February 3, 2021
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 […]
January 29, 2021
Containers and packaging make up the bulk of the recyclables your household generates. Between 2000 and 2018, the amounts generated increased from 75.84 million tons to 82.22 million tons. The good news is that the tonnage recycled increased from approximately 38% to 53.8%.There’s still room for improvement. In 2000, 37.86 million tons of packaging and […]
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January 12, 2021
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 […]
December 17, 2020
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 […]
December 6, 2020
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 […]
November 18, 2020
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 […]
November 10, 2020
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 […]
November 3, 2020
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 […]
October 26, 2020
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 […]
October 21, 2020
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 […]