Three Products You Shouldn’t Blindly Trash

Recycling is Not the Green Popular Topic It Once Was, but It’s Still Important

A dumpster; photo courtesy Niteowlneils

When you have really had enough of all the junk accumulating in your garage or storage unit and you want to finally get rid of it all, it’s tempting to just throw it all into the trash.

However, you might want to reconsider. Aside from the obviously recyclables, such as papers, cardboard, and old plastic bottles and containers, there are some other types of items that should never go into the regular trash.

Electronics

Electronics like computers and bulky CRT monitors should never be a landfill due to the toxic components they house. Often they end up in Third World countries.

Here they are picked through by children and the poor who scavenge for usable components, while next door the unusable parts are being burnt, out in the open, their toxic fumes breathed in by everyone near and far.

Instead, you should approach schools and non-profit organizations, or join Freecycle.com, an organization throughout the county where people offer items they don’t need anymore for easy pickup. And, of course, there is always Craig’s List.

Glass Containers

Recycling costs money and pollutes as well. Reusing glass is a much better and more creative idea. Think storage. Whether the glass container has a top or not it can be used for storage in your kitchen or home office.

With a closing, screw-on top, you can store rice or pasta in it. If you have no need at all of more storage containers, you can also use a glass container as a homemade terrarium and derive a great deal of low maintenance pleasure from it.

After cleaning the glass container, just throw in some activated charcoal from the aquarium section of your pet store, some dirt, and loosen some greens from the sidewalk or wherever, drop it in, water, and screw on the top.

Place it in a sunny spot in your apartment, and you now have a small patch of nature in your home.

Fabrics

Maybe you inherited your aunt’s fabric stash, or you were once a hobby sewer yourself, but now you lack the time for this worthwhile creative pursuit.

Your old fabrics still don’t deserve the land fill. Again, use Craig’s List or Freecycle; or, how about sacrificing just one hour of your time for a simple project like sewing a tote bag for your shopping so you don’t need to use plastic bags anymore?

Or sew some napkins, so you don’t need to buy paper napkins. With fabrics, the possibilities are endless. Do you have more suggestions? Share them with our readers in the comment section below.

About the Author:

Lyndsi Decker is a freelance writer and is currently promoting storage units Riverside and Extra Space Storage-San Bernardino. In her free time she enjoys blogging about environmental concerns.

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