21 things you didn't know you could recycle
 

From coopamerica.org:

1. Appliances: Goodwill accepts working appliances, www.goodwill.org, or you can contact the Steel Recycling Institute to recycle them. 800/YES-1-CAN, www.recycle-steel.org.

2. Batteries: Rechargeables and single-use: Battery Solutions, 734/467-9110, www.batteryrecycling.com.

3. Cardboard boxes: Contact local nonprofits and women's shelters to see if they can use them. Or, offer them up at your local Freecycle.org listserv or on Craigslist.org. If your workplace collects at least 100 boxes or more each month, UsedCardboardBoxes.com accepts them for resale.

4. CDs/DVDs/Game Disks: Send scratched music or computer CDs, DVDs, and PlayStation or Nintendo video game disks to AuralTech for refinishing, and they'll work like new: 888/454-3223, www.auraltech.com.

5. Clothes: Wearable clothes can go to your local Goodwill outlet or shelter. Donate wearable women's business clothing to Dress for Success, which gives them to low-income women as they search for jobs, 212/532-1922, www.dressforsuccess.org. Offer unwearable clothes and towels to local animal boarding and shelter facilities, which often use them as pet bedding. Consider holding a clothes swap at your office, school, faith congregation or community center. Swap clothes with friends and colleagues, save money on a new fall wardrobe and back-to-school clothes – then donate the rest.

6. Compact fluorescent bulbs: Take them to your local IKEA store for recycling: www.ikea.com.

7. Compostable bio-plastics: You probably won't be able to compost these in your home compost bin or pile. Find a municipal composter to take them to at www.findacomposter.com.

8. Computers and electronics: Find the most responsible recyclers, local and national, at www.ban.org/pledge/Locations.html

9. Exercise videos: Swap them with others at www.videofitness.com.

10. Eyeglasses: Your local Lion's Club or eye care chain may collect these. Lenses are reground and given to people in need.

11. Foam Packing peanuts: Your local pack-and-ship store will likely accept these for reuse. Or, call the Plastic Loose Fill Producers Council to find a drop-off site: 800/828-2214. For places to drop off foam blocks for recycling, contact the Alliance of Foam Packaging Recyclers, 410/451-8340, www.epspackaging.org/info.html

12. Ink/toner cartridges: Recycleplace.com pays $1/each.

13. Miscellaneous: Get your unwanted items into the hands of people who can use them. Offer them up on your local Freecycle.org or Craigslist.org listserv, or try giving them away at Throwplace.com or giving or selling them at iReuse.com. iReuse.com will also help you find a recycler, if possible, when your items have reached the end of their useful lifecycle.

14. Oil: Find Used Motor Oil Hotlines for each state: 202/682-8000, www.recycleoil.org.

15. Phones: Donate cell phones: Collective Good will refurbish your phone and sell it to someone in a developing country: 770/856-9021, www.collectivegood.com. Call to Protect reprograms cell phones to dial 911 and gives them to domestic violence victims: www.donateaphone.com. Recycle single-line phones: Reclamere, 814/386-2927, www.reclamere.com.

16. Sports equipment: Resell or trade it at your local Play It Again Sports outlet, 800/476-9249, www.playitagainsports.com.

17. “Technotrash”: Easily recycle all of your CDs, jewel cases, DVDs, audio and video tapes, cell phones, pagers, rechargeable and single-use batteries, PDAs, and ink/toner cartridges with GreenDisk's Technotrash program. For $30, GreenDisk will send you a cardboard box in which you can ship them up to 70 pounds of any of the above. Your fee covers the box as well as shipping and recycling fees. 800/305-GREENDISK, www.greendisk.com.

18. Tennis shoes: Nike's Reuse-a-Shoe program turns old shoes into playground and athletic flooring. www.nikereuseashoe.com. One World Running will send still-wearable shoes to athletes in need in Africa, Latin America, and Haiti. www.oneworldrunning.com.

19. Toothbrushes and razors: Buy a recycled plastic toothbrush or razor from Recycline, and the company will take it back to be recycled again into plastic lumber. Recycline products are made from used Stonyfield Farms' yogurt cups. 888/354-7296, www.recycline.com.

20. Tyvek envelopes: Quantities less than 25: Send to Shirley Cimburke, Tyvek Recycling Specialist, 5401 Jefferson Davis Hwy., Spot 197, Room 231, Richmond, VA 23234. Quantities larger than 25, call 866/33-TYVEK.

21. Stuff you just can't recycle: When practical, send such items back to the manufacturer and tell them they need to manufacture products that close the waste loop responsibly.

OMG this is such a great list/ resource
thanks 33girl!!!

Thank you for posting this! It gave me several new ideas for recycling. I'd never heard of websites like freecycle.org before.

I am the freecycle.org coordinator for my county. You would not believe the things that are freecycled! It is good and unbelievable. I see it more as a "free swap meet". I gave away a van through it.

The one bad thing about it is everyone wanting big ticket stuff. It is so annoying to see posts like "I need a super fast expensive computer with wireless router and free internet for a bazillion years, oh, and furnish my apt because I am a single person, who also need a car - but not a clunker car - I want something with style, oh and can you pay the insurance too." (or at least that is how is sounds) etc.

great ideas...thanks! :)

I have a TON of packing peanuts from the box we shipped my wedding dress in. So glad I can recylce them - I had thought my only option was the trash!

Thanks for the list, there were a bunch of things on there that I didn't know. This one really surprised me. I get an average of 3 Tyveks a week from my company.

Great ideas! I always save the tons of packing peanuts we get in large trash bags, and hand them over to people who sell on ebay. I hope to be doing so myself some day soon...

The printer/toner cartridges can also be donated at PetSmart, who sends the money to animal shelters. They provide the envelopes for them at every store (so you don't get too messy).

On that line (not true recycling): the UPC codes on Campbell soup labels can be donated to several organizations for their charity, as can the Labels for Education found on many products. Many DAR chapters use them to support the many schools that are DAR run for people who couldn't normally go to school. And of course, every ADPi chapter collects the poptop from aluminum cans for Ronald McDonald House. It's also time for Yoplait's Pink Lids for the Susan B. Komen Breast Cancer Awareness to be collected.

And yes, my refrigerator looks like a recycling bin! I tape envelopes marked with each charity on it, and deposit the lid, label, or poptop accordingly on a daily basis.

This is ingenious. I've been to playgrounds where the "flooring" is recycled tires, but the smell is just overwhelming. I've disliked Nike for most of my life; knowing this raises my opinion of them. I wonder if the playgrounds and gyms that sport this acknowledge Nike and its recycling efforts.