Tracy Farnsworth went straight from a business track in high school to a full-time job in mortgage banking in Burlington, Vermont. After having children, she built a freelance career in content writing and took online classes as time allowed. She completed Social Media Marketing and Digital Marketing certificate programs with Ireland's online Shaw Academy and completed several courses in SEO and analytics. In her free time, she's the “mom” to a very clingy rat terrier, and the pair walk at least a mile every day. She's also a novice baker who is trying to master the art of sourdough bread.
-
Tucson is one of many cities that have scrapped curbside glass recycling. Starting February 1st, Tucson residents have to drive miles to one of the city’s glass recycling facilities with their boxes or bags of glass bottles and containers. Why are so many cities turning their backs on curbside glass recycling?It comes down to money. […]
-
According to the non-profit Mattress Recycling Council, every year Americans dispose of more than 1.5 million mattresses. Some of the components in a mattress can be recycled, yet few states actually have laws in place.Take a look back at mattresses over the centuries. People used to sleep on piles of straw, leaves, wool, or hay […]
-
Every waste district in the U.S. has its own policies on what is accepted and what isn’t. Curbside haulers in one town may welcome all plastics while another only takes #1 and #2. Some haulers take away food waste to be composted instead of sent to the landfill, but others want food waste in the […]
-
Hazardous materials cannot go into the trash. Fluids like unused paint and cleaners, heating fuels like unused kerosene, and automotive fluids like dirty oil and transmission fluid pollute the groundwater and soil if they’re disposed of improperly. Dumping used motor oil in a river can harm the fish and wildlife that rely on that river […]
-
Wish-cycling is the practice of recycling items that cannot be recycled. It stems from the best intentions. You wish or hope that something you’ve bought or use regularly can be recycled. Instead, your good intentions end up costing recycling companies more time and money. Worse, it can impact recycling at a later processing point. The items […]
-
Sustainability is a process where you avoid depleting natural resources while creating something new. It’s based on three foundations: people, planet, and profit. The profit aspect may not be something your children will comprehend beyond the basics at this point, but they will be able to understand how sustainability is designed to help people and […]
-
In August, California became the first state in the U.S. to require any company making plastic bottles to use recycled plastic. Governor Newsom signed AB 793 into law on September 24th. Starting in 2022, big changes are coming to plastic bottles in the products available to consumers.Many food and beverage manufacturers use virgin plastic to […]
-
Take a trip back to the 1980s when recycling started gaining steam. School kids were informed to put their unneeded papers into boxes in the classroom. Those papers would get recycled. Bottles and glass became the next items being recycled. At the time, the focus was on keeping reusable materials out of overflowing landfills.Fast forward […]
-
Think about the plastics in your home. You likely have several different kinds of the seven most common plastics in your cupboards and closets. From plastic juice bottles to detergent containers, your home has a lot of plastic in some stage of use. Once it’s empty, what happens? It’s just as likely that your waste […]
-
In an older home, lighting fixtures are a leading cause of poor lighting, high electricity bills, and household waste. Whether it’s a stormy day and too dark to keep the lights off or it’s late at night and the sun set hours ago, you need the lights on, but it also drives up your electricity […]