Plastics by the numbers

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A handy #CareToRecycle guide for recycling your bathroom http://bit.ly/1t9BnSg 

Textile recycling

Textile recycling options abound no matter where you live. Textiles are defined by Dictionary.com as “any cloth or goods produced by weaving, knitting or felting.” That is a pretty wide category, so this article we will focus on how to recycle clothing. If you are interested in how to recycle other types of textiles, such as fabric or rags, check out our other articles on 1800Recycling.com. Recycling clothing is a pretty big topic itself. According to the nonprofit Council for Textile Recycling, the average American disposes of 70 pounds of clothing and other textiles every year. That adds up to about 3.8 billion pounds of (sometimes perfectly good) textile waste that is thrown away annually. Even though clothing is pretty easy to reuse or recycle — even if it is stained or damaged — 85% of our textile waste ends up in landfills. In fact, 5% of everything that heads to U.S. landfills and incinerators is textile waste. There is a better way! You can donate your clothing to a thrift store, repurpose it yourself or give it to someone who will recycle it. Almost every community has some way to recycle or reuse clothing and other textiles. How to reuse clothingClothing is very easy to reuse. Thrift stores are always on the lookout for clothing, since many of them sell more clothing than anything else. Even if your town does not have a thrift store, it may have a donation box placed there by a charity or other clothing reuse organization. It is best to wash clothing before you place it in a donation bin, since most charities cannot clean items before they hang them on their racks. But whatever you do, make sure all your textiles are dry before you drop them off. Wet textiles can get musty or moldy, and one piece is enough to spoil everything in a storage bin. If your charity of choice chooses to bale your old clothing and ship it overseas (a common practice), any wet clothes within the bales can breed bacteria, which has been known to cause the bales to spontaneously combust. To ensure your clothing will be reused, you can also sell it yourself through a garage sale or clothing swap — both practices that have become more popular in recent years. To host a clothing swap, gather friends will similar tastes and sizes and ask them to bring clothing and accessories they no longer want. There are lots of articles with expert advice on how to host a clothing swap online. Here is one from Real Simple magazine. How to recycle clothingClothing and other textiles that cannot be reused get recycled in several ways. One is technically a reuse option: Clothing that is unsuitable for the American market gets compressed into giant bales and shipped overseas. Summer clothing goes to hot climates in Africa and South America; winter clothing heads to colder places like the mountainous regions of Asia. Thrift stores and private individuals bale clothing for recycling. Another way to recycle clothing is to cut it into rags, which are used to clean cars and machinery. Check with local thrift stores to see if they make rags (also called industrial wipers); see if a private company near you does it; or ask your mechanic if they cut rags from old textiles. Certain retailers, including trendy H&M and outdoorsy The North Face, will take back clothing and other textiles for recycling. In some cases, they may even give you a discount on future purchases. To see if the company that made your garments accepts its clothing back for recycling, check its website. Curbside clothing recycling programs are becoming more common, says an article in USA Today. Worcester, MA, works with the local Salvation Army chapter to do curbside clothing pick-up. Issaquah, WA, collects it in partnership with its local waste hauler. Many of these programs will also accept accessories like shoes, belts, purses and bags, so if your community has a clothing pick-up program, see if you can send them other items as well. If you look hard enough, you may find someone who will pick clothing and other textiles apart and turn them into new products, but this is rare. It takes specialized machinery to shred clothing, and it must be cleaned if it is intended for further human use, meaning the ways to use that textile “fluff” are limited. For more on how clothing and other textiles get recycled, check out this handy infographic from the Council for Textile Recycling. How to repurpose clothingUpcycling clothing into new designs is a popular trend right now. Hundreds of designers cut up clothing like old sweaters, jackets, skirts and other items; combine them with textiles like lace and yarn; and turn them into new clothing, accessories or even household items. For ideas on how to upcycle your clothing into uniquely cool designs, check out websites like All Free Sewing or one of my personal favorites, New Dress a Day. If you just want to purchase upcycled clothing, check out Etsy, the popular marketplace for artisans. My Oly Girl’s beautiful skirt made from old sweaters and Curious Orange Cat’s tunic dress made from button-down shirts and vintage lace are just a couple examples of the beautiful designs that await you.

                    About the author Sophia Bennett is a freelance writer based in Eugene, OR. Her work has been featured in more than a dozen magazines, newspapers and blogs. She is a dedicated home recycler, an avid thrift store shopper and a huge compost nerd. Sophia's other professional experience include six years with the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Lane County, an internationally recognized leader in the field of nonprofit waste-based business development, and a year as an economic development and recycling coordinator in the U.K. She's volunteered with the Oregon State University Extension Service Compost Specialist program and Willamette Farm and Food Coalition. In her spare time she enjoys cooking, reading, crafts, gardening and spending time with her husband and twin daughters.

