The Rules of Recycling

It’s fair to say that a majority of people in this country recycle in some capacity in 2013. While there is still no national law mandating recycling, a majority of state and local governments have introduced recycling programs around the country since Woodbury, NJ, became the first municipality in the United States to establish a mandated program back in the early 1970s.  

While required recycling is a relatively new concept, recycling really is nothing new. People have been recycling in one way or another for thousands of years. In this country, recycling started on a large scale during World War II, when 20,000 salvage committees and 400,000 volunteers salvaged tin, rubber, aluminum, and other scraps to help the military in the war effort.  

Recycling as we know it today is done for a variety of reasons. Recycling helps conserve resources, save energy, create jobs and strengthen the economy.  

While we all think we know what we can and cannot recycle, there are a surprising amount of items that you’ve probably never even considered. Of course there are things that we all know recycle easily, like bottles and cans, but you may be surprised to see some of the other items on our list.

While not everything that makes the list can be thrown into your curbside recycling container, facilities do exist for recycling all of these items. You can check with GTMUA to see if an item in question can be recycled curbside or in person at their facility. Otherwise, you can visit www.earth911.com or www.1-800-recycling.com to see where recycling facilities may exist near you. 

While I have done my fair share of columns about recycling, even I was surprised by some of the items that made our lists. While I am an avid recycler, and encourage everyone I meet to recycle as much as they possibly can, I have to admit there are just some things that don’t make the cut.

In some cases, facilities simply do not exist for the safe recycling of these items. In other cases, although they may seem like good candidates for recycling, materials used in the making of these items are considered hazardous materials upon disposal.

Sometimes, recycling something is actually worse for the environment. If a few bad items taint an entire bin, it may result in the whole load going into a landfill. 

So where do you stack up? Are you recycling all that you can be? And what are you recycling that you shouldn’t be?

Find out now. 

Recyclable Items

1. Scrap metal
2. VHS tapes
3. BBQ grills
4. Bricks
5. Old prescription bottles
6. Flip flops
7. Aluminum bottle caps
8. Ink cartridges
9. Tires
10. Old cell phones
11. Post-it notes
12. Reading glasses
13. CFL bulbs
14. Books
15. Aluminum siding
16. Oil filters
17. CDs and DVDs
18. Plates/Dishes
19. Smoke detectors
20. Legos
21. Shoes
22. Toothpaste tubes
23. Junk mail
24. Straws
25. Used gift cards

Things you should not recycle

1. Diapers
2. Napkins, tissues and paper towels 
3. Styrofoam (although some shipping stores will accept them for reuse)
4. Cosmetics containers
5. Plastic bottle caps
6. Ceramics
7. Wire hangers
8. Food take-out containers
9. Aerosol cans
10. Medical waste

I hope you are doing your part. Stay tuned until next time when I find 20 things that you can reuse around your home, and 20 things that should never be reused.