Experts believe that around 70% of trash in America can be recycled in some way. Only 30% of trash can be recycled, according to experts. A lot of the refuse that ends up in landfills is unneeded. It can take many years for items to fully decompose in landfills, which creates space problems and other hazards like harmful gases entering the atmosphere or ground. These items should not be thrown away. It is possible to recycle glass, paper, and plastic. Recycling helps conserve natural resources like energy and trees. These resources can be used to make recyclable materials. Repurposing and composting are both good for the environment and people.
Traditional Methods Of Recycling
Recycling is done in a standard way. This includes separating items like plastic, glass and metal and placing them in containers for recycling. These items are collected by waste collection companies to be taken to a facility that can recycle them into new products.
Paper
Reusing paper products can have a direct and positive impact on the environment.
- Information about paper recycling: Sunday newspapers are made from pulp from approximately 500,000 trees.
- How many times can you recycle paper? You can mix used paper with water to make it into a pulp, before making it into a recycled product.
- Paper Recycling Questions: According to the Environmental Protection Agency, paper accounts for about half of all American recycled products.
- Products made from mixed paper: This includes unopened mail, food boxes and shoeboxes. These items can be used as paper backings for shingles or new paper towel tubes.
- Recovering and recycling paper saves energy: Making paper products from recycled paper uses less energy than making paper from new wood pulp.
Plastic
Plastic recycling is confusing for many consumers. Plastic products are marked with numbers that indicate what type of plastic they are made from and how they can be recycled. These codes help to make it easier to sort at recycling facilities. They also ensure that different types of plastic are properly melted down for future use. Water bottles, milk jugs and detergent bottles are the most commonly recycled plastic items.
- Reduce, reuse, and recycle plastic bags and wraps
- Plastics Recycling: Opportunities and Challenges: Plastic is durable and inexpensive, making it an attractive material for many purposes. Plastic recycling reduces environmental impact and helps to reduce landfill accumulation.
- Recycled plastics in food packaging: There are concerns about using recycled plastics to make new products that will come into contact with food.
- Recycling Plastic: Limitations and Complications (PDF): It is much more difficult to recycle plastic than paper, metals, or glass due to the variety of plastics available.
- Why can’t all plastics be recycled? It is not possible to recycle all plastics because there are no markets or too far away.
- Avoiding plastic beats recycling: While many plastic products can be recycled, there are still some plastic products that consumers should avoid.
Glass
Glass can also be recycled. The rules of the local recycling facility will determine the process and acceptability of glass. Most recycling facilities accept glass bottles, baby food containers, and certain types of colored glass. Glass is a different type of recyclable material than other materials in that it can be recycled repeatedly without losing clarity or quality. The entire process of recycling glass takes less than one month if you have the right equipment.
- Glass Container Recycling Loop: This involves collecting and sorting items by material type, transporting them into a glass processing facility, sorting by color, then selling the glass to container manufacturers companies. Finally, making new items from the material.
- How to recycle glass: It is easy to recycle glass, even broken glass.
- Glass Facts: Glass that has been left in a landfill for more than 1,000,000 years will eventually decompose completely.
- How glass is recycled: Glass items are crushed and melted before being molded into new products.
- Recycling glass: How it helps the environment: There are many new products made from recycled glasses, including drinking glasses and glass fiber.
Get Creative With Recycling
While it is common to think of recyclable items like paper, plastic, and glass when talking about recycling, there are many other options. People can give their old clothes away to make room for newer clothing. You can give items away to people who are able to use them.
Instead of throwing away a mattress, you could donate it to someone who cannot afford a new one. Reusing materials in art projects can be a creative way to make artwork that is both environmentally-friendly and affordable for all ages.
Clothes
Clothing tends to be outgrown by children before it is too late. Families can give the clothing away to help those less fortunate. The fabrics in clothes can be reused many times if they are worn out or no longer in fashion. You can use old sweaters to make a blanket or pillow.
- Textile Recycling: A significant amount of textile waste ends up in landfills as a result of the clothing that was discarded.
- How not to recycle old clothes can harm the environment: Synthetic textiles are slower to decompose than organic textiles.
- What can you do with clothing that is not suitable for donation? You can recycle clothing that is not suitable for use in clothing recycling bins.
- How does recycling your shoes and clothes help the earth? Reusing textiles reduces the need for fuel to make new cloth.
- How to Sell, Donate, or Recycle Old Clothes. There are many options for repurposing clothes, including donating, selling, and turning them into other items.
Freecycling
You can save money by freecycling and reduce your environmental impact. Giving away unwanted items to enable others to continue using them is freecycling. Freecycling is a way for people to donate items to other people. These forums can help you save money, reduce clutter, and keep items from going to waste.
- What if you have a empty wallet? You don’t need to spend any money with Freecycle.org. Freecycling is a cost-effective way to get rid of unwanted items without having them thrown away.
