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The hardest thing about recycling is knowing what to recycle and how. This is especially difficult because what is recycled in your area varies state to state and even city to city. Luckily there are a number of tools and resources to help you locate nearby recycling centers and understand what can and cannot be recycled in your area. RecyclingCenters.org is one of many such resources. You can simply go to their website, type in your zip code, and get a list of recycling centers in your area. These centers generally focus on one specific material to be recycled, so with this list you have a general idea of what can and cannot be recycled in your area. So what to do with any of the items that simply cannot be recycled in your area?

Package stuffing is often impossible to recycle, but you can recycle them yourself. Simply recycle them by reusing them, and perhaps even go so far as asking the receiver of your package to reuse them. Before I found out about water soluble packaging material I had a large garbage bag full of packing peanuts stuffed in a closet for any packages I needed to send. While they may not have been recycled properly, at the very least I got more than one use out of them.

Batteries and cell phones are recyclable, but there is often not a place to take them in your area. Luckily there are always companies that are willing to either recycle or refurbish your old electronics. One such company is Collective Good: they will recycle your cell phones and a number of other electronics for free. As of 2009 over 1 billion cell phones have been tossed either in drawers or in the garbage dump, but we can lower this number by mailing in our old phones. Batteries are also recyclable; in fact the automotive industry recycles 98% of all their batteries. Many companies charge to recycle batteries used in the home, which is unfortunate since people are generally not willing to pay to recycle. Do some research and see if there is anywhere in your area that you can recycle them, and if not you could always do what I do: just hold onto them until somebody is recycling them again.

Food soiled papers are not recyclable in the traditional sense. That means that any pizza box, paper sandwich wrapper, or used napkin is usually thrown away. That is, unless you have a compost pile. Composting is a great way to reduce the amount of trash you throw out. Even if you do not garden and have no need for compost, you can still recycle by composting. I have seen people selling and giving away their compost on craigslist, so since it is in high demand I doubt you will have any difficulty getting rid of it. This takes care of any sort of organic matter that you would normally throw away (do not compost meats or bones), and all of those paper products that have gotten food all over them can now be recycled.

Be inventive with the way that you recycle, and you will find uses for things you used to think were trash. Check out the links below; some of them have some great recycling tips not covered above.

Sources

Collective Good

Recycling Centers

Tulalip Tribes

Sweatband Man

Battery University

Images

Pharmalot.com/

Ehow

techchee.com