Here Are Some Easy Ways To Recycle

When you think of recycling do you think that you don’t have the time or energy to do it? Do you see visions of hundreds of thousands of empty plastic bottles in some far-away factory getting ready to be melted down? Do you think that recycling is something that has to be hard; otherwise if it’s not hard, then it doesn’t count? You may have thought this at some time and so felt justified for not recycling. I’m here to tell you that you are mistaken; recycling isn’t something difficult, or something you have to go out of your way to participate in; and it’s easy; and it still counts toward recycling.

Do you have a terrible habit of leaving lights on when you leave a room? The first way to conserve energy and count yourself in as a “recycler” is to turn off lights as you leave a room. Sounds easy, right? Well, that’s because it is easy. The only thing you have to do is remind yourself that you no longer are going to waste energy by leaving lights on in a room that no one is occupying.

The change may not happen overnight, but it will happen. Is this a difficult change? No, and everyday it will get easier. When you see your electric light bill it will get even easier again!

The other way to begin recycling is to change your light bulbs. That simple act of replacing a burned-out bulb with one of the new, energy saving kind will really be a big help. The newer bulbs use up to 75% less energy when lighting a room and they will last up to ten times longer. How can you beat that? And there wasn’t any effort on your part; all you have to do is replace the bulb with the new and improved bulb and you will make an even bigger impact on your electric bill.

There are easy ways to stay on track with recycling, and you don’t have to look very far to find them. In today’s economic down turn any saving towards your household expenses is a huge plus. Saving the environment with these recycling efforts on your part is an even bigger saving!

Are You Recycling Everything You Can?

Have you heard of an energy audit? Cities and towns all over the country have started doing this, where an auditor comes to your home and helps you to see where you could make changes that will not only help you conserve energy but will help you save money! What a bonus it is to save money by doing the right thing.

There are so many changes you can make in your home to impact the way we recycle and in the end, will help you keep some of the money in your pocket.

Having recycling bins set up so that you can properly sort the items that are recycled is a great first step. That activity alone can cut down greatly on the items that end up in the landfills rather than where they can be recycled.

Keeping your televisions, DVDs, stereos and computers plugged in to a power strip or surge protector rather than directly into the wall and then turning off the power strip will cut back greatly on power “leaks” that can cost you money on your utility bill. Being aware to turn these items off, is the first step, and then having them plugged into the power strip will just further the action for saving money and energy.

Don’t leave a light on when you walk out of a room and no one else is in there. And have you changed your light bulbs from the traditional ones to the compact flourescent kind? Did you know that the newer lights use 75% less energy to run and they will out live a traditional light bulb by up to 10 years? Make the changes that need to be made in your home.

Don’t run the dishwasher or the washing machine unless they are full. It’s a waste of energy and water to run a cycle through the dishwasher when it’s only half full. Don’t turn it on until you have a full load to wash and then just wash them all at once.

Use microfiber cloths for cleaning all kinds of surfaces like furniture, counters and sinks. The bonus is that these items can be tossed into the washer and are perfectly able to be reused again and again. Think of the savings in paper towels alone! Talk about a win-win; if we use fewer paper towels, then that means fewer trees need to be cut to make them in the first place. How can we go wrong with thinking like that?

Take shorter showers and see if you can pick up a shower head that is a water-conserving item, already in place, that will save you money and you’ll never even notice the difference during your shower.

There is so much you can do in the efforts to recycle, just be sure you’re doing your part.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch Growing Bigger

Somewhere, in the middle of the most deserted place on Earth is the world’s largest garbage dump. Hundreds of miles from even the nearest land, a current known as the Great Pacific Gyre naturally swirls and whirls in a vast circular motion. For millenia, this has caused a natural feeding ground to form that supports a great diversity of marine life, including the great albatross and massive sea turtles.

However, if you were to fly over this part of the ocean today, you’d still find all those animals, but they’d be floating on and in a massive pile of trash, tens of miles across. The same currents that collect phytoplankton and zoo plankton have gathered items that have spilled from ships bringing recyclables to port and others that are bringing the raw materials back across the ocean for remanufacture.

All this plastic is broken down by the sun into smaller and smaller pieces that many animals mistake for food, filling up on it to the point where they can no longer actually digest real food.

Begin Your Recycling at Home

Every year, tons of material that could be recycled isn’t, and it ends up clogging our already overwhelmed dumps, waterways and roadsides. Most people think it’s a difficult undertaking to organize a recycling center at home. However, with some creativity and commitment, it can be easy to do. You’ll feel better about yourself doing your part to care for the environment as a result, too.

Find a convenient place in your home or apartment for the center. It doesn’t take much
room for your recyclables. The garages, a storage closet, corner of the kitchen, or under your kitchen sink all make great locations. Find and clearly label containers in which to store your recycled materials. Plastic buckets, storage containers or even trash cans work great depending on the amount of room you have available.

Get your family actively involved in the recycling process. Make sure they all are aware of what products can be recycled. Teach them the difference between the aluminum can bin and the tin can bin. While doing their weekly chores, teach them to be on the lookout for recyclable material lying around the house, and encourage them to place it in the proper storage bins.

Encourage them to come up with ideas for reducing the amount of recycled material that’s consumed by your household. Take them along with you to the recycling center in your neighborhood so they can witness the process firsthand. Show them how they can reuse recyclable materials in their own organizational efforts at home. Perhaps a large cardboard box can double as a bin for all their shoes, or a coffee jar can be re purposed as a penny bank.

And when they learn the money that can be both saved and earned from recycling and reusing products, they’ll have developed an environmentally healthy and thrifty habit for life.