Can I recycle this?

As products of coming of age in the '80's we learned the mantra in school: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

While we might have chanted it with our peers in 3rd grade and wore t-shirts promoting the slogan, I'm afraid we have dropped the ball on the cause of the three R's (not to mention D.A.R.E) The first two have been blatantly ignored for want of new iPods, new blackberries, new clothes, new cars, new Nintendo and new/big diamonds, can we save ourselves with the last one? Can we recycle?

YES! Let us make it easy for you...




Step 1...
Procure a complimentary recycling collection can/bin/container from you City's Bureau of Sanitation (in LA call Sanitation Customer Service Call Center (800) 773-2489.)

Step 2...
Set up a separate bin in your house for recycling (label it Recycling with large letters if you live with roommates who are always slow to catch on.) This is the most important step....We guarantee that once you have a bin in your house, you'll be amazed how much you can recycle each week.

Step 3...
Begin recycling with joy. You will often run across this question... "Can I recycle this?"

A few quick answers:
...you can recycle pizza boxes if they are clean and not greasy (highly unlikely)
...you can recycle all jars, take out containers and cartons-just rinse them out first!
...you can recycle your mail, even window envelopes...you can recycle almost all paper products, like the entire contents of your old filing cabinet--files and all!
...you can recycle styrofoam (Jess didn't know that one...)
...you can recycle dry cleaning bags and plastic and WIRE hangers!!

Basically, if it's cleaned and rinsed and not broken you can recycle it!

As for the longer answer...This is the guidelines for what can be put in your curbside recycling bin in Los Angeles County (if you don't live here go to your county's website and search what can i recycle or the bureau of sanitation.)

• Paper

- All Clean Dry Paper
computer, ledger, wrapping, arts and craft paper, unwanted mail,
flyers, telephone books, note cards, newspaper, blueprints,
magazines, file folders, paper bags, Post-it notes, catalogs; and all
envelopes including those with windows
- All Cardboard Boxes and Chipboard
cereal, tissue, dry food, frozen food, shoe, and detergent boxes; paper and toilet rolls; and corrugated boxes broken down and flattened


• Metals

- All Aluminum, Tin, Metal, and Bi-Metal Cans
rinsed if possible, soda, juice, soup, vegetables, and pet food cans;
pie tins; clean aluminum foils; empty paint and aerosol cans with
plastic caps removed, and wire hangers


• Glass

- All Glass Bottles and Jars
rinsed if possible, soda, wine, beer, spaghetti sauce, pickle jars,
broken bottles, and etc.


• Plastics

- All Clean Plastics 1 Through 7 (you'll see the number on the bottom usually)
- Empty Plastic Containers
rinsed if possible, soda, juice, detergent, bleach, shampoo, lotion, mouthwash, dishwashing liquid bottles, milk jugs, tubs for margarine and yogurt, plastic planters, food and blister packaging, rigid clamshell packaging, etc.
- All Plastic Bags and All Film Bags
grocery bags and dry cleaner bags, and all clean film plastic
- All Clean Polystyrene (Styrofoam®)
Styrofoam® cups, containers, and packaging such as Styrofoam® egg shell cartons, Styrofoam® block packaging, and Styrofoam® clamshell packaging
- Miscellaneous Plastics
Plastic coat hangers, non-electric plastic toys, plastic swimming
pools, & plastic laundry baskets

DO NOT RECYCLE THESE ITEMS

If these items are placed in the blue container, there's a likelihood of contaminating the other clean materials. Please ensure that the items placed in the blue container are clean and free from contaminants.

