Maybe it's only me who wondered this, but have you noticed the foil lids on yogurt and those little applesauce containers seem to be not just aluminum foil but also a layer of plastic that the company uses to write its name and other info on? Are these foil lids recyclable, or not because they're not pure aluminum? I asked Stonyfield, and here's their reply:
"To answer your question regarding whether the foil lids are recyclable, it depends on the type of recycling services available in your community. The foil seal is made from a layer of aluminum foil, coated with plastic. If your community recycles only aluminum cans and no aluminum foil, it is unlikely that they will accept the seal for recycling. The best way to find out is to ask your recycler. If they do not accept them you may send your clean cups and lids to the following for recycling:"
Preserve Gimme 5
823 NYS Rte 13
Cortland, NY 13045
More details: http://www.preserveproducts.com/recycling/mail.html
Showing posts with label recycling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recycling. Show all posts
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Pictures!
Loading up the car with #1 and #6 plastics to take to the Coon Rapids Recycling Center
And on a different day, with Styrofoam
Look at all the stuff they accept!
An enormous Dumpster of #1 plastics!
#5 plastics
Bin for #6 plastics
Styrofoam blocks destined for recycling at HOM Furniture
And on a different day, with Styrofoam
Look at all the stuff they accept!
An enormous Dumpster of #1 plastics!
#5 plastics
Bin for #6 plastics
Styrofoam blocks destined for recycling at HOM Furniture
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
So great it deserves a separate post
Yogurt containers, cottage cheese containers, take-out containers, margarine tubs. They're all #5s, or polypropylene plastic. And not only can you drop them off for recycling at Eastside Food Co-op and the Coon Rapids Recycling Center, but Whole Foods in St. Paul and Minneapolis has a bin for #5s near the front entrance.
Besides the convenience of Whole Foods being open more hours, you know where your #5s are going: To Recycline to be made into new Preserve products through their Preserve Gimme 5 program! This company out of Waltham, Mass., gets big kudos from me. Not only do they take #5s and make them into toothbrush handles, plates, cups, chopping boards, food-storage containers, colanders, measuring cups and a whole bunch of other products, if for some reason the product's not working for you (or you need to change your toothbrush), you send it to them and they recycle it AGAIN into plastic lumber. Talk about working to end the cycle of waste!
So check them out. http://www.preserveproducts.com/
Some of their products are sold at Target, Valley Natural Foods in Burnsville and Whole Foods.
Besides the convenience of Whole Foods being open more hours, you know where your #5s are going: To Recycline to be made into new Preserve products through their Preserve Gimme 5 program! This company out of Waltham, Mass., gets big kudos from me. Not only do they take #5s and make them into toothbrush handles, plates, cups, chopping boards, food-storage containers, colanders, measuring cups and a whole bunch of other products, if for some reason the product's not working for you (or you need to change your toothbrush), you send it to them and they recycle it AGAIN into plastic lumber. Talk about working to end the cycle of waste!
So check them out. http://www.preserveproducts.com/
Some of their products are sold at Target, Valley Natural Foods in Burnsville and Whole Foods.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
How and where to recycle harder-to-recycle items
Here's a list of harder-to-recycle items that most cities won't pick up at your home. If you know of any that I've left out, please let me know or post a comment! It's thanks to other greenies out there that I found out some of these things.
And I'd like to offer my praise in advance to the Coon Rapids Recycling Center and recycling coordinator Colleen Sinclair. Her efforts are an example for us all!
• Batteries (rechargeable), CDs/DVDs, PDAs and many other household electronics, most for free, at Best Buy stores.
• Bicycles: Express Bike Shop and Mr. Michael Recycles Bicycles
• Brita filters: Take them to Preserve Gimme 5 bins at Whole Foods stores in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Full details: http://www.preserveproducts.com/recycling/britafilters.html
• Carpet: Bro-Tex Carpet Recycling
• Cassette and video tapes, CDs, DVDs and their cases, vinyl records and other forms of 'electronic media': Hennepin County's Recycling Drop-off Centers in Bloomington and Brooklyn Park
And I'd like to offer my praise in advance to the Coon Rapids Recycling Center and recycling coordinator Colleen Sinclair. Her efforts are an example for us all!
• Batteries (rechargeable), CDs/DVDs, PDAs and many other household electronics, most for free, at Best Buy stores.
• Bicycles: Express Bike Shop and Mr. Michael Recycles Bicycles
• Brita filters: Take them to Preserve Gimme 5 bins at Whole Foods stores in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Full details: http://www.preserveproducts.com/recycling/britafilters.html
• Carpet: Bro-Tex Carpet Recycling
• Cassette and video tapes, CDs, DVDs and their cases, vinyl records and other forms of 'electronic media': Hennepin County's Recycling Drop-off Centers in Bloomington and Brooklyn Park
Electronic media and computer components are also recyclable through Greendisk.com out of Sammamish, Wa. It's a company doing really good, ethical things. Greendisk is your source for recycling all forms of 'technotrash.' Check out their website for details.
