Start by Looking Local

In order to go green in your life, you need to see what resources are available to you in this quest. When my mom lived in Germany, recycling was a standard part of their trash services; it was also mandatory as in “sort your trash or be fined.” In the United States, recycling is more of a voluntary thing and it is extra work to accomplish that where I live. To the best of my knowledge, our local waste/trash management companies do not offer recycling as part of the standard trash services.

When J and I decided to be more eco-conscious, we had to figure out what was going to be recyclable where we lived. This might require a quick Internet search to see if there are any recycling facilities in your area. We knew that in our town, there was a scrapyard where we could haul metal like tin cans, aluminum cans, and pieces of scrap metal. When we moved into our current home, there were several rusted metal farm pieces that no longer functioned and were not salvageable. Large metal panels were used to edge a flowerbed that we dismantled. My husband would bring home bags of aluminum cans from work that his coworkers would donate for recycling. All of these random bits and pieces as well as the many bags of cans – both aluminum and tin – added up to over a thousand pounds of metal scrap. We loaded it onto a trailer and hauled it off in one swoop to the scrapyard. That netted us a little more than $100. Financially, it wasn’t a huge amount of money but visually, cleaning that much metal from our home was very satisfying as was knowing it could get a second life once it was recycled.

Where I work, they offer recycling across campus with bins designated for bottles, cans, paper, and then trash. I can take these items out to the recycling center during the week. To help keep things organized, I usually utilize one larger cardboard box to contain the smaller cardboard boxes that are broken down so they lay flat or stand upright inside the largest box. This makes it a lot easier to load in the vehicle as well. For our plastics, I picked up clear plastic trash bags from Walmart that help keep our recyclable plastics rounded up. At one point, I tried using reusable bags – the kind for your groceries – to keep everything contained but it was like a twisted take of “Pick Up Sticks” the last time I used the grocery sacks because I had to recapture my recyclable plastics that had spilled out of my car like a cascading waterfall but of plastic items that liked to bounce out of reach. I was very glad it wasn’t windy that day!

While the university’s recycling center don’t take things like glass or colored plastics, it still helps us recycle some of the more commonly used items like clear plastics and paper, as well as a few random things I had not thought of like appliances and automotive batteries. According to their website, our university’s recycling efforts kept an estimated 252.15 tons out of the landfill in 2017. That’s pretty impressive.

Think of where you live and where you work. Could you find places to recycle items in those areas? Does your company or employer have recycling in the office that perhaps you could bring in additional items from home? Are you living near a college or university that might also offer recycling options to the public? It never hurts to do a little Internet sleuthing to check. As we become more environmentally aware as a society, we may see more and more recycling avenues become available. You may have to get creative in how you search for your options, though.

Since technology has become a big part of our lives, it is amazing how often people upgrade dated technology and are stuck with the old equipment. What do you do with your old electronics? I think we have three old phones and one laptop that are currently languishing around the house. While I like keeping an old phone just in case we need a backup phone for some reason (after all, when you have small children, you never know when your phone might get dropped into a toilet or sink with water), we don’t need all of them. I have seen kiosks at a few different stores in my travels where you could turn in your old phone for cash, depending on the age of the phone. You can also use the Internet to search for recycling options for phones and batteries like Call2Recycle which offers a search feature to find drop off locations by zip code.

Sometimes communities will even host a day once or twice per year where residents can bring their old electronics to a central location for recycling at no charge. Check with your local Chamber of Commerce to see if such an event occurs in your area and if so, mark your calendar! A lot of times, these events occur on or near Earth Day, April 22, which is an annual event supporting protection of the environment.

Sometimes, you can discover the opportunity to recycle something from the most random discussions. I recently had to purchase a new laptop for my freelancing gig and while talking to the clerk at our local Staples office supply store, I mentioned having an old Toshiba laptop from 1999 that is just sitting around gathering dust. I told him I didn’t know what I would do with it other than shuffle it around the house. That is when I learned that Staples accepts electronics for recycling and that includes more than computers, printers, and ink cartridges! (Here is their link if you want to learn more about their recycling options and where they are located.)

Did you also know you can recycle your use eyeglasses? According to the Vision Council of America, almost two out of three Americans wore prescription glasses in 2015; that estimation represents 159.2 million people. That’s a lot of eyeglasses! Given how people will change their glasses due to a change in their prescription or to get new frames, there are probably quite a few pairs of glasses floating around in people’s homes that they no longer use. The Lion’s Club often has eyeglass collection boxes in various places in communities. I know I have seen them in my local Walmart; they could also be found in your optometrist’s office or perhaps the local library or community center.

These are just a few ideas to get you started on where and how to look local to see what your options might be. You could also call your local waste management companies and see if that would be a service they would offer for your community. There might be enough like-minded people willing to join the chorus in asking for recycling to be available!

Our next post, we will explore the idea of our food waste and how we can recycle some of that ourselves! Until then, go green, fellow Texans and residents of Earth! ~ Lacie ~