PLANET EARTH

* Get Ready to Recycle--Set up your household to make recycling easy. Keep recycling waste containers or baskets in strategic locations in your house along with ordinary waste baskets. It is easier to toss recyclables in a separate container than it is to rummage through the trash later to separate everything. Use the same types of containers for recyclable trash as you would for any other trash throughout the house.

Having only one container for recyclable trash in the kitchen or garage is not likely to foster participation in household recycling, because few people would want to walk to the other end of house to dispose of every piece of paper.

Bathrooms can generate a fair amount of recyclable waste, shampoo bottles, empty facial tissue boxes, and empty toilet paper tubes.

Any home office or room where students study is a place where a container for recyclable material would be useful. Alternately, a bathroom recycle container of sufficient size could be used to accommodate the recyclable waste generated in nearby rooms.



Find a place in or near the kitchen for either an organic waste tote (for carrying food waste out to the compost bin) or for a worm compost bin as described below. Some of the companies listed here in Waste Prevention World manufacture organic waste totes as big as a few gallons, and as small as 1.5 liters designed for your kitchen counter top. Alternately, you can just use a diaper pail or any container with a lid.

* Curbside Pickup--If you have curbside recycling pickup, you might be surprised at the variety of things they recycle. To find out what they accept, look on the Web or in the government section of your telephone directory for your City or County public works refuse department. The following is a list of items commonly accepted, but check first. Your curbside pickup might accept fewer items, or more items than these:
o Metal
+ Steel and Aluminum Cans--Beverage cans, food cans, aerosol cans.
+ Clean Aluminum Food Packaging--Pie plates, dinner trays, foil.
o Paper--newspaper, magazines, catalogs, phone books, bulk mail, office paper, computer paper, envelopes, gift wrapping paper, cardboard, food boxes, shoeboxes, paper towel and toilet paper tubes, paper egg cartons.
o Plastic--Plastic that bears the Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI) plastic resin codes#1 plastic recycling symbolor#2 plastic recycling symbol.
* Recycling Centers--Find the nearest recycling centers in your area for many if not all of the items below at Earth 911, and at the additional links as indicated below. Here are the types of household items that can be recycled fairly conveniently in most parts of California:
o Batteries--Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation, Battery Drop-off Locator.
o Demolition Debris--The Construction and Demolition Debris Recyclers Database lists places where you can bring demolition debris for recycling.
o Electronics--The Electronic Product Management Directory is a database of facilities that collect specific types of electronic equipment and equipment related parts for reuse or recycling. Please note that televisions and cathode ray tube (CRT) computer monitors should not be placed in the household trash.
o Hazardous Waste--Household hazardous waste that must be recycled or disposed at household hazardous waste collection facilities or other authorized collection facilities include, acids, antifreeze, household batteries, car batteries, brake and transmission fluid, household cleaners, pool chemicals, gasoline and other flammables, mercury thermometers, motor oil, oil-based or latex paint, paint thinners, pesticides and herbicides, barbecue style propane tanks, solvents.
+ Fluorescent lamps and tubes can be taken to household hazardous waste collection facilities. They can also be placed in household trash for now in California. However, after February 9, 2006, California households and some businesses will no longer be allowed to dispose fluorescent lamps and tubes in the household trash. Most businesses in California are already prohibited from disposing of fluorescent lamps and tubes in the trash. Read more.
+ Home generated medical waste, such as pharmaceuticals and syringes might be accepted at your household hazardous waste facility, but check first. Visit the Waste Prevention Information exchange to learn what other options you have for home generated medical waste.
+ Other Hazardous Waste disposal and recycling locations can be found at Earth 911.If this option does not work, ask your Local Contact for Waste Prevention and Recycling.
o Metal
+ Steel and Aluminum Cans—Beverage cans, food cans, aerosol cans.
+ Clean Aluminum Food Packaging—Pie plates, dinner trays, foil.
o Motor Oil--Find used motor oil and oil filter recycling locations using CIWMB’s used motor oil recycling page.
o Paper--newspaper, magazines, catalogs, phone books, bulk mail, office paper, computer paper, envelopes, gift wrapping paper, cardboard, food boxes, shoeboxes, paper towel and toilet paper tubes, paper egg cartons.
o Plastic--Plastic that bears the #1 plastic recycling symbolor#2 plastic recycling symbolplastic resin codes, also called SPI (Society of the Plastics Industry) codes.

* Recycle On Your Own
o Food Waste--When we count only the uneaten portions of meals and waste from food preparation, such as trimming produce, Americans throw away 163 pounds of food per person per year. (See Estimating and Addressing America's Food Loses, from the United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. Portable Document Format (PDF), 104 KB.)
+ Compost--To learn how to compost, see the CIWMB home composting page or contact your city or county government. If you prefer to compost in a bin instead of an open pile, or if compost bins are required in you community, see the CIWMB compost bin resource list.
+ Vermicomposting--Get a worm bin and some worms and practice vermicomposting. Download The Worm Guide (PDF, 1.2 MB) to read all you need to know about starting a small worm bin.
o Yard Waste--Leaves and grass account for about 8% of the waste discarded to landfills in California. But in a landfill they generate significantly more greenhouse gas than they would in compost piles or bins.
+ Compost--To learn how to compost on see the CIWMB home composting page or contact your city or county government. If you prefer to compost in a bin instead of an open pile, or if compost bins are required in you community, see the CIWMB compost bin resource list.
+ Grass Cycle--What could be easier? Set your mower to cut a little long, and leave the clippings on the lawn. No bags to empty when you mow, reduce the water needed on your lawn, reduce the need to fertilize and thereby reduce toxic runoff to creeks and lakes via the storm drains. Read more. Alternately, compost your grass clippings or use them as mulch directly from the lawn mower bag, and be miserly with your watering and fertilizing.