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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Recycling has come full circle

Many methods available for unusual items

Most of us are generally familiar with recycling methods like plastics and paper, although local officials would like more. But there are other products, such as batteries, crayons, Christmas lights and more than have some interesting usages. (Jillian Wilson / Down To Earth NW)
Renee Sande Down to Earth NW Correspondent
Recycling has come a long way. It’s actually been around for thousands of years. Prior to the industrial age, you couldn’t make goods quickly and cheaply, so virtually everyone practiced recycling in some form. In the 1930s and 1940s, the Depression made recycling a necessity. During this time, goods like nylon, rubber and many metals were rationed and recycled to help support the war effort. After a lull for a couple of decades, the environmental movement in the 1960s and 1970s brought about our first Earth Day celebration, and recycling was once again mainstream, but for a different reason. Today we find ourselves almost in a recycling frenzy. We look at what we throw away with so many questions that are almost impossible to ignore. If we ignore them, more than likely, we feel guilty sometime later in the day. So we go through the list: ‘If I put it on my curb, will someone pick it up?’ ‘Can someone else use this?’ Or, ‘How could I possibly reuse this or turn it into something new and relevant?’ Well, let’s help ease your conscience with a few recycling ideas. Holiday lights: Holiday lights are a growing recycling effort with many municipal programs and national retailers like Home Depot signing on to take unwanted twisted messes of green wire and plastic off our hands. If you use LED lights, visit www.Holidayleds.com. Mail your lights in and the company recycles them and the box they were shipped in, plus sends you a coupon for 15 percent off LED light purchases through its site. If you haven’t made the switch to LED, you might want to consider possible savings and CO2 emissions. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, 10 incandescent strands running all night produce 300 pounds of CO2 vs. 30 pounds with LED lights. The money saved can pay for another string of lights! Paint: Who doesn’t have a couple of unwanted, partially-used cans of paint lurking in their garage? Many paint manufacturers now mix together recycled paint to produce a new product. You can certainly do the same. Just keep in mind to limit your mixing experiments to latex paints; oil-based paints must be disposed of with other household hazardous wastes, and avoid cans with rust or mold on the inside (these can be taken to a HHW collector as well). Tip: if you do make a trip to the HHW, look for used items you can pick up for free, like other paint. If you’re looking to reduce your footprint when buying new paint, look for low-VOC and lead-free paints, such as those made by Behr or recycled paint such as Metro, made by Portland, Ore.’s regional government. Wardrobe: Wanting a new look from your closet, but all it does is stare back at you blankly? Well, thanks to fashion maven Bobby Thomas, style editor at NBC’s The Today Show, T-shirts can be revamped and revitalized with a few quick and easy steps. “All you’ll need are scraps from a junk drawer or a few strips of ribbon, tulle or fabric from your local craft store. Just twist, tuck, pleat and sew by hand with a simple baste stitch, or a sewing machine if you have one. You can even safety-pin pieces for a temporary transformation. No need to be perfect — the less contrived and expected, the better,” says Brown (to see the result, and other fashionable ideas, watch http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/35100225/ns/today-today_fashion_and_beauty/). Wine: Feeling guilty about chucking corks every time you pop open your vino? ReCORK America has you covered. It partners with restaurants, businesses, resorts, wineries and wine retailers to collect used corks and recycle them into new materials. Recycled corks can be made into flooring tiles, building insulation, footwear, automotive gaskets, bulletin boards, packaging materials, soil conditioner and sports equipment. Natural corks, made from the bark of a cork tree, are ideal for recycling: they are renewable, natural, sustainable and energy-efficient. According to ReCORK America, most of the 13 billion natural cork wine stoppers sold in the world each year end up in landfills. It takes approximately 300,000 wine corks to yield a ton of cork for recycling into new product. At this time, there are no ReCork partners in our area, but you can ask your local winery or wine shop to lend a small space in their store for a ReCork receptacle (www.recork.org ). Hair: Have you ever thought about all the hair that you have trimmed every year and where it goes? Did you know it can be recycled into dense mats for soaking up oil? Public charity Matter of Trust began the Hair For Oil Spills Program in 2000 after Phil McCrory, an Alabama hair stylist, learned of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, killing and affecting millions of sea creatures. After calculating how much oil he could collect with clippings from his salon, McCrory invented the hairmat to help soak up oil from an estimated 706 million gallons that enter our oceans each year. There are more than 370,000 hair salons in the U.S., and each collects about 1 pound of hair daily. If your salon doesn’t, let them know about www.matteroftrust.org. Other items: Here are a few other quick recycling tips and words of encouragement: * To clean or not to clean?: Although best to avoid organic contaminants, a little jam in the bottom of the jar won’t ruin the recycling batch. Clean containers as best as you can, but do so without wasting lots of water. * Batteries: Any type of battery that contains metal is recyclable (most batteries are named for the metal they contain). The more harmful the metal, the more likely you’ll be able to find a recycler because of state and federal laws. Look to your battery retailer, as many of them recycle, including automotive and household batteries. Crayons: You might not give a second thought to tossing bits and parts of used crayons in the garbage, but the National Crayon Recycle Program operated by Crazy Crayons, LLC (www.crazycrayons.com) has diverted more than 47,000 pounds of crayons from landfills! Trophies: Total Awards & Promotions, Inc. (www.awardsmall.com) has created a trophy recycling program to benefit charities. Through a mail-in program, the company’s Madison, Wisc., headquarters recycles defunct awards or re-engraves and donates them to nonprofits. CDs/DVDs/Cassettes: Best Buy collects CDs and DVDs for recycling at in-store kiosks. Another option is the GreenDisk (www.greendisk.org) mail-in program, which recycles media into new CDs and disks, as well as CD cases. Toy Parts: Save them in a bag and send them to two talented San Francisco jewelry designers, Shana Astrachan and Emiko Oye in. They reuse small plastic toys, game parts, and board games in their work and are open to receiving donations as a form of recycling. For info http://liberatedspaces.wordpress.com/2009/12/28/save-the-tiny-toys-and-plastic-thingies/