• CD and DVD cases: Give them away via craigslist or twincitiesfreemarket.org
• Cell phones: Best Buy and many other businesses
• Charger cord: recyclable where cell phones are accepted.
• Christmas lights and extension cords:
The Recycling Association of Minnesota’s Recycle Your Holidays seasonal program. The program offers numerous collection sites throughout the Twin Cities, including at Hennepin County drop-off facilities and Snyder’s Drug Stores. Strings of lights are disassembled by PPL Industries, and parts such as the copper wires and light bulbs are recycled.
Year-round at the Coon Rapids Recycling Center, Coon Rapids
• Compact fluorescent light bulb: recyclable at Ikea (free), Home Depot (free), Menards (free), county hazardous waste sites and most hardware stores. Do not throw in the trash because they contain mercury.
http://www.greenguardian.com/residents/throw-buy/materials-name/fluorescent-bulbs
• Concrete (also yard waste, gravel, rock, stone, etc.): Recyclable for a fee at the Gertens Regional Eco-Services facility
• Extension cords:
Hennepin County Recycling Center and Transfer Station, Brooklyn Park
Recycled for their scrap-metal value
• Fabric scraps/rags, clean: Wipers Recycling makes them into wiping rags or granular absorbents. They have drop-off locations in Maplewood and St. Paul Park.
• Fluorescent tube light: county household hazardous waste collection sites.
http://www.eurekarecycling.org/pdfs/2010_Guide_to_Recycling_web.pdf
• Hangers, wire: Many dry cleaners, including Martinizing and Prestige Cleaners, will take these back for reuse
• Hardcover books: The Coon Rapids Recycling Center accepts them.
• Mattresses: Coon Rapids Recycling Center, first Saturday of every month (except holiday weekends). $15 fee.
Hennepin County Recycling Center and Transfer Station, Brooklyn Park
http://www.hennepinatoz.org/azguide/item/31
$15 fee. If the mattress isn't clean and dry, it will be disposed of as garbage.
• Milk cartons, juice boxes, tofu boxes, broth boxes: Now recyclable curbside in most metro-area cities! They are 70 to 85 percent high-quality paper, which is separated from the plastic coating in a pulping process.
• Motor oil bottles: Take them to the Coon Rapids Recycling Center. NO LONGER ACCEPTED
• Notebooks and other paper with wire spiral binding: Recycled by Eureka Recycling, no need to remove the metal spiral.
• Packing peanuts: take to any UPS store for reuse
• Plastic bags: recyclable through the It's In The Bag program. Many more kinds are recyclable than just grocery and newspaper bags. Here's the list:
ACCEPTED MATERIALS
[Note: All material must be clean and dry]
Plastic grocery bags
Plastic retail bags (remove string ties & rigid plastic handles)
Plastic dry-cleaning bags
Plastic cereal bags (must be dry with ALL food residue removed)
Plastic bread bags (must be dry with ALL rood residue removed)
Plastic produce bags (must be dry with ALL food residue removed)
Plastic frozen food bags (must be dry with ALL food residue removed)
Plastic wrap from paper products (paper towels, etc.)
Plastic salt bags (remove rigid plastic handles)
Plastic zipper bags (remove top closing mechanism)
Plastic stretch/shrink wrap
6-pack holder rings
NOT ACCEPTED
Plastic bags with food residue
Plastic bags with strings
Plastic soil or mulch bags
Plastic zipper bags with rigid plastic closing mechanism
Plastic bubble wrap
recyclable at most Twin Cities grocery stores including Cub, Lunds, Jerry's, Twin Cities Natural
Food Co-ops and many county recycling centers. If your plastics aren't clean, dry and free of food, they'll get thrown out as garbage, so make sure your stuff is clean. What works well with bags of crumbly stuff like bread, chips, cereal or crackers, or wet stuff like frozen vegetables, is to turn the bag inside out and shake it over your garbage can, or completely open up the bag along its seams. Let it air-dry if it's wet.
http://itsinthebagmn.com/
• Plastic bottle caps: recyclable at Aveda stores. They make the caps into new caps.
The program accepts caps that are rigid polypropylene plastic, sometimes noted with a 5 in the 'chasing arrows' (resin code) symbol. This includes caps that twist on with a threaded neck such as caps on shampoo, water, soda, milk and other beverage bottles, flip top caps on tubes and food product bottles (such as ketchup and mayonnaise), pharmaceutical lids, laundry detergents and some jar lids such as peanut butter.
