Recycling Part Three: 6 Common Household Items and How to Recycle Them

Adventures in Sustainable Living Podcast

Episode 79

Recycling Part Three

Six Common Household Items and How to Recycle Them

Recycling is all about reducing the amount of waste that goes to the landfill. If you talk about recycling, most people instantly think about paper, plastic, glass, aluminum, and vegetable cans. However, there are a number of other things in our homes that can and should be recycled. For example, light bulbs.

In this episode I am going to talk about how to recycle 6 common household items that most of us never even think about. It may require a little bit more work but it is something that is doable.  

If you want to be in the know, then listen to this episode on Recycling Part Three: Common Household Items and How to Recycle them. 

Welcome back everyone to the Adventures in Sustainable Living podcast. This is your host Patrick and this is E79 which is Recycling Part Three: Common Household Items and How to Recycle Them.  

But before we get started once again I want to remind everyone that if you have questions, comments, of suggestions about the content I produce, you can email me at [email protected] Repeat.  

So, let’s get right down to today’s topic. 

This is going to be a little bit of a shorter episode because I just simply want to cover 6 common household items that can easily be recycled, some of which we likely never even think about. But the point here is to always get you to think about options as far as recycling and reducing your waste.  Eventually maybe all of us will make it our goal to go zero waste. But in the mean time, we always have to things about recycling. 

Additionally, there are actually some common household items that should be recycled simply because that contain toxic chemicals and should never go to a landfill.  

So, let’g get right down to it. 

Light Bulbs 

There are many things in our homes that we can recycle that most of us never really think about. For example, before producing this episode, I never thought that you could and should recycle light bulbs. I never have before and truly never gave it any thought. But it truly is something that you can do.  

As it turns out, there are three main types of light bulbs and each has a particular set of challenges.  

The older type of light bulbs, which are much less common these days, are the incandescent bulbs. These bulbs are made of glass with a tungsten filament that when current is passed through it, it heats to the point of being white hot and produces visible light. However, due to their inherent inefficiency, this bulbs are actually being phased out of many applications. However, they have a very low manufacturing cost, can be used indoors and outdoors, and are a very popular choice.  But, in 2007 due to new efficiency standards, these bulbs started to get phased out.  

But, if you still have some around the house, you can recycle them but it is difficult because they contain small amounts of metal and glass that are difficult to separate. However, they do not contain any hazardous materials and if you end up throwing them out, at least they will not do any harm.  

Halogen bulbs are another type of light bulb that is difficult to recycle. It contains quartz glass which has a different melting point than other common types of glass. So, if you can, then avoid purchasing halogen bulbs because they are still on the market and you can easily find them.  

Compact fluorescent light bulbs, or CFLs for short, were a step up in efficiency above the standard incandescent bulb. These bulbs are commonly used in schools, businesses, and hospitals. These bulbs are made of a glass tube that contains argon and mercury and when a current passes through they emit visible light. 

Although these bulbs are energy efficient, they are not very environmentally friendly due to the mercury contents which is highly toxic to people and animals. Due to that, these bulbs should never be thrown in the trash and should be recycled. The EPA even suggests that consumers take advantage of local CRL recycling programs.  In fact, some large retailers such as Lowes and Home Depot accept CLFs for recycling.  

Now that leads us up to LED bulbs, which stands for light emitting diode. These bulbs are 90% more efficient that incandescent bulbs and last up to 50,000 hours. Not only that, LED bulbs are environmentally friendly and are easily recycled which makes them a fantastic choice. 

As one small aside here, when I was designing my solar electric systems, I switched everything to LED bulbs. I think it cost me about $150 USDs to do so but it cut my energy usage for lighting by 75%.  

So don’t forget to recycle this common household item because they contain plastic, glass, metal, phosphorus, and elemental mercury and can be used to make all sorts of new things including countertops and even more light bulbs.  

Textiles

Another common household item that really should be recycled is old clothes as well as any other items such as bed linens, cloth napkin, towels.  The reason for this is that the textiles that we use these days are designed to not break down.  Consequently, these items can take years to decompose and can leach toxic substances into the ground water especially if they are a synthetic material. 

Recycling material such as this can be shredded into raw fibers and re-spun into new textiles, or reused as rags, garments, insulation, baseball filling, pet beds, cushions, automobile upholstery,  as well as a variety of other things. 

But, if your old textiles are in good shape, consider reselling them on eBay or simply donate them. Animal shelters will take materials. Organizations the work with the homeless will often take items in good condition. But please don’t just throw them in the trash. 

Every year the average person in the U.S. throws away almost 70 pounds of textiles that could be recycled. Close to 17 million tons of textiles are produced in the U.S. every years and the EPA estimates that 85% ends up in the trash. So, there are many ways to reuse this valuable resource instead of sending it to the landfill.  