- Freecycling has a viral effect on community spirit and generosity: Many people who participate in freecycling feel fulfilled knowing they are helping others while minimizing their environmental impact.
- Five Simple Tips that Make a BIG Difference (PDF). After cleaning out a house, it is possible to get rid of unwanted items by freecycling.
- How freecycling works: Freecycling programs are usually managed by local groups.
Create Art
Recycled materials are a popular medium for creating art. Many schools offer programs that collect recyclable materials to students for their art projects. Schools save money by using this method to reduce waste in landfills. Schools often collect empty cans, egg cartons and paper towels, as well as newspapers, empty cans and plastic containers.
- 14 Recycled Material Animal Art Projects: Children can make animals from recycled materials like old CDs and toilet paper rolls.
- How to Remove Bottle Labels For Crafts: It is simple to remove bottle labels for repurposed glass bottles using hot water, a knife and rubbing alcohol.
- Recycled art: Students can make mobiles, sculptures, jewelry and other items from egg cartons, food cans, empty soda cans and other containers.
- Trash for Teaching: Reusing Industrial Materials for School Art Projects. The Trash for Teaching organisation collects and distributes recycled materials to schools for students.
Composting
Compiling natural waste products is the process of allowing them to decompose in a pile or container. The compost is then used to improve soil quality in gardens. Not only does composting improve soil quality, but it also reduces the amount of garbage that ends up in landfills. Natural compost can be used in soil to reduce the need for chemical soil improvers that can cause environmental damage.
- Tip Sheet for Composting: Composting is the process of collecting grass clippings, coffee grounds and vegetable scraps in order to make compost.
- Make Your Wastes into Soil: Composting refers to the process of reducing organic materials, such as scraps from the kitchen.
- How to compost: Mixing brown and green materials together with water and air to create rich compost is what you do.
- Composting and food scraps: Eggs, coffee grounds, raw or cooked vegetable and vegetable scraps are all good options for composting.
- Backyard composting: You can simply put food scraps or grass clippings in a pile and have a compost pile.
Worm composting
Worm composting works in a similar way to regular composting, but it involves worms. Vermicompost is a product that worms produce from the food waste they consume.
Vermicompost is more efficient than regular compost and can be applied in the same way in gardens.
- Worm composting: The decomposition process is generally faster when worms are used.
- The Simple Guide to Vermiculture (PDF). Plastic storage bins are great for worm composting. These bins can be easily stored in your garage or basement.
- Food composting made easy (PDF): Worm soil is rich in nutrients that can improve the quality of your garden soil for better plant growth.
- Overview of Vermicomposting. Worms require a moist and cool environment in order to thrive in a vermicomposting container.
- Kitchen Waste Composting with Worms (PDF). Worms only need a container sturdy enough to hold their food waste, bedding, and a kitchen scrap to start making rich compost for their garden.
More Resources
Experts believe that around 70% of trash in America can be recycled in some way. Only 30% of trash can be recycled, according to experts. A lot of the refuse that ends up in landfills is unneeded. It can take many years for items to fully decompose in landfills, which creates space problems and other hazards like harmful gases entering the atmosphere or ground. These items should not be thrown away. It is possible to recycle glass, paper, and plastic. Recycling helps conserve natural resources like energy and trees. These resources can be used to make recyclable materials. Repurposing and composting are both good for the environment and people.
Traditional Methods Of Recycling
Recycling is done in a standard way. This includes separating items like plastic, glass and metal and placing them in containers for recycling. These items are collected by waste collection companies to be taken to a facility that can recycle them into new products.
Paper
Reusing paper products can have a direct and positive impact on the environment.
- Information about paper recycling: Sunday newspapers are made from pulp from approximately 500,000 trees.
- How many times can you recycle paper? You can mix used paper with water to make it into a pulp, before making it into a recycled product.
- Paper Recycling Questions: According to the Environmental Protection Agency, paper accounts for about half of all American recycled products.
- Mixed Paper Products: This includes unwelcome mail, food boxes and shoeboxes.
These items can be used as paper backings for shingles or new paper towel tubes.
Plastic
Plastic recycling is confusing for many consumers. Plastic products are marked with numbers that indicate what type of plastic they are made from and how they can be recycled. These codes help to make it easier to sort at recycling facilities. They also ensure that different types of plastic are properly melted down for future use. Water bottles, milk jugs and detergent bottles are the most commonly recycled plastic items.
- Reduce, reuse, and recycle plastic bags and wraps
- Plastics Recycling: Opportunities and Challenges: Plastic is durable and inexpensive, making it an attractive material for many purposes. Plastic recycling reduces environmental impact and helps to reduce landfill accumulation.
- Recycled plastics in food packaging: There are concerns about using recycled plastics to make new products that will come into contact with food.
- Recycling Plastic: Limitations and Complications (PDF): It is much more difficult to recycle plastic than paper, metals, or glass due to the variety of plastics available.
