Single stream recycling is the worst. But even eco conscious communities, where everything is supposedly separated, still don’t do a great job.
We should have some federal recycling standards but that will probably never happen.
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It is hard to know what is the best purchase options, since so much depends on local setups. For example, I’ve heard that in our area milk cartons are best for recycle content. But per google search, in other areas plastic milk jugs are better.
Ever heard of the term aspirational recycling? Are You an Aspirational Recycler? Here’s 9 Things You Actually Can’t Recycle | Discover Magazine
I know quite a number of people who are die hard recycling fanatics. Some of them I have caught putting inappropriate material in my recycling. I read someplace that that is one reason China stopped taking American recycling. We didn’t understand the rules sufficiently to keep the materials out of recycling that gum up the works. Thus recycling becomes economically unsustainable.
I certainly recycle, compost, use rags, buy used, avoid beef, etc. But I also don’t get too worked up about it, having been on this path since the original Earth day decades ago. Having worked with the public, in a hospital where recycling was not as obvious as it should have been, I was appalled at the lack of interest or initiative in the general population. I see some of this in my offspring.
They recycle, but sure don’t think about it as much as my generation. A friend works as a school janitor and states the waste is beyond belief. A new plastic water bottle is given to students for the year. Unlabeled, they are left all over, thrown out, creating greater waste problems than might ensue with paper cups.
The bigger issues are systemic, the lack of markets for recycling, the waste in certain industries, the lack of public willingness to follow the recycling rules, etc.
My personal vendetta is toilet paper and the unrecycled content of most of our TP. We should be using bamboo, hemp and 100% post consumer recycled TP. My local Costco has none of these. Toilet Paper and Deforestation: Are We Flushing Forests down the Toilet? (planetcustodian.com)
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I don’t know if you can get it around you, but we use Full Circle for toilet paper and paper towels. We tried a bamboo one, but it was lousy. My green boy tells me bamboo is good for a lot of things, but paper products isn’t really one of them due to what’s needed for production. He went into more detail, but I don’t recalls the specifics, esp since we have Full Circle we can use that is 100% recycled.
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I usually get Full Circle or one of the other recycled brands in my local stores. Ideally I’d prefer to buy in volume which is why I mentioned Costco. I do like the bamboo however, which I can find on occasion. Interesting regarding what is needed for production. This stuff is complicated, and there is nuance to many of the decisions regarding various products.
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Walmart doesn’t carry any recycled paper products either which is frustrating with the amount of volume they do. We’ve axed most Walmart shopping from our life, but every now and then I go in there because they carry a couple of things I can’t get easily elsewhere.
Most of our shopping I do at a locally owned grocery store - esp since they’re willing to carry a lot of recycled and organic foods.
Full Circle paper products I need to get at Tops when we go to NY though. I buy several at once since they’ll last for a long time.
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My H read about these somewhere online last year and ordered some from Amazon. He commented at the time that the recommendation was to get the Swedish towels. We’ve used some, but I should drag them out again. I had hopes he’d use them…
Interesting info. Thanks.
So much varies by location. For us, we can put pizza boxes and shredded paper into the big Compost can (optional part of our trash system).
Today at church our Earth Care group arranged various Earth Day info tables. I learned a few things (example - although cereal boxes etc are ok for recycling in our area, frozen food boxes are not due to plastic coating). The new local flyer (NOT universal info… would vary by community) does not capture everything, but it is helpful. Guidelines Poster: Curbside Recycling - Eco-Cycle
Also there is a handy app we can download with a “Wizard” to advise Recycle vs Compost vs Trash vs Waste Diversion center vs CHarM (Center for Hard to Recycle items).
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I hauled a horde of old athletic shoes to a Nike store today. They grind them up and reuse the material in clothing/shoes and turf fields.
I tried to find a location drop off for soles4souls but was told by one store they hadn’t picked up since the start of the pandemic.
