Bottle Caps – Before recycling plastic bottles, you should remove the caps so they don’t ruin the batch of recycling. The good news is that you don’t have to throw them away. You can collect and recycle these too (just not in your municipal waste can).
Aveda has a nationwide in-store program to recycle plastic caps. Just bring your bottle caps to participating stores and schools. The caps are sent by Aveda to the recycler where the material is recycled into new caps and containers.
No. 5 Plastics – Items such as yogurt, margarine, deli tubs and plastic cutlery (usually No. 5 plastic) frequently are not recyclable in municipal waste programs. Consider washing and reusing them instead. If you can’t reuse,
Preserve (a company that creates household products out of recycled plastic) has teamed up with
Stoneyfield Farms for the Gimme 5 program. By dropping your No. 5 plastic containers in a Preserve Gimme 5 bin (which also accepts Brita water pitcher filters), your old plastic can be turned into new products such as toothbrushes, razors and tableware. You can drop off all No. 5 plastic items at participating
Whole Foods locations nationwide.
Eye Glasses – Go to
One Sight to find your nearest drop-off location. After cleaning, the company will send them to developing countries and pair them up with people with similar prescriptions.
Coats – Go to
One Warm Coat to find out how to donate your old winter coats. The organization's goal is to provide any person in need with a warm coat, free of charge.
Athletic Shoes – Since I am training to run my first marathon and I have old knees, I go through running shoes about every six months. I was especially happy to find two options for recycling them. The first is
One World Running. You can send your still-wearable shoes to this agency, and it gets them to athletes in need in Africa, Latin America and Haiti. The second is Nike’s
Reuse-a-shoe program. It can turn your tired, can’t be worn again shoes into playground and athletic flooring.
Crocs – Yes, even your beloved, unattractive but oh so comfortable Crocs can be recycled. Crocs Inc. launched a recycling program,
SolesUnited, in early 2008. SolesUnited is a first-of-its-kind program created in response to the desperate need for quality footwear in impoverished countries and areas affected by tragedy. Blending environmental and humanitarian efforts, the company is collecting, regrinding and remolding your old Crocs shoes into new and donating these to people in need of shoes around the world. You drop them off at participating retailers or you can mail your Crocs to one of two recycling centers:
Crocs recycling – west
3375 Enterprise Ave.
Bloomington, CA 92316
Crocs recycling – east
1500 Commodity Blvd.
Lockbourne, OH 43137
Computers – The
National Cristina Foundation gives companies and individuals the opportunity to donate their used computers, which are matched to charities and schools in their area. This keeps good working equipment from local landfills, and provides training and computer access for people with disabilities, students at risk and economically challenged persons.
Mobile Phones (and other rechargeable batteries) – The
Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corp. is a nonprofit agency dedicated to rechargeable battery and cell phone recycling. Go to the
site locator where you can type in your zip code to find a participating location near you. Mobile phones are refurbished and resold if possible with a portion of the proceeds going to charitable organizations. Rechargeable batteries are recycled to reclaim reusable materials such as nickel and iron to make stainless steel. None of the by-products of this process are sent to landfills.
Batteries –
Battery Solutions' easy-to-use recycling kits are designed to make battery recycling for homes or businesses as easy and hassle-free as possible, while helping you protect the environment.
Compact fluorescent bulbs (CFL) – Take them to your local
IKEA store for recycling. You can also order a
Sylvania RecyclePak online and mail them in for recycling.
Those are just a few of the many programs out there for recycling otherwise unrecyclable items. With just a little bit of research, you can find an organization that will accept almost any item you may need to throw out. Do you know of more? If so, please post a comment and link below. Let’s keep the list growing.
