Friday's 3Rs -- dirty little secrets

You fully intend to recycle every bit of glass, plastic and metal you can, right? But then comes the challenge -- that icky, sticky molasses container or the Corona bottle with the lime wedged in it. What to do? What to do?

It's a bit tempting to go ahead and bury the culprit in the middle of the trash can and hope no one in the family catches you 'cheating.' I understand. I've been there.

Here's the good news. A little bit of 'dirt' never hurt anyone, and it won't hurt the recycling process either. After all, organic materials will simply incinerate in the high heat during the process ... as long as we're talking small amounts. I mean, you wouldn't want to toss an entire jar of peanut butter in the recycling bin! Why would you do that anyway? Well, maybe you just found out about your son's nut allergy. Or maybe you bought a bargain brand and figured out with one spoonful, why it's a bargain brand! If that's the case, clean as much of the peanut butter out of the jar before recycling it.

Make sense? Good.

That's all I have for you this week.

Keeping it out of the landfill,

Hana

Friday's 3Rs -- Give me a little kiss ...

In keeping with my chocolate train of thought I started earlier in the week ...

Did you know that approximately 80,000,000 Hershey's kisses are wrapped in foil every day?! That foil could cover 40 football fields! And what do we do with it? Most of us simply toss it in the trash. But guess what -- that foil is recyclable.

So the next time you reach for a kiss (the chocolate kind), make sure you save the foil for recycling. It's that simple and, today, that's all I have to say.

Reducing waste,

Hana

Wade through the confusion of recycling

I'm convinced some people do not recycle simply because the whole process confuses them. Going back to the April issue of Good Housekeeping, I wanted to share some tips they had about recycling that might just clear some things up for you.

Paper

I've spent more time than I care to mention removing staples from paper prior to throwing it in the recycling bin. Well, as it turns out, that wasn't necessary. The recycling plants have machines that will weed out all of the metal from the paper. So paper recycling just got a bit easier for me.

When tossing paper into the bin, avoid recycling paper that has any food stains on it, as this could contaminate an entire load. If food has come in contact with the paper, simply throw it away.

Glass and Metal

Do you spend time removing labels from cans, bottles and jars before throwing them in the recycling bin? Stop it! The machines save you time here, too. However, you do want to rinse out the containers.

What can you recycle besides the obvious? How about washed pie tins and foil, wire clothes hangers, metal bottle caps, and any other scrap metal you have. I just replaced my worn out aluminum wheels on my car with steel wheels and plan to haul the old wheels right to the recycling plant. Not only is this the responsible thing to do with them, but it's also a boost to my pocketbook, with aluminum bringing in a decent rate these days.

Plastic

Ever screw the lid back on a water or soda bottle before tossing it in the recycling bin? Bad idea. You see, the bottle and the cap are made of two different plastics, so they need to be separated before being recycled.

Check with your municipality to find out which numbers found punched on the bottom of your plastic containers are recyclable in your neighborhood


Bottom line....and I say it often enough for it to sink in: Think before you toss. Can you reuse, repurpose, recreate, or recycle it? Than what's it doing in your trash?!

Keeping it green as we start this first full week of spring,

Hana