If you think breaking up is hard to do in relationships, just wait till you try to get rid of some of the items covered in this section. All of them can be recycled, but issues like cost, difficulty, or bulk may make your local recycling center say, "Thanks but no thanks" when you try to drop them off. Don't despair: This section tells you how to do the right thing and recycle these hard-to-get-rid-of items.
Polystyrene foam (what you probably call Styrofoam, which is a trademark owned by the Dow Chemical Company) is all around us—from hot-beverage cups and meat trays to insulation and packaging materials. This foam is mostly air, so while it's not heavy, it's really bulky. And because it doesn't biodegrade, it takes up lots of space in landfills and will be there pretty much forever.
Many curbside recycling programs don't take polystyrene foam. So what should you do with it? Here are some ideas:
Reuse it. When you receive a box full of foam packing peanuts, don't throw them out. Reuse them when you mail stuff that needs cushioning, or offer them to a local company or mailing center, which may take them off your hands. Or use 'em in craft projects or donate them to a school or scout troop that can use them for such projects.
Tip
If you ship a lot of items, don't buy foam packing peanuts. Instead, try Puffy Stuff (http://puffystufftn.com), an all-natural, plant-based packaging material that's 100% biodegradable.
Find a recycling center that accepts it. Go to www.earth911.com and type in polystyrene and your Zip code to get a list of nearby centers that'll take it off your hands.
Mail it away. If you can't recycle it locally, visit the Alliance of Foam Packaging Recyclers website (www.epspackaging.org) and click the Recycling Info Resources link. This takes you to a page that lists both drop-off and mail-in locations for polystyrene recyclers.
Tires and landfills are a bad combination: Tires are large and heavy, and their donut shape makes them take up a lot of room. They can also damage landfill liners, letting contaminant-filled leachate (Destination: Landfill) leak out. Burning tires isn't an option because that releases toxic chemicals (including benzene and lead). According to the EPA, nearly 300 million tires are discarded in the U.S. each year—that's just about one for every American.
So what should you do when your tires wear out? It's important to dispose of them properly. Many tire shops and mechanics will take old tires (usually for a small fee) and send them to be recycled. Or call your waste management agency to find out how to recycle old tires and whether they charge to accept them.
Rubber is resilient and lasts a long time, so recycled tires go to a variety of uses:
Some tires can be retreaded and hit the road again. A good-quality car tire can be retreaded and reused about three times before it's too worn for more retreading.
Rubberized asphalt concrete (made of shredded, ground-up tires mixed with asphalt) is used to pave roads.
Rubber granules from old tires make a springy, spongy surface for playgrounds.
Materials made from recycled tires show up in lots of building and home-decorating materials, including carpets, floor tiles, structural supports, and shingles.
Note
One common use for old tires that's not so environmentally friendly is tire-derived fuel (TDF). The EPA estimates that about 45% of recycled tires become TDF. Industries that use TDF burn shredded tires along with coal or other fuels, which raises concerns about air pollution and health risks near such facilities. The Energy Justice Network campaigns against incinerating tires; go to www.energyjustice.net/tires to learn more.
Cellphone companies are always trying to sell you on their newest, slickest, thinnest, most feature-packed model. When you get a new cellphone, don't just throw the old one away. For one thing, it contains toxic metals, including lead, mercury, cadmium, and arsenic. For another, it could be refurbished and used by someone else. Even if your old phone is beyond repair, its components—including gold, copper, and plastic—can be extracted and recycled.
Note
The EPA estimates that 100 million cellphones go out of use each year. Recycling them would save enough energy to power 18,500 U.S. households for a whole year.
When it's time to hang up your old phone, you may be able to mail it back to the company that made it (check the manufacturer's website for instructions). Or consider one of these recycling options:
Donate your phone to support a good cause:
Cell Phones for Soldiers (www.cellphonesforsoldiers.com) accepts donated phones and trades them to used-phone dealer Recellular for calling cards that U.S. soldiers stationed overseas can use to call home for free. There's also a Canadian version of this program: www.cellphonesforsoldiers.ca.
HopeLine (http://tinyurl.com/9qu3wc). Sponsored by Verizon, HopeLine collects cellphones and accessories and donates them to victims of domestic violence.
Phones 4 Charity (www.phones4charity.org) refurbishes phones and sends them to economically struggling areas in the U.S. and abroad.
Recycling for Charities (www.recyclingforcharities.com) lets you choose the charity you want to support with your donated phone, digital camera, or iPod.
Raise money for a local cause or group. These organizations will help you organize a cellphone drive:
Phoneraiser (www.phoneraiser.com).
Funding Factory (www.fundingfactory.com).
Ecophones (www.ecophones.com).
Shelter Alliance (www.shelteralliance.net).
If your phone still works and is a recent model, you may be able to put a few bucks in your pocket by selling it. These companies offer online quotes and live support:
Gazelle (www.gazelle.com).
Pace Butler (www.pacebutler.com).
Cell for Cash (www.cellforcash.com).
Simply Sellular (www.simplysellular.com).
Note
If you live in the U.K. and you want to recycle your phone, visit the Recycling Appeal's website at www.recyclingappeal.com.
It's called e-waste: computers, MP3 players, televisions, printers, cameras and the like that have stopped working or simply become obsolete, surrendering their place to newer, sleeker, more feature-rich models. The EPA estimates that such waste accounts for about 2% of municipal solid waste in the U.S. That may not sound like a whole lot until you consider that in 2007, all that e-waste added up to 2.5 million tons. And the amount of this kind of waste is steadily growing. In the United States alone, 130,000 computers get junked every day. It's no wonder that many charities limit or refuse donations of used computers and other e-waste.
