Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with recycling

How can I get paid for recycling white office paper? (in Los Angeles)

gigimakka — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:48:23 -0800

An acquaintance mentioned there are paper recyclers who would actually pay by the pound for while printed office paper. An initial google search yielded info on something called Recycle Bank on the East coast, as well as companies that will pick up and shred my documents for a fee (rather than pay *me* for the paper). If anybody knows specifically where to look in Los Angeles, that would be awesome. Otherwise, any suggestions about what key words to use to narrow down my search to appropriate organizations would also be helpful. Why I'm asking: I'm a graduate student on a tight budget, preparing to move overseas. I have over a dozen boxes of journal article and book chapter copies that I've collected from my classes and various research projects over a few years. It hurts to let them go, but I absolutely won't be able to have them shipped. They won't even fit in the one puny blue bin my apartment building provides.

I'd like to recycle them responsibly, and if I can make some money in the process it would really help with the move.

Thanks in advance!

Why do we recycle paper?

jbickers — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 17:27:08 -0800

Why do we recycle paper? I totally understand the recycling of glass and plastic and all that. But I need to understand why we recycle paper. Doesn't it - quite literally - grow on trees? If we discard it and bury it in the ground, doesn't it break down? Why do we need an industrial process - which seems infinitely more ugly and harmful - to get rid of a naturally occurring substance?

The smarter part of me thinks the answer might be in the ink and the printing process, and the cynical side of me thinks we've been lied to by people who have some kind of interest served by building big recycling facilities, rather than exploring bio-safe inks. But there must be something I'm missing here ... isn't there? Is there some factor I'm not factoring in?

I've watched both Al Gore and Penn & Teller; I've read propaganda on both sides of the issue. Logical explanations (and corresponding links) are earnestly welcomed.

Polypropylene recycling in NYC?

the jam — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 21:49:39 -0800

Where can I recycle corrugated plastic in New York City? It appears to be the dreaded plastic #5 (polypropylene). I have about 35 sheets.

Recycling DVDs in Santa Monica?

PostIronyIsNotaMyth — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:20:14 -0800

Where can I recycle DVDs, CDs and other electronic media in Santa Monica, CA?

Geting Rid of My (Car's) Spare Tire

ilyanassa — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 12:13:05 -0800

Where can I get rid of a old donut-type spare tire? The tire shop won't take it because it has a rim. I recently replaced my ancient, deflated donut spare tire with a full-sized spare. But the tire shop wouldn't take the donut because of the attached rim. I called the city's solid waste department and they weren't at all helpful - said I've have to pay someone to take the tire off the rim and then take the rubber and rim to two separate recycling centers. I just want to get rid of the crappy deflated donut tire that's been in my trunk for months! Help!

How stupid would it be to trash the old financial stuff?

paultopia — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 13:39:49 -0800

How dangerous is throwing out old financial records, really? Don't want to pay to shred, and lots of peoples' trash is mixed with mine... I'm a student at a major university with many, many people's trash mixed together into large dumpsters. I'm trying to get rid of several years of old financial records, just full of things like SSNs, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, etc.

Does anyone have a sense as to how dangerous it really is to just toss it all into one of the big bins? Do people really go rooting through them? Is it more or less dangerous to throw it into the paper recycling one?

Alternatively, does anyone have any quick and easy destruction method for about 50 pounds of paper that doesn't require the ability to burn or shred and can happen without paying some professional?

Why recycling plastic bags is so difficult?

bargainhunter — Wed, 14 May 2008 19:05:37 -0800

Many townships don't seem to accept plastic bags for recycling. What is so special about them? What places do accept them for recycling?

Which kills the earth quicker: cans or bottles

wheat — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 07:59:04 -0800

I drink a lot of diet soda. I tend to buy it in one of two formats: 12-packs of aluminum cans (which come in paperboard cartons), and individual two-liter bottles. If I were to buy one format exclusively and recycle the packaging, which would be the greener choice? I recycle all my cans, bottles, and paperboard. I know that reducing consumption of these things would be better all the way around. I get that. But, assuming consumption remains the same, would there be any environmental benefit to choosing one (exclusively) over the other. I'm assuming that 20-oz bottles (which are expensive anyway, so I don't buy them at the grocery store) are the worst of all possible worlds. Other thoughts on flavored water transportation methods are welcome, of course.

