RECYCLING RESOURCES

Stop! before pitching an old treasure, or even an old pair of sneakers, into the waste stream, check to see where it can be reused or recycled by somebody else. Here's a growing guide to internet and community resources to help you get started. If you know of other resources, please drop us a line.

The Internet Consumer Recycling Guide

(http://www.obviously.com/recycle/) is a starting point for consumers in the U.S.A. and Canada searching the net for recycling information.

• The World's Shortest Comprehensive Recycling Guide: What and What Not to Recycle
• Guide To Recycling Common Materials: Curbside and Other Commonly Recycled Materials
• Beyond the Curbside: Where to Drop-Off or "Pack and Ship" Your Materials
• Reducing Unwanted Mail: Easy Ways to Reduce Waste and Avoid Recycling

Creative Uses for Everyday Items

• 80 creative uses for old newspapers.

Appliances, Furniture, Dishes and Rugs

If they are in good shape, contact women's shelters of groups providing transitional housing or helping people set up their first home. Alternatively, check with local churches or the city's or county's recycling office to see whether they know where your donation can be used.

Athletic Shoes

Drop off old athletic shoes (any brand) at sporting goods stores participating in Nike's Reuse-a-Shoe program, or look for neighborhood collections sponsored by the National Recycling Coalition (NRC) and their community member affiliates. On average, Nike recycles between one and two million pairs of athletic shoes each year. The shoes are taken apart and ground into small pieces which are used for several purposes: weight-room flooring and surfaces for outdoor playing fields, basketball and tennis courts and playgrounds in communities that cannot afford to build them. http://www.nikebiz.com. Call Nike at 503-671-6453.

Bicycles

Donate your old bike to a regional Yellow Bike program. Many local advocacy groups in towns both large and small have started a Yellow Bike program, refurbishing workable thrown-away bikes that are then painted bright yellow both to identify them and to prevent theft. The bikes are left in downtown areas to be used by any citizen for downtown errands or transportation. Citizens are asked to return the bikes to a public bike rack or other public place after they ride them, so other citizens can use them. Many programs also sponsor a kid's bike program, where bikes are reconditioned for children, or kids learn bike mechanics and fix up their own. Just search for "yellow bike project" on the web, or see if your community is listed on the International Bicycle Fund's Community Bicycle Programs page (http://www.ibike.org/encouragement/freebike.htm).

Want another way to make a local impact? Transportation Alternatives, has a great publication online: Tools for Life:  A Start-Up Guide for Youth Recycling & Bicycling Programs. If your community doesn't have a local program for recycled bikes, and you want to give it a go, take a look at this publication. It covers everything from finding funding to safety, to PR. Don't miss the resource directory - you might find that you already have a local program in place.

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Books and Magazines

Adopt A Library keeps books and magazines out of landfills by encouraging people to donate used books and library equipment to schools and libraries around the world. It does not ask for, or accept, donations. All donations go directly to libraries and schools, or organizations that aid them. To learn more, visit Adopt A Library. http://www.AdoptALibrary.org

BookEnds collects used children's books (infant - 18 years old) and distributes them to schools, youth centers, homeless shelters, juvenile detention faciilities and literacy programs in California. If there is no further need for more books in your community, you can mail them to BookEnds; 6520 Platt Avenue #331; West Hills, CA 91307 (www.bookends.org).

Books are special. If they weren't, we wouldn't feel so guilty about tossing them. Solution time is nigh. The group called "Book Crossing" is dedicated to the idea that books, once read, should be set free. If you join their group, you can document the release of your book and track it. It is registered by a number, and can be followed from owner to owner. Also, reviews and recommendations are posted all at no charge. Freed books can be left in waiting rooms, park benches, laundromats, in your work break room - anywhere you choose. Or, if you really don't care to track them, just release them into the wild independently. For more  information, go to http://www.bookcrossing.com.

New York City Books - The Bureau of Waste Prevention, Reuse and Recycling, NYC Department of Sanitation, provides a list of local organizations and national organizations based in New York City that accept book donations at: http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycwasteless

Selling books online. The popular Portland bookstore Powell's has come up with a super, eco-friendly system for selling your used books online. All you do is enter the book's ISBN numbers on the store's website, mail the books in, and they'll send you virtual store credit you can use on other books. It's like reverse e-commerce--and it helps keep tons of books out of the earth's landfills. So, go look through your dustiest bookshelves, then visit: powells.com.

Take Back the Bulbs

Sometimes, recycling isn't just a good idea... it's the law.

Seven states - California, Maine, Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Ohio and Indiana - now prohibit disposing of the corkscrew-shaped compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFL) with regular household waste. Those twirly little energy-savers contain a tiny amount of mercury, and while it poses little danger in the home even if the bulb breaks, it still doesn?t belong in the landfill.

