5 Things You Didn't Realize You Could Recycle

Recycling–its value is crucial to support an environmentally healthy and economically developed Long Island.

It’s the final “R” in the waste hierarchy of Reduce-Reuse-Recycle, but many will tell you it is the most significant. As we near Earth Day, recycling stands as the key element in the movement of appreciating and improving the environment.

In this day and age you can recycle almost anything; glass, paper, metal, plastic, fabrics, and so forth. How many of us have gone to our local bottle deposit machine to drop off some cola cans or water bottles? How about binding up our magazines and newspapers so that they’re ready to be picked up by our town’s sanitation department? These are effective, yet basic, recycling routines.

1. In this article we want to inform you on a couple of items you may not have realized can be reprocessed, recovered, and reused. Here are some of those not-so-everyday recycling methods to give a try: We recognize that brownfields redevelopment is the future of growth on Long Island. So it’s no surprise that number one on our list is land recycling. Land recycling is the reuse of abandoned, underused properties for redevelopment and brownfields – areas with real or perceived contamination – fit the bill. A brownfield might be a former factory, gasoline station, dry cleaners, storage facility, or business where chemicals or solvents were used or stored. If you’ve identified a brownfield in your town, gather members of your community and decide if you’re ready to take on a redevelopment project. If so, it’s time to match up a potential redeveloper with a cleanup strategy, choose the right finance cleanup program, and satisfy all community members by recycling vacant land.
2. How would you like a new basketball court in your community for your kids to play at? What about a tennis court at the local park? You can help encourage community revitalization efforts like this by simply recycling your old worn-out sneakers! The old school idea of tying your shoes together and throwing them over a power line down your street is a nice tradition, but many programs have been put forth to reuse that shoe in a more efficient way. Nike’s Reuse-A-Show is the most popular plan of the bunch, taking any brand of any sneaker (via drop off location or mail-in) and giving it new life. The material is reprocessed and distributed to surfacing companies that create sports surfaces for little leaguers, professionals, and everyone in between.
3. You can recycle all kinds of plastic, so surely you can recycle plastic utensils right? Wrong! A lot of utensils that we compile are not widely recyclable, but that doesn’t mean we can’t reuse them. We’d hope you’d invest in silverware, but you can always store plastic utensils for later use in your junk draw or glove compartment of your car for those on-the-go meals. Use them in your children’s lunchbox or keep a spoon by your office desk for morning coffee. Use utensils in the garden as plant supports for weary sprouts and don’t forget to let the kids have fun too; they can use them for an array of arts and crafts activities.
4. What would you do without your computer? Web surfing, email, social media – they are our gateway to the rest of world (wide web that is). Unfortunately, after you’ve visited your last website, toxic chemicals and heavy metals can cause massive e-waste. Perhaps recycling electronics isn’t the newest of ideas, but improper discarding of the equipment has become all too common. Only one out of five computers is recycled today with the rest, you guessed it, making its way to a landfill. Contact your manufacturer, as they often offer many recycling programs or check out the many national and local recycling programs that can be found at place such as ecosquid.com
5. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, each year Americans buy almost three billion batteries to power common household items. The average American discards eight batteries each year and you have to wonder where they end up (Hint: Landfill)? It may be easy to just throw our used or dead batteries in the trash, but that can be detrimental to the environment. There are all sorts of metals in batteries that if not recycled, can seep into the air and leak into soil causing harmful pollution. Bring your batteries, whether from your car or your remote, to collection sites and feel good about recycling.

This article was submitted by Sustainable Long Island.

Sustainable Long Island’s mission is to promote economic development, environmental health, and social equity for all Long Islanders, now and for generations to come. Sustainable Long Island is a catalyst and facilitator for sustainable development. It cultivates the conditions, identifies resources and provides tools to make smart growth happen on Long Island.  For more information, visit the Sustainable Long Island website here.