Diet soda is primarily a caffeine delivery method. Perhaps shifting to coffee or tea (brewed at home or work + my own cup) would be the best bet. Or, gasp, I could learn to like water. Stats would be great, but this isn't for a paper or anything. I'm just a curious consumer, trying to be a slightly less evil consumer.

How to lower the environmental impact of the work place?

InstantSanitizer — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 18:00:49 -0800

Strategies for greening the work place? At very short notice I have been put in charge of a pilot study that will be implemented at my office (within a gov agency). I'd appreciate information on/ links to measures, large and small, that can be taken to make an office, within an existing older building, more environmentally friendly. TIA

A new use for old snoes

Epsilon-minus semi moron — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 13:37:01 -0800

Old sneakers as planters. Has anyone done this? I'd like some advice on what kinds of plants work best. Other than one article stating to use hearty plants, the tubes have not provuded much. I'm going to talk to the the person at the garden shop as well but figured I'd try here first. Oh, and I live in Centralish Florida, if that helps narrow the choices. Thank you!

How can paper be bleached of its text?

fjardt — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 20:51:11 -0800

How can paper be bleached of its text? I had a great idea for notebooks, if only i knew how to perform a necessary step.

That is--i found that the paper in many old books i have is quite æsthetically pleasing, but sometimes the meaning of the text is not :)

So then, i thought, why pay for fancy moleskines, if only the text could vanish from these pages!

But traditional paper recycling cannot be done, for that would require unbinding all of the pages, and turning that into pulp.. and so on. Pointless if i wanted to keep the paper and binding as it is.

The only method i came up with (but have yet to try) for doing this is to soak the pages in a photo emulsion and expose it to white light. Would that work? And then if it does, would the process of purchasing the necessary materials exceed that of just buying some moleskines?

What constitutes a Commingled recyclable?

jmd82 — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 14:13:07 -0800

Commingled recyclables: What are they? I'm trying to get into recycling (I've read previous posts about pros/cons of recycling so lets skip that argument), and my apartment complex has two bins: "Paper" and "Commingles recyclables." While the paper bin seems obvious enough, what's the deal with commingled? Can I just throw anything in there and it'll hypothetically get recycled? Or does my stuff need to have one of those recycling symbols on it?
I've never really recycled before so I'm not even sure what can and cannot be recycled.

Neoprene, not neo anymore

nekton — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 14:51:07 -0800

What can I do with my old wetsuit? I have an old wetsuit (2mm SeaQuest shortie, essentially this suit) that has had a fantastic run. I've managed to wring 12 years out of it (snorkeling, surfing, scuba diving, and just messing around in the ocean) and have sewn and glued it back together at the base of the zipper multiple times. It is in great condition still (some minor aging of the rubber) but the hole is not repairable anymore.

What are some cool things I can do with it? I am pretty crafty, so any suggestiions that involve cutting it apart and making something cool with it are great. I would also be willing to have it recycled for another purpose.

Survival of the Wettest

bonobo — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 00:23:20 -0800

Do you or anyone you know make use of graywater. If so, how? I plan to live a more sustainable lifestyle. I seek anecdotes about using gray/greywater|rainwater. My region (Western Kentucky) experienced a great deal of rainfall recently and I pondered how much non-potable water could have been saved. I currently rent an apartment and am quite limited in my exterior "projects." Within the next year-or-so I should be able to start a more crunchy-granola lifestyle.

I have researched online and subscribe to Mother Earth News and Grit. What experiences can you relate and how do local laws/codes affect you?

Can you teach volunteers to follow a recycling plan?

a_green_man — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 17:10:39 -0800

Looking for tips on implementing a recycling program during a two week "event". I do seasonal holiday work for a large (65,000+ gift) holiday drive. This year, acting as a volunteer, I started the ball rolling towards "greening" the organization, starting with the crunch time of our warehouse operation the two weeks preceding Chistmas. We've had a few meetings over the past few months that have been productive and all of our action items have been followed through on.

