5 Tips for Recycling at Home
January 18, 2016
United States trash production has tripled since the 1960s! Recycling at home is one of the easiest ways to reduce trash in landfills and help improve the environment. And recycling doesn’t have to be a chore. We’ve gathered five simple tips for recycling at home to help get you started.
- Knowledge is Power – Know What’s Recyclable: Recycling guidelines for basic materials like paper and plastic are typically straightforward, but what to do with things like aerosols and batteries? This handy guide is a good place to start and you can get more specific details for your city in a quick Google search – bookmark both!
- Create a Designated Recycling Space: The easier the process, the more likely you are to follow it. Whether you choose your kitchen, pantry or utility room, create a space that will make recycling at home convenient. Home improvement stores have a wide variety of bins and containers that you can choose from to create an easy-to-follow recycling station.
- Re-Use and Repurpose: When you no longer have use for a particular item, try re-using it in another way. Drink wine? Use old corks for crafts and stamping. Turn takeout food containers into a catchall for loose buttons and other odds and ends. Old maps even make for unique photo frames. It’s called “up-cycling” and it’s 100 percent on-trend.
- Plan a Leftovers Night: Recycling at home isn’t just for plastics and paper. Did you know that in the U.S., roughly 40 perfect of food goes to waste? You can help reduce this number by having a dedicated leftovers night each week. Throw that food back into the oven, not into the trashcan.
- Mark Your Calendar: Quite possibly the simplest item on the list, but it’s easy to forget. Find out what day of the week your city picks up recycling. Typically, it happens once a week but sometimes more in larger metropolitan areas. Be sure to set a reminder so you’ll never forget to put your recycling out for pick-up.
At Renergy, we’re committed to recycling and reusing whenever possible. We make it easy for businesses, communities and individuals to turn their waste into clean energy.
Live in Columbus, Ohio? Click here for local recycling rules.
Sources:
epa.gov
epa.gov
apartmenttherapy.com
greenliving.about.com
Posted in Sustainability
Thanks for your post. I try to recycle as much as I can. The biggest help I have is having a box where I put all of my recycling next to the trash can. This way I don’t get lazy and throw it away so that I don’t have to walk to the recycling bin. Besides, it makes it easier to pull recyclables out when I accidentally throw them away. Again, the laziness issue. Quite honestly controlling my waste and recycling isn’t really that hard. I just have to remember.
I appreciate your tip on creating a designated recycle space. It seems that if you are more organized about your recycling and have a place for it that would make it much easier both for you and your kids to follow. My wife and I have been wanting to increase how much our family recycles, maybe we should designate a space to help with that.
I have always had the best intentions of recycling, but I have never really known how to go about it. I like the tip you give of buying a bin or container that is specifically for recycling. I bet you could look online and find a way to decorate it too so it goes with the rest of your house. I think it would also be smart to see what local recycling services are offered in our area so we can get started!
I had no idea that 40% of food goes to waste. I know that my wife and I purposely make a little extra food than is needed for the sole purpose of having it for lunch the the day or two. The tricky thing is to make sure that you don’t make too much because then you make so much you can’t eat it all.
I love recycling! I think it is so incredible. I don’t understand why everyone doesn’t do it. It’s so easy to do and makes such a big difference and impact for our planet!
I appreciate all of the advice listed here on recycling and how we all can do a better job at it. I had never thought of having s leftovers night to save money on paper and to prevent throwing away excess food. My wife would love this especially knowing that she would not have to cook! Thanks for the help!
Great tips you have there! Personally, I also make sure I have a space in our home where recyclables are placed, and then I will do the segregation and the cleaning before the pickup date. It’s not laborious, and I honestly enjoy it. If you own a business or an office, I know of a company who picks up recyclables for a fee.
Thank you so much for helping me understand more about recycling at home and how to do it more effectively. While I lived in Japan, I became really good at recycling since there are many laws that have to do with recycling; however, I have not been the best at it since getting home. Just as you mentioned, it is easy to know the many different things that you can recycle, but I think that there are a lot of things that you might not know how to recycle such as cables, batteries, and even aerosol. Thanks for the post, and I will do some more research so that I can be a better recycler and save the planet.