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RSSA Homeowners Guide to Recycling at Home
GreenWerks | 
Jan 4th, 2012 | 
Depending on where you live, you may already do a lot of recycling. Many local councils provide recycling bins that make it easy to recycle glass, plastics, cardboard, and other materials commonly found in household waste. Some councils are testing out initiatives to arrange for the recycling of food waste, and there are other recycling schemes for furniture, and other major items. One environmentally conscious council is even pioneering a scheme to recycle mattresses. Since the scheme began, just four months ago, they’ve recycled 159 mattresses, saving them from landfill.
Recycling in Your Own Home
You don’t have to rely on your local authority to help you recycle, though. There are lots of small changes that you can make to your lifestyle to reduce the amount of waste that you need to throw away; saving the environment, and saving money at the same time.
If you take water to work with you, why not buy a flask and a water filter? This will help you to avoid having to throw away lots of plastic bottles. When you’re buying food, consider how far the food travelled to get to you. Do you really need Strawberries from Spain? Buy food that is produced locally, and is in season.
Do the same with soaps and detergents – buy refillable products instead of ones with wasteful packaging.
When items start breaking, see if you can repair them, rather than just throwing them out. Of course, if your mattress is coming apart at the seams then you probably do need to take a trip to the mattress discounters, but if one of your chairs has a slightly ragged cushion, why not just get that re-covered?
If you do make a major purchase, such as a trip to the mattress discounters, ask them if they can help with safe disposal or recycling of your old item. With some items, safe disposal is vital. This is especially true for electronics. Many department stores are willing to help with the disposal of batteries, and even small electronic products.
Cash for your old goods
When you upgrade your phone, don’t just throw the old one away. No matter how old it is, even if you think of it as “a brick”, there’s a good chance you’d get some cash for it from one of the mobile phone recycling sites. Make sure you erase your phone’s memory and remove the sim card before you sell it on, just in case the recycling company fails to do so. Most of the companies are reputable, but there’s always the risk that your phone might slip through the net, so it pays to be cautious.
Some final thoughts
When it comes to saving the environment, the best option, really, is to not use the product at all. Of course, that isn’t always practical. If you buy with the environment in mind, and only buy what you really need, then that’s a great start. If everyone contributed just a few small changes to their lifestyle, the impact on the Earth would be huge.
This article was written by Crispin Jones on behalf of The Original Factory Shop; a mattress discounters who also offer budget beds and other cut price goods for the home. Crispin is passionate about recycling and all things green.
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Let us all be aware that recycling electrical items is very beneficial to the environment. You see, what happens is that unwanted electricals and electronics will be recycled and contain very useful raw materials. Say for example, an iron has enough steel in it to create 13 steel cans.
Back when I was still living with my sister, she had this monthly garage sale of clothes and wardrobe. I don’t know if that counts as recycling but somehow that weird tradition of hers kinda rubbed off on me. Now that I’m living on my own, I do my own garage sale in the hopes of getting rid of old heaps of junk in my attic and basement. Old bicycles, egg trays, plastic bottles, rusty tools, beat-up treadmills. I guess that still counts as recycling eh? lol!
I’m a mother of two and I like to run my home as green as I can. I keep the trash segregated and keep a biodegradable pit in my backyard to fertilize the soil and keep my plants and flowers healthy –not to mention the air and my family. Green is my favorite color *wink wink*.
I’ve always tried to reduce plastic bag use by packing school lunches in reuseable containers. Buy a few for each child in various sizes and use them over and over for everything from sandwiches to fruit to snacks. The containers last for months (sometimes years!) and the plastic bag waste reduction is huge!
I was actually not aware that companies pay for old cell phones. I have seen websites where you can give your old cellphone for free so that it is recycled. This can actually be a very good business idea.
I do not throw away stuff, I always try to use them again. I haven’t bought a plastic bag for ages and I even use old boots as flower pot. I saw that at friend’s house and it look so nice.
It would be a whole lot better if people will make recycling a habit. I’ve seen so many neat places and I pray that all places would see mother earth as something precious.