Excluded from collection are non-rigid lids such as yogurt lids, tub lids (margarine, cottage cheese), screw-on lids that are not rigid, metal lids and plastic pumps or sprayers.
http://aveda.aveda.com/aboutaveda/caps.asp
Also note: If you leave caps on plastic bottles, they WILL get recycled. But you must leave the cap on the bottle -- don't remove the cap and throw it by itself in your recycling bin. Then it's too small and will fall through the screens at the recycling facility.
SPECIAL NOTE
• CD and DVD cases: Give them away via craigslist or twincitiesfreemarket.org
• Cell phones: Best Buy and many other businesses
• Charger cord: recyclable where cell phones are accepted.
• Christmas lights and extension cords:
The Recycling Association of Minnesota’s Recycle Your Holidays seasonal program. The program offers numerous collection sites throughout the Twin Cities, including at Hennepin County drop-off facilities and Snyder’s Drug Stores. Strings of lights are disassembled by PPL Industries, and parts such as the copper wires and light bulbs are recycled.
Year-round at the Coon Rapids Recycling Center, Coon Rapids
• Compact fluorescent light bulb: recyclable at Ikea (free), Home Depot (free), Menards (free), county hazardous waste sites and most hardware stores. Do not throw in the trash because they contain mercury.
http://www.greenguardian.com/residents/throw-buy/materials-name/fluorescent-bulbs
• Concrete (also yard waste, gravel, rock, stone, etc.): Recyclable for a fee at the Gertens Regional Eco-Services facility
• corks, natural (not synthetic): Take them to Whole Foods in Minneapolis or St. Paul and drop them in the Cork ReHarvest boxes.
• Extension cords:
Hennepin County Recycling Center and Transfer Station, Brooklyn Park
Recycled for their scrap-metal value
• Fabric scraps/rags, clean: Wipers Recycling makes them into wiping rags or granular absorbents. They have drop-off locations in Maplewood and St. Paul Park.
USAgain has drop boxes metrowide.
• Fluorescent tube light: county household hazardous waste collection sites.
http://www.eurekarecycling.org/pdfs/2010_Guide_to_Recycling_web.pdf
• Hangers, wire: Many dry cleaners, including Martinizing and Prestige Cleaners, will take these back for reuse
• Hardcover books: The Coon Rapids Recycling Center accepts them.
• Mattresses: Coon Rapids Recycling Center, first Saturday of every month (except holiday weekends). $15 fee.
Hennepin County Recycling Center and Transfer Station, Brooklyn Park
http://www.hennepinatoz.org/azguide/item/31
$15 fee. If the mattress isn't clean and dry, it will be disposed of as garbage.
• Milk cartons, juice boxes, tofu boxes, broth boxes: Now recyclable curbside in most metro-area cities! They are 70 to 85 percent high-quality paper, which is separated from the plastic coating in a pulping process.
• Motor oil bottles: Take them to the Coon Rapids Recycling Center. NO LONGER ACCEPTED
• Notebooks and other paper with wire spiral binding: Recycled by Eureka Recycling, no need to remove the metal spiral.
• Packing peanuts: take to any UPS store for reuse
• Plastic bags: recyclable through the It's In The Bag program. Many more kinds are recyclable than just grocery and newspaper bags. Here's the list:
ACCEPTED MATERIALS
[Note: All material must be clean and dry]
Plastic grocery bags
Plastic retail bags (remove string ties & rigid plastic handles)
Plastic dry-cleaning bags
Plastic cereal bags (must be dry with ALL food residue removed)
Plastic bread bags (must be dry with ALL rood residue removed)
Plastic produce bags (must be dry with ALL food residue removed)
Plastic frozen food bags (must be dry with ALL food residue removed)
Plastic wrap from paper products (paper towels, etc.)
Plastic salt bags (remove rigid plastic handles)
Plastic zipper bags (remove top closing mechanism)
Plastic stretch/shrink wrap
6-pack holder rings
NOT ACCEPTED
Plastic bags with food residue
Plastic bags with strings
Plastic soil or mulch bags
Plastic zipper bags with rigid plastic closing mechanism
Plastic bubble wrap
recyclable at most Twin Cities grocery stores including Cub, Lunds, Jerry's, Twin Cities Natural
Food Co-ops and many county recycling centers. If your plastics aren't clean, dry and free of food, they'll get thrown out as garbage, so make sure your stuff is clean. What works well with bags of crumbly stuff like bread, chips, cereal or crackers, or wet stuff like frozen vegetables, is to turn the bag inside out and shake it over your garbage can, or completely open up the bag along its seams. Let it air-dry if it's wet.
http://itsinthebagmn.com/
• Plastic bottle caps: recyclable at Aveda stores. They make the caps into new caps.