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Here’s a recycle question—my son-in-law just had surgery for a torn tendon (in his hand). I’m helping D and SIL watching baby granddaughter. SIL had a nerve block attached to his arm that he used to block pain. He’s done with it, but no idea where to dispose of it. He called his orthopedic surgeon’s office—no response. Googling suggests taking to a local pharmacy that takes back drugs. Will call local CVS. Other suggestions? The block gizmo has remnants of pain medication.
Our hospital has a bins that looks similar to a mail box. You can drop off any leftover prescription pain medication. I noticed it the last time I was there for tests and brought a bunch when I was in last week.
Maybe phone your local hospital?
Our police department will take prescription narcotics. DH never used the oxycodone prescribed after his surgery, and I was able to fillout a form and hand it in at the police offices.
IF I am remembering correctly, the medication in those nerve blocks tends to be non narcotic. Look for a suffix such as …caine, like lidocane. Bupivicaine is what comes to mind. Calling a pharmacy to see about disposal makes sense. Regardless, I doubt it is a scheduled drug that might be of abuse concern. Not that you know 100% till checking with a pharmacist.
Ah, Facebook does not what kind of things I like… lots of targeted ads.
Has anybody tried this? It won’t raise a lot of money (rates vary between $7 for excellent to 25cents for recycle), but it seems to keep the footwear out of the landfill.
I have a worm bin for composting. I started last fall and it did fine over the winter. I am in coastal NC. The worms are definitely multiplying.
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For toilet paper we use Who Gives A Crap. It’s a subscription (or you can do a one off I believe) and a B corp. Their profits go to building toilets in developing countries and underserved areas. They offer a 100% recycled toilet paper and a bamboo.
Have used cloth napkins and cloth dishrags as well as cloth tea towels for decades now. They definitely are not fancy. I’m not a sponge person. I like to be able to throw the kitchen linens in the wash just like I do the bathroom towels or the bed linens. We do still use paper towels for gross things like cat vomit.
Sometimes I use a shampoo bar from Lush, but I have a brand of shampoo that I like too that is in a bottle. I don’t wash my hair every day so hoping that balances out a little. I do prefer bar soap.
For those of you that use the laundry strips, how well do they work? We have been using Ecos or Ecover liquid laundry detergent since D22 was little because her skin was sensitive to laundry detergents like Tide and she would break out in hives. Wondering if the laundry strips have much of a scent and how they work in a front loader?
@Creeklander, that is so weird to me that your area doesn’t recycle glass. It’s supposed to be one of the easiest to recycle and infinitely so, unlike plastic which degrades with each recycling. Maybe this map of glass recycling companies will help: Interactive Glass Recycling Map — Glass Recycling Coalition
Composting is super easy. Been doing it my whole life. My mama used to go out and “bury the garbage” (aka kitchen scraps) in the garden.
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I just googled the TP source - it looks great. After we finish what we have, I’ll give them a try.
The Earth Breeze laundry sheets don’t set off H’s allergies - most scented regular things do. They say to use a half sheet (break them in half) for a load. With our hard water, I need to use a full sheet or sometimes even 1 1/2 if it’s dirty - and I still treat stains separately. Using a full sheet works as well as All Free did.
The Glass Recycling map didn’t help because what’s semi-around us in PA doesn’t do it anymore. I googled Glass Recycling in PA and found some companies doing it over an hour (or more) away… nothing close. The local trash company (Waste Management) says to throw them in the trash. We’d still rather send them with our son since his area accepts them. If I had a lot of money to start a business, doing glass recycling would be interesting, but I don’t see it working out for us.
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What’s the best place to do a trial purchase of Earth Breeze laundry sheets? I don’t want to do a subscription. Online purchase is OK, but if is stocked in stores I’d prefer that.
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I dumped 3 feather pillows in my compost bin, they are slowly deteriorated, they were a good source of dust and allergies too. But I’m glad we didn’t throw them away.
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I don’t know if you can buy them in stores. If the website has an email address, I’d try asking. I’m not sure if it does or not. I bought a big box (not subscription) and shared them with my kids to get the cost down for all of us. We had already tried a pack that my youngest was gifted, so we knew it would work for us.
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