Recycling begins in the home. If every person starts recycling home waste, we’ll be that much closer to a cleaner planet. However, recycling has to become part of your daily routine, a part of your home care. Here are 31 great ways to recycle home waste. Which ones will you add to your routine?
31 Ways To Recycle Home Waste
Make Recycling A Part Of Your Life
1. Keep a recycling container next to your trash bin; this makes it easier to collect recyclable items.
2. Make a list of the items you can recycle and paste it on your fridge and on the kitchen and garage walls, as a reminder to your family.
3. Take advantage of any kerbside recycling scheme that your local authorities offer.
4. When you visit supermarkets, visit the recycling banks as part of your shopping routine. Most
supermarkets allow for recycling of bottles, can, papers and electronic goods.
5. Obtain plastic grading and sorting instructions and sort out your plastic waste accordingly. Not all types of plastic can be readily recycled.
6. Always rinse plastic, glass and metal food containers before recycling them, to avoid attracting rodents, ants and cockroaches.
Recycling Paper Products
7. Don’t recycle carbon paper, cardboard, laminated paper and cardboard and stickers. Use cardboard to create useful objects, awnings, water and air proofing and so on. Laminated cardboard can be used as a back frame on which to stick art work and as a base for writing paper.
8. Save newspapers separately in the newspaper bin; most counties have newsprint recycling facilities, where old newspapers are recycled to produce new ones.
9. Recycle your remaining paper products such as glossy magazines, printed flyers, glossy newspaper Ads, envelopes, and computer printing paper, phone books, paper packaging and old letters into a different bin. These can be handed over to a regular recycling unit to be made into paper bags, craft items, paper mache dolls and so on. It’s ok if your paper waste contains metal staples, but be sure to remove plastic wraps and rubber bands if any.
10. If you have corrugated cardboard, note that you can tie it up with string and hand over to the curbside collectors. Make sure the corrugated cardboard waste is dry.
Recycling Plastic Items
As you know, plastic items are not biodegradable. Therefore, you need to use your imagination to recycle plastic products. Check what kinds of plastic goods are accepted at your local recycling center.
11. Drop used plastic grocery bags into bins outside grocery stores for recycling.
12. Plastic cups, egg cartons and food trays are not biodegrade. Stop buying these items and find creative ways to use ones you have. Plastic egg cartons can be painted and used as a costume jewelry keeper.
13. Food trays can be used to grow seedlings in the garden.
14. Plastic cups can be used to grow small plants, seedlings, or as snail traps in your garden.
Recycling Glass Products
15. Separate your glass based on color: clear, green and brown. Recycling centers prefer glass sorted this way.
16. Sheet glass, light bulbs, pyrex and mirrors cannot be recycled along with container bottles, as they have different melting points and compositions. They may not be accepted by many recycle centers either. Use sheet glass, mirrors and light bulbs for decorative purposes.
17. Recycle compact fluorescent light bulbs at your local IKEA store.
Recycling Metal Products
18. Rinse food cans and remove lids before handing them over to the recycling center. You can also grow plants in food cans, or paint them and use them to store toothbrushes, paint brushes and pens.
19. Aluminum foil and foil packaging can be reprocessed into engine parts and other mechanical components. Always recycle these separately.
20. Keep the lids and labels on paint and aerosol cans before you recyclable them so that recyclers know the former contents.
21. Copper and all copper alloys are 100 percent recyclable. Copper, brass and bronze are also bright metals. If you have copper vessels, pots and vases, get them re-polished and give them away as gifts. Or, you can use them as decorative objects within the house.
Recycling Electronic Goods
22. Pass on computers and printers if they’re in good condition. There’s always a school or old age home that might need some computers.
23. When you buy a new cell phone, don’t throw the old one away. Hand it in at your retail outlet and they’ll recycle it.
Recycling Food Waste
24. Instead of throwing out excess cooked food, donate it to homeless centers, or make creative TV dinners.
25. Make your own compost either in a compost bin or an open pile. Throw fruit cores, peelings and raw veggies into this compost.
26. Blend dried leftover salad greens with water and feed this mixture to your growing plants.
Recycling Yard Waste
27. Add leaves and grass to your compost pile or donate to your local community’s compost. Don’t put these in landfills, as they can generate too much greenhouse gas.
28. You can add grass clippings, shrub clippings and old bark to your garden or community compost pile.
Recycling Garage Waste
29. Sort leftover nuts and bolts that don’t fit anywhere by size and donate them to people who might find use for them.
30. Used car tires make the best possible tree swings for your kids.
31. Patch up old plastic tarpaulins and create a cozy garden tent for your kids.
Thanks for doing your part to clean up our planet! Which ways to recycle your home waste were new to you? Which ones do you do already?