• Combating Wishcycling: Green Living Hacks That Reduce Recycling Contamination

    August 18, 2025

    Wishcycling is a problem in the recycling industry, and it drives up costs and increases work for recycling professionals. A Republic Services study found that 73 out of 100 people believed they were recycling experts. Yet, 61% of them were unable to correctly choose items that were not recyclable.When you wishcycle, you recycle items that […]

  • Seasonal Recycling: How Extreme Weather Events Disrupt & Reshape Collection Systems

    August 6, 2025

    Recycling may seem like a modern household practice, but it goes back to the 1800s when people would patch worn clothing or take fabric scraps to make new things. Ragmen went from door to door collecting fabric scraps to use in paper manufacturing. During WWII, families were asked to donate their scrap metal, paper, rags, […]

  • The Role of Reuse Hubs in Reducing Landfill Waste

    July 28, 2025

    The EPA reports that each American generates about 4.9 pounds of municipal solid waste (MSW) each day. In one week, you’ve generated about 35 pounds of trash and recyclables. Consider that amount over a month or a year. It’s so much, and it’s overwhelming the nation’s landfills.The Realities of MSWHere’s a scary fact: recyclables often […]

  • Refillable Household Products: Reducing Single-Use Plastic Reliance

    July 21, 2025

    Have you come across refill stores? Bring your reusable bottles and fill them from the store’s selection of cleaning products, shampoos, conditioners, and other skin care items. While stores aren’t found in every area, refill stores are appearing in more areas.Why use refillable household products? It lowers the amount of single-use plastic you consume. The […]

  • The Rise of Chemical Recycling: What Recyclers Should Know

    July 9, 2025

    During WWII, plastic appeared as a “material with 1,000 uses.” Fast forward to today, when global production of plastic has surpassed 359 million tons. While plastic has been helpful in many areas, it’s also created problems within the environment. Microscopic particles of plastic are in the soil, air, and water. They’re in animals, fish, and […]

  • Recycling Around the World: Lessons From Countries With High Recycling Rates

    June 23, 2025

    Here are the sad facts. Using the EPA’s last statistics for recycling, 292.4 million tons of materials were generated in 2018. That’s almost five pounds of waste per person every day. Of that, only 69 million tons were properly recycled and 25 million tons were composted. That’s only 32.1% that was recycled.There is so much […]

  • The Rise of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Laws in the U.S.

    June 19, 2025

    How many electronic devices (phones, laptops, tablets, etc.) does the average American own? The answer may shock you as it’s increased 63% between 2018 and 2025. People own an average of 13 devicesThat’s just small electronics. You’ll have other harder-to-recycle items like refrigerators, electric fireplaces, massage chairs, microwaves, window AC units, portable heaters, and the […]

  • Recycling Personal Care Items

    June 5, 2025

    If you think about all of the plastic and metal recycling you generate each year, you’re probably overlooking a main contributor to waste streams. Personal care items like razor blades, shaving cream, toothbrushes, hair products, perfume bottles, and deodorants all contain metal, glass, or plastic, but can you recycle them?Personal care items are a challenging […]

  • Battery Recycling for Businesses: How to Implement an Effective Program

    May 27, 2025

    Battery recycling is one of the most important things your business can do for the environment. Lithium-ion batteries can cause fires in recycling plants and garbage and recycling trucks. Alkaline batteries contain metals and chemicals that shouldn’t be released into the environment.It’s hard to know exactly how many batteries end up in the landfill. CalRecycle […]

  • Glass Recycling: Sorting by Color and Other Important Do’s and Don’ts

    May 21, 2025

    Recycling is everything in today’s single-use world. While your grandmother or, perhaps, great-grandmother made many things from scratch and reused the same set of canning jars over and over, today’s consumer buys something to use until it’s gone and then recycles it.In 2018, 3.1 million tons of glass containers were recycled. That breaks down to […]