ThinkGreenResources.com
Recycling
Recyling is a reasonably simple thing that we can all do to impact our world in a positive manner. I don't know about you but when I take my trash out and look down the street and see all of the trash that every home in my neighborhood puts out, then I think about how many cities around the world do the same it's staggering.
So take my home for example my wife and I used to have one to two, thirty gallon plastic bags of garbage per week. We now recycle glass, plastic, paper and cardboard and for the most part we average only one thirty gallon bag of garbage for every three weeks. I know that households that have more members will create more garbage but if we could all reduce our trash by one third we wouldn't over burden the earth with as much waste.
Recycling doesn't stop with the daily garbage we produce. We need to remember that things like electronics may never breakdown in a land fill and if they do they can contain chemicals that can poision us as well as our environment when they are exposed to deterioration. There are more and more companies that offer us opportunites to donate our old out dated electronics to someone who could put them to use or recycle them. Here are a few of the websites that we can use to find a local company to help us out:
http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/hazwaste/recycle/ecycling/donate.htm
http://www.electronicsrecycling.org/index.aspx
We can also help to reduce our garbage output by shopping smart. When you shop try to buy items that contain less packaging, by doing this you can eliminate waste upfront by having less trash to deal with after you use the product. For example if you buy bottled water think about buying a filter for your water tap or when shopping for a refrigerator look for one that has a built in water filter. You can fill up a reuseable container and eliminate all the water bottles that wind up in our land fills. Buy rechargeable batteries and think about the life expectancy of the itmes you purchase and look for energy saving appliances.
The amount of junk mail that I get on a weekly basis makes up 25% of the paper that I recycle. There are ways to elimate a lot of your junk mail including those annoying credit card offers:
http://www.dmaconsumers.orghttp://www.optoutprescreen.com
By reducing the amount of trash we put in our landfills we are helping to minimize the footprint we leave behind for future generations. If you have questions or ideas on other recycling topics please stop by our forum and post a question or an idea. The more we work together the easier it becomes for all of us to get involved!