Things we tend to trash when we should recycle

About 75% of the trash we throw away could be recycled. Prior to the 1980s magazines were not recyclable because of their glossy pages, now because of today's new technologies, they ARE recyclable! I recycle the junk mail catalogs, but I donate the regular magazines to local school art programs (another great idea to recycle and help the students at the same time). Speaking of JUNKMAIL... More than 100 million trees are destroyed each year to produce junk mail! The average American receives 18 pieces of junk mail for every one piece of personal correspondence. Most junk mail can be recycled, even the envelopes with the little plastic see through windows in them! So do what I have and make a special junkmail/scrap paper box and recycle it! I will be posting another blog focusing just on junk mail and how to stop it! So be on the look out! Phone books can also be recycled, depending where you live you may have to find the nearest drop location. Computer paper is one of the most prevalent and easily recycled types of paper made today. So next time you print the wrong size document or have to edit and reprint something again, refrain from balling it up and shooting it in your nearest trash can, place it in your junkmail/scrap paper recycling box instead! Do you know that to produce each week's Sunday newspapers, 500,000 trees must be cut down? Approximately 1 billion trees worth of paper are thrown away every year in the U.S. Recycling a single run of the Sunday New York Times would save 75,000 trees. If all our newspaper was recycled, we could save about 250,000,000 trees each year! If every American recycled just one-tenth of their newspapers, we would save about 25,000,000 trees a year. Only 27% of the newspapers produced in America are recycled. Newsprint is easily recycled and can be made into new newsprint and other materials. So if you have newspapers lying around don't trash them! You can use them as packing materials, or just recycle them the plain old fashioned way! Cardboard is recyclable when not wet or contaminated with food or oil. Did you know that cardboard is also biodegradable? 1/3 of the average dump is made up of packing materials which could be recycled. Another good idea is to keep the packing materials for when you need to send something off in the mail, you still recycled the materials and you save a little money as well! GO GREEN AND SAVE GREEN!!! If we recycled all newsprint, cardboard, glass, and metal, we could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 850 pounds a year!! Paperboard is also recyclable! Paperboard makes up all the boxes that your cereal comes in, and other products, like I said before almost ALL packing and packaging materials can be recycled. This is what I go by for easily determining if its recyclable or not...
If it is, plastic, glass, paper, or metal of most sorts it can be recycled! Most everything in my home is recycled. I put out an average of 2-4 bags of trash a month! THAT'S A MONTH PEOPLE! How much trash do you send to the dump even weekly? Probably at least that if you don't recycle! Recycle and you will also save money on buying trash bags, and wont have to do that chore of taking the trash out so much! Also all food that is not consumed in my house is put into a compost pile if it is organic, including any cut flowers I dispose of . Each year the average American throws out 1200 pounds of organic garbage that can be composted! And once again by going green and making a compost pile you are saving some green by not having to buy pre-packaged soil when its time to plant that garden you have been thinking about doing for a while now! SO JUST DO IT! Now is the time to go green ALL THE WAY!! More to come on these subjects! I will keep you posted!

Facts based upon:
www.Earth911.com
www.ewashtenaw.org
www.stopjunkmailkit.com