Here are a few items: broken ceramics, cups, lids and flatware, plastic coat hangers, plastic outdoor toys, rubber hoses, ropes, Styrofoam take out containers, and plastic bags.
Hopefully, this will help you out the next time you hesitate before dumping into household waste.