• Contaminated Paper
  all soiled papers or bags with oils and food waste
• Some Broken Glass (Yes, you can recycle those broken beer bottles from Saturday night)
  window glass, mirror glass, auto glass, light bulbs, fluorescent lights and ceramics
• Other Plastic
  plastic hygienic items, any electric or battery operated toys
• Miscellaneous Materials
  coated milk cartons, electrical cords, cloth/fabric, appliances, mini blinds, kitchen utensils, lawn furniture, garden hoses, rubber tires, construction materials, including asphalt or concrete, wood and wood products
• Hazardous Materials
  syringes, all partially filled aerosol cans and containers for cleaning fluids, automotive fluids, all batteries (including car batteries, household batteries, rechargeable batteries), pesticides, oil based paint, garden chemicals, and pool cleaners

Electronics like cell phones, computers and car batteries can NOT be recycled in the street bins. call your cities hazardous waste hotline or go to www.earth911.com and they will direct you to a same place in your area for such materials (in LA in number is 1-800-98-TOXIC (1-800-988-6942).)

So if '80's-style leggings and skinny jeans are back in style, surely we can bring back our favorite '80's mantra in full effect...Reduce, Reuse, Recycle....or, at least, RECYCLE...

One Rotten Apple Spoils the Whole Barrel: Why Macs Are bad for the Environment

We’ve all seen those Apple commercials where the old, boring guy is the PC and Justin Long is the “cool, younger and hipper” Mac. While they are creative they annoy us,(who on earth thought Justin Long was “cool”?), but that’s not why we’re writing this post.

This week, we’re highlighting an amazing campaign that Greenpeace has started called “Green my Apple”. Seems that the boring dude (Mr. PC) actually knows something about the environment that your Mac doesn’t. Apparently, Apple—that company we love for being fresh, edgy and giving us ipods in cute colors—is lagging behind everyone else in the green arena. Even worse, they don’t seem to care.

"You’re Toxic, I'm slippin’ under…"

Apple is failing the environment in 2 ways: Toxic Chemicals and in their lack of a “Take Back” program.

Toxic chemicals are actually a big problem in all electronics. One of the worst is the plastic Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) that is used in pretty much every computer. From its manufacture to its disposal, PVC emits toxic compounds. During the manufacture of PVC, dioxin and other pollutants that cause global warming are emitted into the air. When PVC reaches the end of its life, it is difficult to recycle. Thus, it can be either land-filled, where it leaches toxic additives, or incinerated, again emitting dioxin. Gross.

Which leads us to product take-back… If you’re making products with toxic chemicals, you should at least take them back in order to ensure they are disposed of in the most environmentally friendly manner. Over at Apple, the majority end up in toxic e-waste yards in Asia., exposing children in China and India to dangerous chemicals and polluting our air.

If all your friends jump off a bridge and institute take-back programs, would you?

Though not perfectly green yet, other companies, such as HP and Dell, have set a specific date to remove PVC from their products lines. Apple hasn't. Major brand-new product lines like the iPod nano and MacBook still contain loads of PVC.

Other computer and electronic companies also already have extensive take-back programs in place. HP’s program, first evaluates all the discarded equipment for re-use. In Canada, for example, HP donates functioning electronics to schools. The remaining non-reusable equipment is sent to a state of the art facility where the e-waste is processed and recycled.

Because of how poorly Apple fares in both the toxic chemical and take back departments, in an extensive and detailed study, they have been ranked the ABSOLUTE LOWEST out of the 14 major electronic companies for their eco-policies. The list is pretty interesting...See how everyone ranked (and why) .

Wait, you’re not asking me to give back my iPod, are you?

No…your tip for the week is a little easier than that. THIS WEEK write Steve Jobs a letter asking him to re-consider Apple’s dismal eco-policies. Don’t worry, we’ve got a link to a letter that’s already written (though you can edit it to your heart’s content) with a button to send it straight to him. The hope is that the more people who complain, the more Apple will get the message loud and clear. Click here to send your letter:

And since that was pretty easy, there’s one more thing we want you to do. Apple has been able to stay pretty under the radar with this—surprising considering this is in direct opposition with their young, clean and hip corporate branding. So whether you forward this post to your entire mailing list (something we always encourage you to do…we are always looking for new subscribers), send a video e-card to your friends about it or any of the other ideas at "Green my Apple".

We’re not trying to ruin Apple—I mean, who hasn’t revolutionized their workout with their iPod? We’re just trying to apply some good old fashioned consumer pressure to make them change their ways… and maybe their commercials.