Discarded electronics contain hazardous materials including lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury, polyvinyl chlorides (PVCs), and brominated flame retardants (BFRs), which are suspected of causing a whole range of health problems, including brain damage and cancer. So when it's time to upgrade your computer or replace a TV that no longer works, you want to make sure those chemicals don't get into the environment.
Note
Burning PVCs and BFRs creates dioxins, chemicals that the U.S. EPA has called the most toxic air pollution problem.
With more and more electronics getting tossed out, it's becoming increasingly important to make sure they're reused or recycled properly. Here are some tips for making them into e-cyclables, not e-waste:
Choose your recycler with care. Any company that accepts e-waste should reuse or recycle what they can and manage waste responsibly. But that's not always the case. Some of the stuff you take to a recycling center may end up in landfills, or get shipped to places like China or Nigeria, where it's dismantled in an unsafe and environmentally irresponsible way. To find a recycler who'll make sure your e-waste doesn't poison disadvantaged people or the earth, look for companies who've earned the Basel Action Network's e-Steward certification. This third-party program makes sure that a recycler doesn't dump toxic e-waste in landfills or burn it in incinerators, doesn't send it to developing countries or prison labor operations, documents where the e-waste goes, and destroys any private data stored on the discarded electronics. To learn more about this international program and get a list of certified e-Stewards, visit www.e-stewards.org.
Tip
The Electronics TakeBack Coalition, which promotes green design and responsible recycling in the electronics industry, also has a list of e-waste recyclers they've approved. To find one in your state, go to www.electronicstakeback.com; from the left-hand menu select Responsible Recycling, and then click "Find a responsible recycler."
Check with the manufacturer. Many computer companies—including Apple, Dell, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard, and Sony—have recycling programs for their products. Some charge a fee, others require you to buy a new product from them before they'll take away the old one.
Check with retailers. Stores such as Best Buy, Staples, and Office Max accept used electronics for recycling. They may charge a fee, but sometimes they offer special rebates on new equipment when you recycle your old electronics.
Ask questions. Before you hand over your e-waste, make sure you get satisfactory answers to these important questions:
How do you destroy data that's currently on the machine? (If any personal data is lingering on the hard drive, you don't want it to end up in the wrong hands.)
Do you send any e-waste to incinerators or landfills?
Have you applied for e-Steward certification?
Do you ship any e-waste to programs or companies that use prison labor?
Do you donate used or refurbished electronics? If so, to which organizations do you donate?
Donate to Free Geek or a similar organization. Free Geek, based in Portland, Oregon, is a nonprofit group that refurbishes donated computers and related technology and gives them to schools and other charitable organizations or sells them in its thrift shop. Anything Free Geek can't refurbish or sell for parts gets recycled responsibly. To find Free Geek programs in other states and Canada, visit www.freegeek.org; the site's Links page lists similar organizations around the world.
Most appliances can be recycled for scrap metal. Here's how it works: The appliance gets torn to pieces by a giant shredder, magnets pull out iron-based metal, and then other metals such as aluminum get separated out from the detritus. Many appliances contain some materials, such the plastic liner in a dishwasher, that can't be recycled, but the process significantly reduces what gets thrown out.
Note
Appliances containing Freon—including refrigerators, freezers, and air conditioners—require special handling. To find out where to recycle yours, check out Energy Star's Recycle page at www.energystar.gov/recycle.
Your garbage company may be set up to dispose of appliances, so give them a call to find out and see what special requirements they, if any. Some cities and utility companies offer rebates for recycling old appliances and replacing them with new, efficient, Energy Star models, so check for such programs in your area.
When you buy an appliance, the retailer may offer to take away your old one (possibly for a fee) when they deliver the new one. Ask what happens to appliances they collect, and find out whether they're a member of the U.S. EPA's Responsible Appliance Disposal (RAD) program. RAD is a voluntary partnership between utility companies, cities, retailers, manufacturers, and others to ensure that old appliances get scrapped responsibly. RAD partners agree to:
When buying a new car, many people trade in their old one to get some credit toward the new one. The dealer then cleans up the old car and resells it. Everybody wins: You save money on your new car, the dealer makes a profit, and the person who buys the used car gets a road-worthy vehicle for less, and one less car goes to the junkyard.
If your car still has some life in it but won't get you much as a trade-in, consider donating it. Many charities accept cars and sell them to raise money. It's a great system: You support a good cause, get rid of a car you don't need, and get a tax deduction. If you're thinking of donating a car, keep these points in mind:
The best way to donate your car is to find a charity you support and contact it directly to see whether it accepts cars.
Watch out for middlemen who advertise on TV, in print, or online. Many of these companies take a big chunk—50% or more—of the profits from your donation.
Be meticulous in your paperwork: Get a receipt, and if you plan to deduct more than $500 from your taxes, the IRS may want to see evidence showing how much the charity made from selling the car.
Finally, if your car is too old or broken down to donate, scrap it. Sell or give the old clunker to an auto wrecker, who will strip it of any parts that can be reused, then shred what's left and separate the pieces into:
Ferrous metals like iron and steel.
Nonferrous metals, such as zinc and aluminum.
"Fluff," which includes remnants of the car's dashboard, carpet, seat cushions, carpeting, plastics, and so on.
The wrecker then sells the metals to companies that melt them down and reuse them. The fluff, considered unusable, goes to a landfill.