Things You Can Recycle for Free

Friday is America Recycles Day.  Looking for different stuff to recycle?  Here’s some help –

10 Things You Didn't Know You Could Recycle for Free 

November 4, 2013

By Leah Ingram

There are a number of items we recycle on a regular basis. We put our paper, plastics, and aluminum out for curbside pickup. When our county holds a household hazardous waste day, we use it to recycle electronics, paints, and anything else that needs to be safely disposed. And when our linens become threadbare, we “recycle” those towels, sheets, and blankets by donating them to a local animal shelter.

What I didn’t know is that there are plenty of other products we use on a daily basis that can be recycled. That’s good to know in time for America Recycles Day, occurring November 15. According to Recyclebank, which offers rewards based on how much households recycle, here are 10 things you likely didn’t know you could recycle:

1. Pet Fur: In our house we usually “recycle” pet fur, along with dryer lint, in one of two ways—by making fire starters for our fireplace, or by placing the fur in our compost pile. Turns out pet fur can be reused to make the mats and containment booms that companies use after an oil spill. Matter of Trust, a San Francisco-based nonprofit, uses donations of clean pet fur to make both the mats and booms from recycled pantyhose (see tip 6 below for more on how to recycle pantyhose). These designs effectively soak up oil without requiring the use of new resources.
2. Bras: I’ve often donated bras when I bring my items to Goodwill, assuming they’re not too worn out to benefit someone else. Another way to recycle your bras is to send them to the Bosom Buddies Bra Recycling program, run by a textile recycling company. It donates bras of all shapes and sizes to local shelters, or redistributes them through exporters and organizations to women in developing nations. You can mail in your old bras or bring them to a drop-off location near you.
3. Glasses and Hearing Aids: The Lions Club often collects old glasses, and recycles the frames to make new pairs of glasses for those living in developing nations who need vision correction but can’t afford glasses. (I’ve worn glasses since I was seven. I know how expensive they can be!) Another program that takes glasses as well as hearing aids is New Eyes for the Needy.
4. Mattresses: Before buying your next mattress, see if the retailer will take your old one. Several mattress retailers will now accept used mattresses for recycling. Used mattresses are sent to a mattress recycling center, where they are turned into fiber for clothing, wood chips, foam products, and scrap metal. Check out the Earth 911 website for mattress recycling options near you.
5. Greeting Cards: I’ll often recycle last year’s holiday cards into tags for this year’s holiday gifts. But if you’re not too crafty, you can send old cards to the St. Jude’s Ranch for Children Recycled Card Program, which turns old greeting cards into new ones.
6. Pantyhose: Companies like No Nonsense recycle your old, nylon pantyhose by grinding them down and transforming them into park benches, playground equipment, carpets, and even toys. Here are two ways to reuse pantyhose at home for free: stuff them with old t-shirts to make a draft stopper that you put in front of drafty doors in winter, or fill them with ice melt, and put them in your gutters to keep any water that might collect there from freezing up.
7. Compact Discs: Even though most music these days is downloaded, there are still plenty of CDs out in the world. You can send your discs to The CD Recycling Center, which will shred them into a fine powder that’s later melted down, and used for plastic in automotive and building materials.
8. Tennis Balls: There are a few ways to recycle tennis balls. You can use them in the dryer, to help move clothes around and dry faster. Dogs also like old tennis balls as toys. And teachers who don’t like the sound of scraping desks and chairs will gladly take tennis balls off your hands so they can use them on furniture legs.
9. Wine corks: Ever wonder where cork flooring comes from? Well, an organization called reCork turns wine corks into flooring tiles, along with building insulation, automotive gaskets, craft materials, soil conditioner, and sports equipment.
10. Running Shoes: Even the most worn-out shoes can be recycled into building materials! Check out Recycled Runners for shoe recycling facilities and organizations near you. This is good to know, because I’ve always wanted to donate my daughters’ sneakers, but since they were too stinky, I felt bad handing them down to someone else.

Of course, this list just scratches the surface of where you can go to recycle things you use in your everyday life. One “service” I continue to rely on to get rid of things I no longer need is Freecycle, where one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. It’s the ultimate way to recycle household items you no longer want or need—by giving them away for free to others.
Leah Ingram is the author of 14 books, including two on frugal living: Suddenly Frugal: How to Live Happier and Healthier on Less (Adams Media, 2010) and Toss, Keep, Sell: The Suddenly Frugal Guide to Getting Organized and Making Money from Your Stuff (Adams Media, 2010). She is also the founder of the popular frugal-living blog called Suddenly Frugal. Right now if you subscribe to Suddenly Frugal, Leah will send you an exclusive freebie. Each week here on Parade.com she’ll be covering different money-saving ideas as well as profiling frugal celebrities. If you have an idea, let her know. In the meantime, follow her on Twitter @suddenlyfrugal and “Like” Suddenly Frugal on Facebook.
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Friday Funny

  

An “idea” for all you “greenies” traveling this holiday weekend.  :)

Have a green Veteran’s Day weekend!  Take time to remember those who served!