One place to take your dead bulbs is home décor giant IKEA, whose U.S. locations all accept discarded CFLs for recycling and have done so since 2001. Find a store near you at www.ikea.com.

More information about CFL recycling is available at www.lamprecycle.org, which can help you set up a lamp-recycling program at your business; http://earth911.org, which can help you find a recycling center near you; and www.lightbulbrecycling.com/regulations.html, which provides state-by-state links to recycling regulations and centers near you.

Cell Phones

Several organizations recycle old cell phones to help women at risk of abuse. They either reprogram the phones with 9-1-1 to call for immediate help in the event of a threat, or refurbish and sell them. Proceeds earned help the fight against domestic violence. Contact: Phones 4 Charity (http://www.phones4charity.org) or Call to Protect (http://www.wirelessfoundation.org).

Recycling Clothing

Prom Dress Donations - In an effort to keep Cinderellas away from the hearth during their high school proms, an increasing number of volunteer organizations in cities throughout the country collect new and almost-new formal dresses and accessories and provide them--free of charge--to high school students who are unable to buy their own ensembles. Students receive individual assistance when they visit "boutiques" to select dream dresses. Chicago's Glass Slipper Project (which, in just five years, has helped 4,000 young women put their best foot forward) has a helpful website (http://www.glassslipperproject.org) explaining what it does. It also provides links to 17 established similar projects in other cities and mentions over two dozen more which were being formed.

Women's Business Clothing - Dress for Success is a group providing a business suit or other clothing appropriate for the workplace to women needing outfit for job interviews and, after they get the job, a second suit to wear to work. They also provide clients support to help them develop their careers. There are 66 chapters in the U.S. and 78 in other countries. To find the chapter nearest you, contact http://www.dressforsuccess.org. Clothing in size 14 and up is especially welcome.

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Compact Disks

Music, movies, computer games, family photos - CDs and DVDs hold everything now, but are obviously not biodegradable once they are no longer useful. However, their materials can be recycled into everything from electrical cable insulation to auto parts. Although most recyclers accept only huge shipments from software companies, two businesses accept relatively small batches for a nominal fee: GreenDisk (www.greendisk.com) and Ecodisk (www.ecodisk.com).

Computers & Electronics

EPA "Plug-in To eCycling" gives extensive list of web links for computer and digital equipment recycling. Nearly every peripheral requires batteries, a hazardous waste unless you know what to do with them. What about your old cel phone? Can someone else find a use for your old monitor, computer or printer? Find out here. http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/hazwaste/recycle/ecycling/index.htm

Recycling Printers, Scanners, Projectors (and More)

Your printer (or other computer-related equipment) gives up the ghost and, after the dismay subsides, you wonder what to do with it. The good news is that it doesn't have to land in the waste stream as-is. The bad news is that you need to pay $10 (or more) to provide it with a constructive afterlife.

Hewlett-Packard (http://www.hp.com/recycle) will accept any HP or non-HP brand of printers, scanners, fax machines, personal computers, desktop servers, monitors, handheld devices, cables, mice, and keyboards using a standard form available on its website. Larger equipment is accepted using a custom-order process. You pack the equipment and order the recycling service on the website. HP will arrange to have the equipment picked up at your home or office. The cost is $13-$34 per item. Custom price quotes are also available.

When received, the equipment is evaluated; functioning products are donated to charitable organizations that accept them. The remainder is recycled to recovered materials for reuse in new products.

Epson (http://www.epson.com/recycle) only accepts Epson products: printers, scanners, projectors, digital cameras, laptops, and projectors. The fee for this service is $10 per item. You pack the item and mail it to them, using their form, using UPS ground. Just fill out a form on their website and they will send a pre-paid shipping label through the mail and a $5 coupon per item returned for a purchase at the Epson store.

When received, products are separated into components and sent to mills for reuse. If you use equipment by other manufacturers, search the companies' websites for their recycling policy, if you do not send it to HP.

Eyeglasses

The Lions Club accepts used but useable eyeglasses either by mail or at conveniently located drop-off centers — check the website for one near you. Give the Gift of Sight rounds up eyewear donations at local LensCrafters, Pearle Vision, Sears Optical, Target Optical or Sunglass Hut stores for distribution around the world. Many eye doctors also collect old specs, too, so ask during your next exam.

Earth 911

Do you know what recycling resources are available in your community? Now there's an easy answer at Earth 911 (http://www.earth911.org) which lists (among other things) household hazardous waste facilities throughout the country. All you have to do is type in your zip code on their website for a list of local activities and contacts.

Junk Mail - Personal and Business

Although 50% of all U.S. mail is discarded, unopened, 60 million trees and 28 billion gallons of water were used to produce U.S. mail for just one year. And habitat loss is a major cause for plant and animal extinction. Here are practical steps to reduce both personal and business junk mail http://www.globalstewards.org/junkmail.htm which will save trees and preserve our forests.