A few pertinent details:

120,000 square-feet of warehouse, broken down into ~20k office/volunteer reception area - ~10k "store" area with unmarked gifts - ~90k floor area (split roughly in two by the "store") where the gifts are organized.
8,800 volunteers over two weeks with the largest shift being ~325 people + staff
Food and beverages aren't allowed on the larger floor areas, they will all be collected in the volunteer reception area.

Items slated for recycling are:

Cans/bottles (In reception area and what sneaks out to the floor).
Paper - Office paper and what gift wrap our recycler can handle.
Corrugated Cardboard
Polyethylene (aka grocery) bags. Approx. 20-40,000 of them!

The main concern is the "zoo" portion of the warehouse floor. Approx. 50,000 square feet where most of the unpacking, (un)wrapping, and general waste is generated. We will incorporate proper practices into our volunteer orientations (roughly 5-10 minutes when they arrive for their shifts), have clearly visible signage as to what and where, and will have containers about every 40-50 feet, closer in the reception area. We do have a few do-it-all staff that aren't afraid of messy stuff, so we won't worry about asking our precious volunteers to do anything gross (Plus, Boy Scouts will do anything :).

My specific question deals with being prepared for those aspects I can't prepare for; I've only implemented a recycling program for a small office and that took months to get everyone trained. This situation is much different in that there is little time to train, it's more along the lines of "inform and hope they just do it. We have a staff of 20+ spread throughout the building that know what's going on, but I will be the primary coodinator 10-12 hours a day for those two weeks, along with my other duties.

Keep in mind that as well organized as we are, this is an absolutely crazy, busy, sometimes random sight to behold. Also, our volunteers are of all walks of life, ages and experience with recycling. Despite being in the Bay Area, CA, I'm guessing this won't fit into many of their worldviews.

If any of you have done event planning, what can I expect? Are there certain tricks to obtain compliance? Aspects that are easy to miss while planning something like this before it actually happens?

Ironing plastic bags together...is this toxic?

tingting — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 12:44:54 -0800

You can make an interesting "fabric" (tutorial here) by ironing plastic bags together but I am pretty sure that doing this releases molecules of Something Bad into the air that I am then breathing. Am I right? Do I need a respirator?

What to do with stale coffee beans?

lindsey.nicole — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 17:25:03 -0800

I have a couple of half-full bags of stale coffee beans that no longer make good coffee. Aside from throwing them in the trash, what can I do with old beans? It's occurred to me that old coffee beans might be compostable, but I'm an apartment-dweller and I think my vermicomposting worms would go into shock from that much caffeine. If all else fails I may just dump these in a nearby semi-wooded area, but that seems kind of tacky. And weird.

In the UK, what percentage of materials collected separately for recyling are actually reused?

fvw — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 08:34:44 -0800

In the UK, what percentage of material that you're supposed to put in the orange recycling bags actually ends up getting recycled? I've read stories that one of the reasons for separating out tins/certain plastics/paper is because regulations about exporting these to other countries for dumping are more lax. I've not been able to find any hard numbers, are there any statistics (probably per-material) available? Information for any part of the country is welcome, but specifically west London.

Where can I return bottles in New York City?

oaf — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 16:29:37 -0800

Where can I return bottles in New York City? I just moved to New York, and my building doesn't take plastic bottles for recycling. I also just noticed that I'm paying a deposit on them, and it would be nice to get it back.

I've seen this question, but it doesn't answer the question of where I can take bottles myself. Searching Google just turns up pages supporting and opposing bottle bills.

I live near Columbia University, in case you can recommend somewhere nearby.

How can we recycle a used futon? (in Toronto)

winston — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 11:56:34 -0800

How to recycle a futon mattress (in Toronto)? It's had daily use for 15 years so it's at the end of it's ability to be a comfortable bed or sofa. Used stuffing can't legally be used in stuffed products for sale. But surely it's good for something (anyone need a bunch of dog beds?). It's 8 inches thick and IIRC there's three layers of cotton alternating with two layers of foam. It's a really big thing to be sending to the landfill. We don't really have the space to have it hanging around (The new sofa's already here. The two of them take up almost the entire living room. We have no storage space.) so solutions that use it up bit-by-bit probably won't work for us (but might be helpful for others reading the thread).

