Sunday, November 12, 2017

Waste Tips Part 1

Hey you! As you probably know, our household was accepted to be apart of Hennepin County's Zero Waste Challenge. We've signed up for 9 months of education, training and challenging our own behaviors. I've been really nerdy and sharing tips via twitter along the way and I thought I would compile there here as well. To be clear, it's important that you know your own local area recycling rules - and it's great to research what facility actually processed your waste streams and ask your questions to them for the straightest answers! Most of there are general & applicable everywhere, but some might be our area specific.

most bathroom waste is compostable, put a compost bin in your bathroom for tissues, cotton balls (chemical free), qtips (paper stem only), hair and fingernails clippings

don't crush your cans or bottles, sorting machines need 3-D objects to detect or they might think it's flat paper

shredded paper is too small to go through recycling sorters... put shredded in a large envelop to ensure it travels with other paper

store your foodscraps in a container in your freezer for less mess and less smell

black plastic is never recyclable, nope never, don't do it. Optical scanners can't see what kind of plastic it is and can't sort it in recycling facilities

remember the first of the 3 Rs is REDUCE, the last is Recycle and they are organized that way for a reason

leave your plastic soda bottle caps on the bottles but make sure to dump the liquid first

nope, styrofoam is not recyclable, don't do it. Ever.

did you know that accepts and recycles old shoes through their Reuse-A-Shoe drop offs. Google it.

while plastic bags are technically recyclable they cannot be mixed with curbside recycling because they get caught in the sorting machines, bring them to or instead for recycling

most plastic food containers are recyclable

clean aluminum foil is recyclable. Start a tinfoil ball to add on to, a big ball will help ensure it makes it's way through the sorting belts

line the bottom of your kitchen compost can with newspaper or napkins, it'll help the compostable liner last longer

put beer caps in a tin can and swish the can closed when it's full. Helps ensure it all makes it through the metal sorting

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