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Materials exchange programs

Work with your regional materials exchange program to help reduce your company's solid waste, and to obtain raw materials for free. The EPA hosts an online site that lists regional sites: http://www.epa.gov/jtr/comm/exchstat.htm. A couple to check out: NY Wa$teMatch, New York City - http://www.wastematch.org; and Hudson Valley Materials Exchange - http://www.hvmaterialsexchange.com/.

The Freecycle Network - Got a couch you don't need any more? Need an end-table, a planter, or a bicycle wheel? Check out The Freecycle Network (http://www.freecycle.org) is a non-profit inspired network of regional email listservs where people can post items they want to get rid of and find items they need. The only catch: everything must be free. If you don't have one in your area, why not start one? The Freecycle network is organized by "Downtown Don't Waste It," a nonprofit recycling organization in Tucson, Arizona, where the first Freecycle listserv was started in spring, 2003.

Throwplace (http://www.throwplace.com) - "Take What You Need and Throw What you Don't" is the theme of this site where surplus or outdated inventory and possessions can be listed for donation to charities and nonprofits or to businesses and individuals, for reuse, recycling and refurbishing. Everything listed is for give-away, not for sale.

Donations are listed in the site's three sections: (1) Charity, where only charities and nonprofits registered with the site can make requests for listings and are obliged to return receipts to donors; (2) Business, where individuals and businesses can "take" or "throw" donated items for reuse and recycling, such as computer equipment, cell phones, furniture and appliances; and (3) Up-For-Grabs, a category to list or find miscellaneous items such as bottle caps, corks, magazines, egg crates and unusual items for art projects.

Media Swaps (Books, CDs, DVDs, Video Games and Gift Cards)

First there was the lending library, then there was the book club, now there is the online book swap. Several sites bring book and music lovers together to exchange items for almost no cash. It started with BookCrossing.com, the site that invented what the Concise Oxford Dictionary defines as "the practice of leaving a book in a public place to be picked up and read by others, who then do likewise." Members are alerted by email of the latest "releases," which are approaching 4 million, according to the site. At paperbackswap.com, members list books - hardbacks are OK, too - they'd like to swap. When other members request a book, the lister receives an email from Paperback Swap. It's a simple matter to print out the clever wrapper with the requester's address, add postage of about $2 per book and mail it. Once the requester receives the book, the sender gets a credit that entitles you to order a book to come to your house.

Sister-site swapacd.com works the same way for music CDs, and bookmooch.com allows book-swapping internationally. Movies and video games as well as music CDs are available for trade on barterbee.com, another free except for postage site. Zunafish.com charges $1 per trade plus shipping to swap books, CDs, DVDs and video games. And for the ultimate swap, there's Swapagift.com, where you can turn unwanted gift cards.

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Wedding and Bridesmaids' Dresses

Nearly New Bridal (http://www.nearlynewbridal.com) contains a large collection of ads by people who want to both buy and sell wedding dresses, bridesmaids' dresses, tuxedos and flowergirls' dresses.

Donate used wedding dresses to www.makingmemories.org which uses the money raised to fulfill wishes of breast cancer patients throughout the country.

"Wrap Art"

Colorado artist John Boak's website has a stunning section http://www.boakart.com/wrap/WrapArt.html : "How to wrap presents creatively, using fragments of paper and miscellaneous items from around your house." Each of six sections has beautiful photographs and offers ingenious ideas for wrapping presents with reused or scrap materials.

Yogurt Cups

If you live in the northeastern United States, you can join TerraCycle's Yogurt Brigade to recycle No. 5 yogurt containers - and raise money for your favorite charity at the same time.

TerraCycle has partnered with organic food maker Stonyfield Farm in a pilot program to collect used yogurt containers. The pilot Yogurt Brigade includes schools, community groups and others collecting 6-ounce and 32-ounce yogurt containers not normally included in local recycling programs. For every container collected, Stonyfield will donate 2 cents or 5 cents, depending on size, to a charitable organization or school of the collector's choice. There are no signup fees for the Yogurt Brigade, but you must provide a non-residential address to receive the four pre-paid collection boxes.

Once the boxes are filled with 400 small or 50 large yogurt cups, they go back to TerraCycle via UPS. TerraCycle will then transform them into planting pots and sell them to large retailers to use in place of the millions of black plastic planting pots discarded by consumers every year.

This program is available only in Connecticut, Washington DC, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont and West Virginia.

Get more information on the Yogurt Brigade and check out TerraCycle's other Brigades for recycling hard-to-discard items, including drink pouches and energy-bar wrappers, at www.terracycle.net. For questions, send an email to info@terracycle.net or call 609-393-4252 ext. 36.

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