The List: 6 Ways I’ve Convinced My Kids to Live with Less

Written by Jessica Harlan

Living with less stuff has its benefits.

This was the first year in awhile when I didn’t feel totally overwhelmed with the influx of new stuff after the holidays. I took my own advice and we did a big purge of my daughters’ bedroom and playroom, clearing out toys, stuffed animals, and other stuff they no longer played with.

It feels so good to look at those rooms and not see overwhelming heaps of toys that I’ve decided that this year, I’m going to try to instill a more minimalist attitude in my children, and help them to appreciate living with fewer toys, clothing, and other consumer goods. It’s better for the environment since purchasing and discarding fewer things reduces the demand for raw materials that ultimately end up in a landfill. Even better, a minimalist lifestyle helps kids adopt many beneficial and healthy attitudes, including living within one’s means and not needing to buy things to be happy.

These are some of the first steps I’ve taken.

1. No more dollar-aisle bribes. It used to be that a day running shopping errands inevitably meant that my kids would beg for (and, with good behavior, receive) a cheap toy from the dollar aisle. It would make them happy for an hour or two, then it would break or I’d find it gathering dust under the bed the next time I’d vacuum. Sure, they’re only a buck or two, but their cost goes far beyond this in the raw materials and energy used to manufacture and transport it.

2. Regular purges. I aim to spend an hour or two each month sorting through and organizing toys, clothing, and art supplies, weeding out what’s broken, outgrown, and out of favor. These items will be recycled or donated.

3. Letting them earn some cash. I recently joined a Facebook group of local moms who use the group to buy and sell kids’ stuff. I used it to sell some of my kids’ old toys that were still in good shape, and I’ve given them the money. Although their first instinct was to run to the dollar store with their earnings, I’m taking the opportunity to teach them about saving for bigger things… my eldest has even opened a bank account to save money for flying lessons when she’s old enough!

4. More activities. I’ve always admired the idea of giving kids experiences rather than gifts, but I’ve also worried that mine, who are used to mounds of presents under the tree, would be disappointed. This year, however, we tested these waters in a big way by giving them tickets to see the live tour of their favorite television show, Wild Kratts. They were thrilled with the gift and did not notice at all that there were only a few other small gifts from Santa. Another family gift was membership to our local state parks, with the promise that this year we’ll do more camping, hiking, and water activities. Kids need to be taught to appreciate the experience and the memory, rather than stuff, and I’m looking forward to this challenge.

5. Regular trips to the library. When I was growing up, our visits to the library were the highlight of my week. We didn’t have mega bookstores with coffee and toys, so if I wanted to read the latest Nancy Drew, I’d borrow a copy from the library rather than buy it. I’m distressed to realize that my eldest daughter hasn’t inherited my love for the library; she’d much rather buy a book than borrow one. But she’s also a voracious reader, and we’d go broke keeping up with her habit if we bought every book she wanted to read.

6. Pare down wardrobes. My kids share a room, and a dresser and closet. This means there’s not a lot of room for clothes. But really, each kid has a few favorite things she likes to wear regularly, and those outfits in the bottom of the drawer rarely see the light of day… partly because if the drawer is chock-full, it’s hard to see what’s under the first few layers. I plan to weed through their wardrobes regularly, donating what’s unworn and outgrown, and keep only a few weeks’ worth of outfits, pajamas, and undies. And in the future, I’ll invest in just enough to keep their drawers and closet manageable, and so they’ll have enough outfits to last until I do the laundry.

Junk Mail Opt Out

Tired of Junk Mail?  Here are ways to stop receiving it. Junk Mail Opt Out
LINKS: EPA OPT-OUT INFORMATION DIRECT MARKETING ASSOCIATION ANSWERS USA CATALOG CHOICE CONSUMERIST FDIC OPT-OUT CREDIT CARD PRE-SCREEN CBS NEWS VIDEO YELLOW PAGES OPT-OUT For more information contact Tom Rhodes tom.rhodes@ncdenr.gov (919) 707-8140	Let's Get Started Getting Rid of Junk Mail Unsolicited or unwanted mail, often called "junk mail"can be a nuisance for you, while also using up valuable natural resources and contributing to pollution and litter problems.  Although much of the junk mail is accepted in most local recycling programs, junk mail that is not recycled depletes precious landfill space.  Now you can take control of your mailbox and help to protect our environment. How Did I Get on These Mailing Lists? Every time you provide your name and address to receive a product or service, there's a good chance you are being added to one or more mailing lists.  When you buy a car, have a baby, make a purchase from a catalog, give money to a charity or fill out a product registration card, your name and address will likely be entered into a computer database and sold to bulk mailing companies. How Do I Get Off These Lists? On the left side of this page are links to information about how you can stop a significant amount of junk mail from being mailed to you.
Web Content Display N.C. Division of Environmental Assistance and Customer Service • Mailing Address: 1639 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-1639 • Physical Address: 217 W. Jones Street, Raleigh, NC 27603 • Toll Free: (877) 623-6748