- Why can’t all plastics be recycled? It is not possible to recycle all plastics because there are no markets or too far away.
- Avoiding plastic beats recycling: While many plastics are recyclable, there is a greater environmental impact for consumers if they choose to avoid plastic products.
Glass
Glass can also be recycled. The rules of the local recycling facility will determine the process and acceptability of glass. Most recycling facilities accept glass bottles, baby food containers, and certain types of colored glass. Glass is a different type of recyclable material than other materials in that it can be recycled repeatedly without losing clarity or quality. The entire process of recycling glass takes less than one month if you have the right equipment.
- Glass Container Recycling Loop: This involves collecting and sorting items by material type, transporting them into a glass processing facility, sorting them by color, and selling the glass to container manufacturers companies.
- How to recycle glass: It is easy to recycle glass, even broken glass.
Get Creative With Recycling
While it is common to think of recyclable items like paper, plastic, and glass when talking about recycling, there are many other options. People can give their old clothes away to make room for newer clothing. Freecycling is the act of giving away items to people who are able to use them. Instead of throwing out a mattress, you could donate it to someone who cannot afford a new one. Reusing materials in art projects can be a creative way to make artwork that is both environmentally-friendly and affordable for all ages.
Clothes
Clothing tends to be outgrown by children before it is too late. Families can give the clothing away to help those less fortunate. The fabrics in clothes can be reused many times if they are worn out or no longer in fashion. You can use old sweaters to make a blanket or pillow.
- Textile Recycling: A significant amount of textile waste ends up in landfills as a result of the clothing that was discarded.
- How not to recycle old clothes can harm the environment: Synthetic textiles are slower to decompose than organic textiles.
- What can you do with clothing that is not suitable for donation? You can recycle clothing that is not suitable for use in clothing recycling bins.
- How does recycling your shoes and clothes help the earth? Reusing textiles reduces the need for fuel to make new cloth.
- How to Sell, Donate, or Recycle Old Clothes. There are many options for repurposing clothes, including donating, selling, and turning them into other items.
Freecycling
You can save money by freecycling and reduce your environmental impact. Giving away unwanted items to enable others to continue using them is freecycling. Freecycling is a way for members to donate items to other people.
These benefits include reducing clutter and saving money.
- What if you have a empty wallet? You don’t need to spend any money with Freecycle.org. Freecycling is a cost-effective way to get rid of unwanted items without having them thrown away.
- Freecycling has a viral effect on community spirit and generosity: Many people who participate in freecycling feel fulfilled knowing they are helping others while minimizing their environmental impact.
- Five Simple Tips that Make a BIG Difference (PDF). After cleaning out a house, it is possible to get rid of unwanted items by freecycling.
- How freecycling works: Freecycling programs are usually managed by local groups.
- Histories and background information: The Freecycle Network is a network of over 5,000 groups from all over the globe that work together to give away or get items for free.
Create Art
Recycled materials are a popular medium for creating art. Many schools offer programs that collect recyclable materials to students for their art projects. Schools save money by using this method to reduce waste in landfills. Schools often collect empty cans, egg cartons and paper towels, as well as newspapers, empty cans and plastic containers.
- 14 Recycled Material Animal Art Projects: Children can make animals from recycled materials like old CDs and toilet paper rolls.
- How to Remove Bottle Labels For Crafts: It is simple to remove bottle labels for repurposed glass bottles using hot water, a knife and rubbing alcohol.
- Recycled art: Students can make mobiles, sculptures, jewelry and other items from egg cartons, food cans, empty soda cans and other containers.
- Trash for Teaching: Reusing Industrial Materials for School Art Projects. The Trash for Teaching organisation collects and distributes recycled materials to schools for students.
Composting
Compiling natural waste products is the process of allowing them to decompose in a pile or container. The compost is then used to improve soil quality in gardens. Not only does composting improve soil quality, but it also reduces the amount of garbage that ends up in landfills. Natural compost can be used in soil to reduce the need for chemical soil improvers that can cause environmental damage.
- Tip Sheet for Composting: Composting is the process of collecting grass clippings, coffee grounds and vegetable scraps in order to make compost.
Worm composting
Worm composting works in a similar way to regular composting, but it involves worms. Vermicompost is a product that worms produce from the food waste they consume. Vermicompost is more efficient than regular compost and can be applied in the same way in gardens.
- Worm composting: The decomposition process is generally faster when worms are used.
- The Simple Guide to Vermiculture (PDF). Plastic storage bins are great for worm composting. These bins can be easily stored in your garage or basement.
- Food composting made easy (PDF): Worm soil is rich in nutrients that can improve the quality of your garden soil for better plant growth.
- Overview of Vermicomposting. Worms require a moist and cool environment in order to thrive in a vermicomposting container.
- Kitchen Waste Composting with Worms (PDF). Worms only need a container sturdy enough to hold their food waste, bedding, and a kitchen scrap to start making rich compost for their garden.
More Resources