Laptop Computers

Laptop computers are also another household item that truly needs to be recycling. Although they are not accepted as curbside recycling, you can used several other recycling programs. Laptops actually contain gold, silver, platinum, glass, various electronic parts, other metals and batteries which makes it profitable to recycle them so don’t be surprised with someone is willing to take them off your hands.  

One word of caution: laptops do contain some heavy metals that can be dangerous to the environment so leave the recycling to the professionals. Also, be sure to wipe your hard drive clean of any personal data prior to recycling. 

You can do some online research to look for a reputable recycler or take advantage of take back recycling programs offered by Staples, Apple, Dell, and Best Buy. if you are uncomfortable about recycling your laptop for security reasons, then simply remove the hard drive and destroy that by drilling holes in it. 

Moving boxes, wooden crates and plastic bins.  

Most moving boxes can be recycled but it does depend on what they are made of. It is okay to leave ink labels on the boxes but packing tape needs to be removed because that is not recyclable. Typically boxes need to be broken down and can be picked up with most curbside recycling programs. Keep in mind that boxes that contain a thin layer of plastic on the inside cannot be recycled due to the difficulty in separating the materials.   

Most plastic bins are also recycled as long as they are clean and dry. At one time when I was moving cross country a purchased a number of plastic bins from Home Depot because they were durable. After my move, I donated them. There is a curbside spot closed to where I live where people  will put donate items and place a sign on the them that says “Free to a good home” . My plastic bins were there for less than an hour.  

Recycling Appliances

Now let’s talk about recycling appliances such as stoves, refrigerators, air conditioning units, and water heaters. Even though this may not be as easy as other things you can recycle, it is highly preferable to recycle appliances simply because of the chemicals these contain. And some of those chemical can pose a significant risk to the environment, wildlife as well as people. 

There are a variety of chemicals used as refrigerants depending on what year the appliance was manufactured. Things such as chlorofluorocarbons, hydrochlorofluorocarbons which are potent greenhouse gases and ozone depleting substances. Some appliances can contain certain types of oils and even mercury which is toxic. 

But besides all of this, a 12 year old refrigerator contains upwards of 120 pounds of recyclable steel. Not to mention plastics and other parts that can be recycled.   

Often the easily things to do if you are purchasing a new appliance from a local major outlet, before you purchase make sure that they will take care of the disposal and recycling for you. If you cannot do that then you may be tasked with removing the refrigerant before the recycling. Fair warning though, this is something that has to be done by someone that is a certified technician simply because these substances can be dangerous. 

If you do not have a company that will recycle your unit, then contact your local municipal waste management division. Be sure to inquire about what you need to do to get the appliance ready for recycling. You can also check with major appliance retailers and even local utility companies to determine if they have recycling programs.

A lot of the same principles hold true for water heaters, dishwashers, clothes washers and dryers, and A/C units. These items contain hundreds of pounds of scrap metal that can easily be recycled. 

Shoes

Now, what about shoes. This is yet another common household item than can easily be recycling. There are approximately 23 billion pairs of shoes that are manufactured every year, and about 87% of those are made in Asia.  Most of these shoes will end up in a landfill. 

If you are donating old shoes, most drop off stations will only take gently used shoes that can easily be used by someone else. In some countries such as the United Kingdom, old shoes can be taken to almost any recycling center. However the same is not necessary true in the United States. 

But there is a company called TerraCycle (spell out) that is privately owned that will recycle many things that other places will not. 

But the Nike company also has a recycling program. As part of the Move to Zero campaign, Nike will take shoes for recycling. However it is limited only to athletic sneakers. 

Got Sneakers is a sneaker recycling organization whose primary objective is to send shoes around the world to places where they are not as accessible. 

Sooner of later, we all have to purchase new shoes. When that time comes, perhaps a good option would be to pay a little more for shoes up front that can even be repaired. That way you get a lot more life for the money you pay.

Okay, just to start wrapping things up here for today, I know this episode was likely not the most exciting topic. But in a way, I felt obligated to cover this anyway just to try to always keep you thinking about reducing your waste and recycling as much as possible. 

Once again, I want to remind my listeners that if you want to contact me with questions, comments, or even suggestions about content, especially if it is some thing you really want to hear about, then contact me at [email protected].  

I want to end this episode with a quote from Nelson Mandela who was a social rights activist, politician, and philanthropist who became South Africa’s first black president from 1994 to 1999.  Nelson Mandela said, “It always seems impossible until it’s done.”

The same could be said for having a life that if fully sustainable. It may seem impossible but it can be done.  

This is your host Patrick signing off until next week. Always remember to live sustainably because this is how we build a better future.    

Patrick