How to Create Furniture From Rotting Trash

      |  Martin Denholm, Editor-in-Chief

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You know the phrase, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”?
Well, Bolivia has taken it to heart.
Submerged in an endless, stinking mass of garbage, the country has decided to get creative with it.
Each day, the capital city of La Paz – home to one million residents – churns out 500 tons of trash. All that solid waste gets dumped in landfills, where it sits and rots.
Not only is that terrible for the environment, it’s also wasting money.
Ruben Ledezma, Director of environmental company, Ema Verde, says, “The main part of this – 85% – is recyclable. In other words, we’re burying money – and furthermore, we’re paying to do it!”
Faced with that backwards logic, La Paz has embarked on an ambitious new recycling program.
It wants to be a zero-waste city by 2040. No mean feat, considering it’s a huge capital city.
But can it succeed?

From Useless Trash to Productive “Plastiwood”

Five years ago, La Paz decided to get serious about it waste problem.
Rather than just toss everything in the trash, it enlisted 250 public and private institutions to help separate recyclable material, so it can be turned into something useful.
In this case… furniture.
Here’s how it works…
Used plastic, paper, and cardboard is cleaned, crushed, ground up, and then heated in molds.
What emerges is a new product called “plastiwood.”
As the name suggests, it’s a combination of plastic and wood, which is being used to make school furniture like chairs and tables.

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So aside from the environmental and financial benefits, it’s also educational, as children get to see direct, tangible results from their recycling efforts.
And far from being difficult or a hassle, the project is proving a hit with La Paz residents, too. They say more companies in the city should embrace this green, productive initiative, as La Paz bids to become an unprecedented zero-waste city.
Cheers,
Martin Denholm

Martin Denholm boasts a wealth of experience in the financial publishing industry. Over the past 15 years, he’s worked as an investment analyst, senior correspondent, and managing editor for many stock and options newsletters, e-letters and websites, covering a wide range of sectors, industries, and companies.

Unpaper Towels

 

By Chrystal Johnson

Pulp Free: Soak Up Kitchen Waste For Good With Unpaper Towels

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s common knowledge that the use of paper plates and plastic silverware is wasteful. Real plates and silverware are a staple in most kitchens. But what about other disposable products like paper towels and napkins?
According to the Energy Co-op, 13 billion pounds (6.5 million tons) of paper towels are used each year. That equals out to more than 45 pounds of paper towels per person, each year. That’s a lot of unnecessary waste.
There are many reasons to choose reusable products in the kitchen, besides simply reducing waste that ends up in our landfills. It’s time too break up with paper in the kitchen.

Save the Trees

Paper towel roll. Image courtesy of Maggie Osterberg

To make one ton of paper towels, 17 trees are cut down and 20,000 gallons of water are consumed, according to data collected by People Towels. That means more than 110.5 million trees are cut down, and 130 billion gallons of water is used, in the production of paper towels every year. That staggering number should be enough to quiet the naysayers that argue reusable paper towels and napkins increase water use through extra laundry.

Save the Environment

Most paper towels have that nice, bright white color thanks to chlorine bleach, which is not good for the environment. During the bleaching process, chemical reactions occur that produce dioxins, organochlorines and many other toxic chemicals. Those toxins have to go somewhere when production is complete. Unfortunately that means they’re released with wastewater into our rivers and streams, or into “containment” ponds that don’t always do the best job at containing the toxins.

Save the People

In the end, the dioxins released into our water system end up in our bodies. According to the World Health Organization, more than 90% of human exposure to dioxins is through our food, mostly meat, dairy products, fish and shellfish because dioxins are stored in the fatty tissue of animals. This exposure is a huge concern as dioxins can cause reproductive and developmental problems, damage the immune system, interfere with hormones and also cause cancer.
Fortunately there is a better way. Reusable paper towels and napkins are readily available on the market, and they’re very convenient too. It’s even easy to make your own! Check out this tutorial for ideas on how to make your own ‘unpaper’ towels from things you already have around the house.
If you’re not the DIY type, you can find many great brands of ‘unpaper’ towels and cloth napkins, like those from Gina’s Soft Cloth Shop. This brand is a great choice because they are made from high quality GOTS Certified Organic Cotton, and they’re serged around the edges for a clean finish.

Unpaper towels by Gina’s Soft Cloth Shop

If you haven’t already, put switching from disposable paper towels and napkins to reusable unpaper towels on your Green Resolutions list for this year.