Some Positive Facts To Keep You Thinking Green

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• Every ton of recycled paper saves up to seventeen 12-metre Douglas Fir trees.
• Up to 90% of recycled glass can be reused to make new glass items, such as bottles and jars.
• Each recycled glass bottle saves enough energy to light a 100 watt light bulb for 4 hours.
• One recycled aluminum can saves enough energy to power your television for 3 hours.
• 43 recycled bottles can produce 1 m2 of carpet.
• Recycling a 1 gallon plastic milk jug will save enough energy to keep a 100-watt bulb burning for 11 hours.

Tips on Recycling All Sorts of Home Waste Materials

• Newspaper material goes directly back into newsprint recycling, so you should save your newspapers in one bin.
• Recycling a 1.2 m stack of newspapers is equal to saving one 12-metre fir tree.
• Magazines, glossy printed flyers, newspaper inserts, phonebooks, envelopes, computer paper, old letters, and paper packaging can all be saved together in one bin.
• Staples are acceptable, but the following should not be included in your paper recycling process: rubber bands, carbon paper, plastic wrap, stickers, cardboard, laminated paper, laminated cardboard…
• Disregard fast food wrappers made from plastic, dirty or food-stained paper, tissues, and napkins.
• Corrugated cardboard is a highly valued recyclable.  The most important thing is to remember to keep it dry, before grouping it all together and tying it with a string for your curbside collectors.
• Plastic or waxy-coated, as well as wet or greasy cardboard (like pizza boxes), cannot be recycled because it clogs up the sorting machines.

Most plastic grocery bags are made of high density polyethylene, a type-2 recyclable plastic.  Most grocery stores have bins outside to that customers can drop off used plastic bags for recycling.\

Choose products packaged with plastic #2 (HDPE), as many companies have done, especially those in organic food sales. 

Good Luck!

I hope these tips are useful to you, as following them wisely allows you to be a part of the movement toward a better planet for all of us.