Long-Range Plug-In Electric Car

We offer a battery of green 'toons/comics here; this cartoons is from The Other Coast, by Adrian Raeside; Embed source: comics.com

Protecting Rare South Florida Plants

Feds extend protection to handful of rare South Florida plants

By Curtis Morgan

Cmorgan@miamiherald.com

South Florida’s remaining pine rocklands, a forest habitat reduced to perhaps 1 percent of its historical acreage by decades of development, may win new federal protection after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this week proposed listing as endangered two rare rocklands plants: the Florida brickell-bush and Carter’s small-flowered flax.

As a part of that move, the agency also wants to designate 2,707 acres of rocklands outside of Everglades National Park, which already protects the largest remaining tracts of woods, as “critical habitat” for both species.

In addition, wildlife managers on Wednesday announced that they have formally added three other rare Florida coastal plants to the federal endangered species list, including two found only in South Florida — the Cape Sable thoroughwort and Florida semaphore cactus.

Jaclyn Lopez, a Florida-based attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, which sued the service over its long backlog of delayed listings, said climate change is the biggest threat to the latest three plants to go on the federal list.

“These native plants are being squeezed out of existence — pressed between coastal development and rising sea levels,” said Lopez, a Center attorney based in Florida, in a release.

Federal wildlife managers, in their announcement, did not specifically mention climate change but cited habitat destruction and modification as key risks.

Development and farming destroyed most of Miami-Dade’s pine rocklands, which grow on Miami-Dade’s coastal limestone ridge and were the source of famed Dade County pine, a durable lumber used to build homes through the 1960s. Because the pine forest occupied the region’s highest and driest land, it also was among the earliest land to be developed in the county.

Most of the remaining pine rocklands in Miami-Dade are already in public hands as parks or conservation areas. The critical habitat doesn’t add any new regulatory teeth but it can boost efforts by state and local groups and agencies to maintain the land. Pine rocklands, for instance, are vulnerable to invasive plants and need periodic burning to thrive.

The dramatic loss of rocklands over the last century left many otherwise obscure plants that grow there among the rarest in North America, with some appearing only sporadically in a handful of spots.

Wildlife managers estimate that there are about 2,150 to 3,700 Florida brickell-bush plants and about 1,300 Carter’s small-flowered flax plants.

The two plants have been candidates for the federal listing since 1999 and are both already listed as endangered by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the proposal was part of its effort to reduce a backlog of 757 candidate species under a federal court-approved settlement with the Center for Biological Diversity. The other three Florida coastal plants that the agency will officially declare endangered this week are: •  The aboriginal prickly apple, a cactus found in 12 sites in Sarasota, Charlotte and Lee counties, among coastal strand vegetation and tropical coastal hammocks..

•  The Florida semaphore cactus, which grows in buttonwood forests and tropical hammocks in Biscayne National Park and on Little Torch Key.

•  The Cape Sable thoroughwort, which is found in Miami-Dade and Monroe counties, mainly in Everglades National Park and the Florida Keys.

Beyond habitat loss, wildlife managers said the two cacti also are threatened by poaching and vandalism. The semaphore cactus also is at risk from disease and an invasive moth.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/10/23/3706984/feds-extend-protection-to-handful.html#storylink=cpy

Recycled toothbrush in Mail Back Pack

  I wanted to share information about this great product, Preserve Toothbrushes,that a friend showed me.  It’s a toothbrush made from recycled yogurt cups.  That in itself is great but the wonderful part is that it comes in a mail back pack.   Three months later when you are done with the toothbrush, you place it in the packaging and mail it back and it’s turned into plastic lumber!  What a great concept and it’s made in the USA!

The company also makes other personal care, tableware and kitchen products from recycled plastics.  Here’s some more information from their website:

Toothbrush in Mail Back Pack
We consulted closely with dental professionals to create a toothbrush that gets your teeth cleaner but minimizes your impact on the environment. The design includes a curved handle for those hard-to-reach places and a three-level bristle arrangement to massage your gums. And while the bristles are brand new, the handle is made from recycled yogurt cups.

Enjoy the same best selling Preserve Toothbrush whether you choose the Travel Case or Mail Back Pack. The Mail Back Pack is a revolutionary approach to packaging. The lightweight package doubles as a return envelope. Just pop your used Preserve toothbrush inside and send it back to us for recycling (our dentist friends recommend replacing your brush every three months!). You can also recycle it via our Gimme 5 program.