Like a Virgin

You’re making your weekly grocery store run (okay, fine...monthly grocery store run) and you are on the paper product aisle. You’ve got a few extra bucks in your pocket so you think, “How about I spend my hard-earned money on regular paper towels instead of recycled ones, so I can spend the extra $2 on Happy Hour tonight?” Understandable.

But, do you ever think to yourself when you are passing a tree on your way to the grocery store, “How about I pull over and chop down that tree trunk and wipe my nose all over it?” Ew, no. You don’t think that.

But if you buy non-recycled paper towels, that’s what you are inevitably doing….Plus, in most cases, making products from recycled materials creates less air pollution and water pollution than making products from “virgin” (non-recycled) materials.

Our tip for the week....stop de-virginizing all those paper towels and tissues and start buying recycled paper products!

To quote everyone’s favorite Trident commercial...Chew on this:

• If every household in the United States replaced just one roll of virgin fiber toilet paper (500 sheets) with 100% recycled ones, we could save 423,900 trees.
  

• If every household in the United States replaced just one roll of virgin fiber paper towels (70 sheets) with 100% recycled ones, we could save 544,000 trees.

• If every household in the United States replaced just one package of virgin fiber napkins (250 count) with 100% recycled ones, we could save 1 million trees.
  

• In case you forgot why trees are important in the global warming battle: A tree can grow to manufacture five pounds of pure oxygen per day, consume carbon dioxide to fight the "greenhouse effect" that threatens our survival, and provide the cooling equivalent of ten room-size air conditioning units (for more facts about why trees are groovy, take a look at our November 12th post Get more Bag for you Buck)
  

Buying recycled paper products is as easy as downloading the new JT song from iTunes...Just read the label:

• When items are made from recycled materials, they usually say so right on the label.

• Look for products that have a high recycled content, including high post-consumer content. Post-consumer fibers are recovered from paper that was previously used by consumers and would otherwise have been dumped into a landfill or an incinerator.
  

• Look for products that are chlorine-free (TCF) or processed chlorine-free (PCF). We all love our Crest White Strips, but some things just don't need to be even whiter and brighter. Like your toilet paper. Unlike your precious chompers, the chlorine used in many paper bleaching processes contributes to the formation of harmful chemicals that wind up in our air.

Click here to check out a FULL LIST of how your favorite products fare in terms of recycled content, bleaching processes and post-consumer content.

Having trouble finding recycled paper products?

They should be at your local grocery store or drug store. But if not...When you’re on Amazon buying your the new Harry Potter book (Lydia!!), check out all their links to buying recycled paper products (Seventh Generation, Windsoft, Green Forest and many others).

Or when you are on Drugstore.com buying Excedrin in bulk because you decided to use your extra cash on Happy Hour instead of Recycled Paper Towels, click on their products links for these same brands.

Or go to TreeCycle.com (get it) for online resources for every recycled product you can think of and more. Get your office to switch to recycled paper or order your own biodegradable take out hot cups and save your Starbucks money for your house down payment.

If you are feeling uber-proactive:

CONTACT THE MANUFACTURER if a brand you buy for your home doesn't have any recycled content. Tell them to use more recycled fibers, to avoid sourcing from ecologically valuable forests and to ensure any virgin fibers used are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.

And if you’re like my little cousin and still not convinced because you think that recycled toilet paper is made from people’s used toilet paper, HERE ARE THE FACTS:

The process that turns recovered paper into recycled fibers for use in new papers is a heavy-duty washing, scrubbing and screening process. Those papers are dumped into huge vats, similar to several-stories-tall washing machines.

Inks are floated to the top of the vat, where they are skimmed off. Heavier non-fiber materials in the paper (such as paper clips and staples) are swirled through centrifugal force and shoved through smaller and smaller screens to separate them from the fibers and send them out of the system as waste.

Recycled fibers are washed and scrubbed and washed and scrubbed and screened and washed again over and over before they get to the paper making machine.

Now you know so there is no excuse. Buy recycled paper products and leave the virginity to the trees.

For more info, check out Conservatree.