Are cell phone and printer cartridge recylers a scam?

wfrgms — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 10:09:20 -0800

Whats up with these postage-paid cell phone and ink cartridge recycling baggies I see everywhere? I've noticed these things several places around the campus (University of Illinois at Chicago) tacked up on bulletin boards in halls and computer labs.

Basically its a cardboard sign that has about 30 or 40 plastic bags attached to it. You rip off a bag, drop in your old cell phone or ink jet cartridge, seal the bag (it has a sticky strip), and then drop it into a mail box.

The card board signage has lots of green sounding mantras, "retrieve. refresh. reuse." and "Together, we are saving the environment." But beyond that there is no other information besides a disclaimer which reads, "This cartridge return program is not sponsored by o affiliated with the cartridge manufacturer."

Who takes this stuff? What happens after it is "recycled?"

The address on the bags is simply "Recycling Center, PO Box 683000, Franklin, TN 37068-9911" and through some googling I've found that the PO Box belongs to AAA Environmental, Inc., and that this is some sort of pay-per recycling gig??

It all reeks of some sort of for-profit scam. Should I yank these things off the bulletin boards and trash them?

Can used photo paper be recycled?

Ookseer — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 00:41:01 -0800

I need to get rid of a bunch of photos. Can they be recycled? I have a ton* of photos I need to get rid of.

Most of the photos are from the last 20 years, but some are 50+.

I've read my local recycling guidelines and found nothing. Google has shown me lots of photos of recycling and offered to sell me recycled photo paper but hasn't given me any guidelines.

They've been shredded so can't be reused in an art project.

* Not really a ton.

I don't want to start my own needle exchange

otherwordlyglow — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 13:24:24 -0800

What should I do with a large quantity of unused but unneeded insulin syringes? My cat was diabetic and I gave him twice daily insulin shots with a prescription that I had filled a Walgreen's. The prescription included single-use syringes and I guess they are the same kind that are used for people. My cat died two years ago and I've been carting around the pack of unused syringes ever since. They are still packed 10 to a plastic bag and I have probably about 80 syringes (in 8 packs).

Throwing them in the garbage doesn't seem like a good idea from many perspectives and I really don't want to snap the needle off each one to render it useless before doing so. I've tried calling the pharmacy, they suggested donating to a place like the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic. I sent them email and got no response. I'd rather not wander into a park and offer them to the first potential junkie I see but surely there's someone out there who can use them? If it were just the insulin I'd know what to do - it got thrown away a long time ago but I can't figure out how to give them in a responsible manner to someone who might need them. Freecycle? Is it even legal for me to give them to someone else? Is there some cool art project I could do with them?

Looking for that blank canvas feel

DenOfSizer — Sat, 26 May 2007 13:08:48 -0800

How to recycle old paint canvases? I'd like to do some sort of photo transfer onto them, but how? I was thinking of applying a skim coat of plaster or gesso, but I'm more of a watercolorist and don't know too much about canvas on oil as a base (I found these canvases on a street in the trash.) Is there a photo-transfer technique that wouldn't involve ironing or removing the canvas and then re-stretching it across?

Where else can I recycle in Philadelphia?

catesbie — Wed, 23 May 2007 14:47:52 -0800

Are there alternatives to the Philadelphia city recycling program? Are there any private recycling services in the Philadelphia area that will take my stuff? I am really over only being able to recycle plastic #1 and #2, and I am especially over the city's recycling trucks failing to come down my street at all most of the time. Is there somewhere else I can take this stuff?

I am aware that there are neighborhood recycling drop-off days, but they only take the same stuff that the city does. What I'm looking for is somewhere that will take all my plastic #5 I've been forced to throw away. I'm in South Philly if it helps, but I'm happy to haul this stuff somewhere else, if only I knew where...