Recycling Tips for Home and Work

The average American generates almost 5 pounds of waste each day. That’s almost 1 ton of trash per person, per year. Recycling is a quick and easy way to reduce your impact on the environment.
So much of today’s packaging is recyclable. Some packaging you may not even realize can be recycled. With just a few adjustments, you can lessen the amount of trash you produce.
Here are some things you can recycle quickly and easily:
- The cardboard sleeve that protects your hands from your paper coffee cup
- The top of your pizza box (as long as there’s no grease on it), even though the bottom half of your pizza box isn’t recyclable.
- The foil wrap on Hershey Kisses
- Plastic bottles and their caps
- Cardboard toilet paper and paper towel cores
- Plastic wrap on things like bread, paper towels, newspapers, and dry cleaning can be recycled where you recycle your plastic shopping bags.
- Paper, including boxes, magazines, food boxes (cereal, crackers, etc.), newspapers, and office copy and printer paper
- Glass jars and bottles, and aluminum and metal cans
Aside from recycling, there are some other things you can do to reduce your impact on the environment, while saving money:
- Bring your own mug to get coffee – paper cups increase waste and take up landfill space.
- Look for and purchase products that are made with recycled materials.
- Set your thermostat lower in the winter. Lowering your thermostat by one degree can cut as much as 10% of your heating bill.
- Set your thermostat higher in the summer. For each degree the thermostat is set above 72 degrees, you’ll save 1% to 3% of your cooling expense.
- Unplug appliances when you’re not using them.
- Wash clothes in cold water whenever possible. Up to 85% of the energy used to machine-wash clothes is spent heating water.
- Install a low-flow showerhead.
- Take shorter showers to reduce water usage.
- Compost yard trimmings, as well as coffee grounds, egg shells, and fruit and vegetable scraps to reduce landfill space and help fertilize the soil.