Features

• Powered by recycled yogurt cups™
• Handle 100% recycled #5 plastic; bristles new nylon
• Easy-to-grip curved handle
• Tiered bristles for gentle, thorough cleaning
• Completely recyclable after use
• Toothbrush replacement subscription service available
• BPA free
• Made in the USA

America Recycles Day coming November 15th!

Is LEED Certification Effective: A Case Study of Destiny USA

Edited from a media release: “Destiny USA, a 2.4 million square foot super regional shopping center which includes a LEED® Gold certified 850,000 sq. ft., is in Syracuse, New York.  It has luxury outlets, company stores, off-price retail, traditional anchors and mall shops that provide something for everyone.”

Is LEED Certification Effective: A Case Study of Destiny USA

By Rob Schoeneck, General Manager, Destiny USA

At Destiny USA there's always a lot of buzz generated around our LEED© certification. When we began the expansion, we wanted to continue the commitment to the environment we began when first building Carousel Center in 1990. Now, having just celebrated our one-year anniversary as Destiny USA, we are proud to be recognized not only as a premier shopping center, but as the largest LEED© Gold commercial retail building in the world. Yet with all the talk around LEED©, many are left wondering what it really means and whether it's actually beneficial.

LEED© stands for “Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design” and is a program run by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) to provide a universal framework for implementing green building design and construction. In addition to the LEED© program, the USGBC offers educational resources, a nationwide network of chapters and affiliates and serves as the host of the annual Greenbuild International Conference & Expo.  Furthermore, they’re driving the green movement within all levels of local and national government.

LEED© & Destiny USA

So that is what LEED© is at a high level, but what does it mean for Destiny USA? Destiny USA was rated Gold for "Core & Shell," which focuses on constructing an eco-conscious, sustainable build-out that will ultimately be filled with tenants. The rating system goes Certified > Silver > Gold > Platinum, and is further broken down into a points system. Out of the 62 total points available, Destiny USA earned 36 to qualify for the Gold rating.

As it specifically applies to Destiny USA, here are a few highlights:

To address a local environmental issue, we chose to transform an environmental wasteland dubbed "Oil City." The land was a former Brownfield Site, meaning it was severely environmentally damaged, and dozens of hazardous oil drums were removed before the site was cleaned and construction began.

Destiny USA scored a 5/5 in the water efficiency category. Part of this included the implementation of innovative wastewater technologies. For example, each of the facility's bathrooms is equipped with low flow sink and toilet fixtures that contribute to the overall water efficiency. We also installed water efficient landscaping, meaning we planted indigenous plants that don’t need potable water brought to them. Finally, we implemented a rainwater harvesting system on the new roof that translates into a 78% reduction in the building's baseline usage.

Additionally, Destiny USA requires all retailers opening within its expansion to obtain LEED© certification, aiming to exponentially increase the impact we’re having. To help, Destiny USA built a unique partnership with the USGBC which provides new retailers with a base set of points to work toward their certification. Since most tenants had never worked with LEED© before, our hope was that the initiative would open their eyes to green building and encourage them to start thinking sustainably. To date, 33 venues, including our new restaurants and entertainment locations, have obtained LEED© certification, with another 30 pending approval. Even more encouraging, seeing the rewards, many tenants have gone above and beyond simply getting certified, and have set their sights on a Silver or Gold rating.

For more information on what they have done, go to: http://destinyusa.com/green/does-leed-certification-work

The Florida Urban Forestry Council

I bet most of you didn't know that just about every state has an Urban Forestry Council and there's even a National Urban and Community Forestry Advisory Council.  I have been associated with the Florida Urban Forestry Council (FUFC) since its inception in

1991.  I currently sit on the Executive Committee as the City Arborist representative.  The main goal of the FUFC and other urban forestry councils is to promote the sound urban forestry policies and practices throughout the state.

Sound Urban Forestry is critical to creating a sustainable environment within our cities and communities.  I invite you to explore the FUFC website and encourage you to become a member so that you might be informed.  Below is information on the latest Council Quarterly membership newsletter.  Members also receive a monthly eNews message called "In a Nutshell."  

	The Council Quarterly 2013 Issue Three Inside this issue: Updating Your Tree Ordinance, A Mayor's Perspective Mobile Applications for Urban Forestry Gainesville Hugs Its Trees Friends of Our Urban Forest Awards Application Stump the Forester ** NEW FEATURE ** Letters to the Editor  **NEW FEATURE ** Tree of the Quarter- Nuttall Oak Managing Community Spotlight - City of Brooksville  To read these articles and more, download the latest Council Quarterly .   Thank you for your continued support of the Florida Urban Forestry Council! Thank You To Our Sustaining Sponsors
Forward to a friend FUFC Membership Florida Urban Forestry Council Post Office Box 547993 Orlando, FL 32854-7993 Add us to your address book Copyright (C) 2013 Florida Urban Forestry Council All rights reserved.