The program accepts caps that are rigid polypropylene plastic, sometimes noted with a 5 in the 'chasing arrows' (resin code) symbol. This includes caps that twist on with a threaded neck such as caps on shampoo, water, soda, milk and other beverage bottles, flip top caps on tubes and food product bottles (such as ketchup and mayonnaise), pharmaceutical lids, laundry detergents and some jar lids such as peanut butter.
Excluded from collection are non-rigid lids such as yogurt lids, tub lids (margarine, cottage cheese), screw-on lids that are not rigid, metal lids and plastic pumps or sprayers.
http://aveda.aveda.com/aboutaveda/caps.asp
Also note: If you leave caps on plastic bottles, they WILL get recycled. But you must leave the cap on the bottle -- don't remove the cap and throw it by itself in your recycling bin. Then it's too small and will fall through the screens at the recycling facility.
• Plastic containers #5 only: Take them to Whole Foods in Minneapolis or St. Paul and put them in the Preserve Gimme 5 bins. They get made into new products like toothbrush handles, tableware, mixing bowls and razors.
• Plastic containers #1-7: Now recyclable curbside in most metro-area cities, including Minneapolis!
• Plastic garden pots: recyclable at garden centers metrowide.
• Rags, clean: Eureka Recycling
USAgain has drop boxes metrowide. Label your bags with something like "clean linens for recycling."
• Scrap metal: Everything from nails to box springs. (There are many other places that take scrap metal, too; some even give you money!)
Coon Rapids Recycling Center, Coon Rapids
• Shoes that are so old or torn they can't be worn: recycle at REI stores in Bloomington and Maple Grove. They get shredded and made into oil spill clean-up kits.
• Styrofoam blocks, cups, plates, trays, containers: Coon Rapids Recycling Center, in partnership with HOM Furniture.
• Plastic garden pots: recyclable at garden centers metrowide.
• Rags, clean: Eureka Recycling
USAgain has drop boxes metrowide. Label your bags with something like "clean linens for recycling."
• Scrap metal: Everything from nails to box springs. (There are many other places that take scrap metal, too; some even give you money!)
Coon Rapids Recycling Center, Coon Rapids
• Shoes that are so old or torn they can't be worn: recycle at REI stores in Bloomington and Maple Grove. They get shredded and made into oil spill clean-up kits.
• Styrofoam blocks, cups, plates, trays, containers: Coon Rapids Recycling Center, in partnership with HOM Furniture.
• Thermostats: Free for households. These contain mercury, so don't throw them away. J.R.'s Advanced Recyclers in Inver Grove Heights.
• Tires: Hennepin County Recycling Drop-Off Centers, Brooklyn Park and Bloomington.
• Tires: Hennepin County Recycling Drop-Off Centers, Brooklyn Park and Bloomington.
Coon Rapids Recycling Center, Coon Rapids. First Saturday of each month, except holiday weekends. Fees vary.
• Tyvek envelopes, banners, signs: They're made of HDPE, #2 plastic. Send them back to Tyvek for recycling.
• Tyvek envelopes, banners, signs: They're made of HDPE, #2 plastic. Send them back to Tyvek for recycling.
SPECIAL NOTE
Best Buy recycles an extensive list of electronics. Consult their website for details.
TerraCycle recycles:
chip bags, drink pouches, yogurt cups, candy wrappers, cookie wrappers, Flavia fresh packs, granola/energy bar wrappers, Bear Naked packaging, Kashi packages, cell phones, personal care/beauty tubes, plastic-tape dispensers and cores, gum packages, writing instruments, Elmer's brand glue sticks and bottles, antibiotic ointment tubes, coffee bags, lunch kit packaging, toothpaste tubes, toothbrushes, plastic toothbrush packaging, baby-food pouches, tubs and lids from butter, margarine or cream cheese, and Ziploc bags and containers. For full details, visit TerraCycle's website.
TerraCycle recycles:
chip bags, drink pouches, yogurt cups, candy wrappers, cookie wrappers, Flavia fresh packs, granola/energy bar wrappers, Bear Naked packaging, Kashi packages, cell phones, personal care/beauty tubes, plastic-tape dispensers and cores, gum packages, writing instruments, Elmer's brand glue sticks and bottles, antibiotic ointment tubes, coffee bags, lunch kit packaging, toothpaste tubes, toothbrushes, plastic toothbrush packaging, baby-food pouches, tubs and lids from butter, margarine or cream cheese, and Ziploc bags and containers. For full details, visit TerraCycle's website.
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