Do you make it a point to recycle as much of your household’s waste as you can? If so, you’re already doing more than most other Americans as far as recycling is concerned.
In the past, studies have shown that almost all Americans support recycling. But unfortunately, only about one-third of them actually do it, which puts you at a decided advantage over most people.
You could probably be doing even more to help the planet, though. By learning how to recycle better, you can help to make up for all those people who aren’t recycling at all to some degree.
Would you like to find out how you can start recycling better than you are right now? There are some simple ways that you can reduce your household waste further without putting in too much effort on your part.
Find out five great ways to cut back on the waste that your household is creating day in and day out below.
1. Figure Out What You Can Recycle in Your Community
Just about every city and town throughout the U.S. has put some kind of recycling program into place. These programs provide people with an easy opportunity to dispose of recyclable items in the right way.
But before you can begin doing it, you need to figure out what you can recycle in your community and, maybe more importantly, how you can go about doing it.
In most cases, cities and towns will have scheduled pickup days for recyclable items like plastic and paper. But they won’t always have regular pickups for things like appliances and electronics.
If you want to do appliance recycling or e-waste recycling, you may have to visit a recycling drop off center to get it done. These recycling options will require some extra effort on your part, but they’ll be well worth it in the end.
2. Get Into the Habit of Separating Your Recyclable Items
A lot of people make the mistake of taking the recycling bins that they’ve received from their city or town and filling them with every single recyclable item imaginable.
You might think you’re doing a good thing for the planet by taking this approach. But in reality, you could be creating a nightmare for those who work at your local recycling center.
Rather than doing this, you should try to separate all your recyclable items before recycling them. It’s a good idea to keep plastics separate from paper and so on and so forth.
You should even go as far as to learn about the different types of plastics and separate them. It’ll prevent you from sending something that’s made out of a type of plastic that can’t be recycled to your local recycling center.
3. Make Sure You Clean Items Before Recycling Them
Do you routinely throw recyclable items that are filled or covered with food waste into your recycling bin? This is a big no-no when it comes to recycling.
Food waste can contaminate recyclable items and make them useless to recycling centers. They’ll often end up getting sent to a landfill even though you tried to recycle them.
Generally speaking, you should clean off anything that you plan to recycle as if you were going to use it again prior to recycling it. This is something that people don’t always realize when learning how to recycle.
4. Scale Back on the Number of Recyclable Items Your Household Uses
While it’s great to recycle as much of your household waste as you can, it would be even better to scale back on that waste from the beginning. Why not try to find some ways in which you can avoid using certain recyclable items altogether?
It might seem as though this would be a huge undertaking. But there are lots of little ways in which you can reduce your household waste overall without breaking too much of a sweat.
You can do it by:
- Bringing reusable bags to the grocery store as opposed to asking for plastic bags
- Investing in a home water filtration system rather than buying bottled water all the time
- Using hard plastic containers to store leftovers instead of plastic bags that will get thrown out after just one use
As you can see, it isn’t all that difficult to reduce the number of things that end up in your recycling bin every week.
5. Keep Up With the Latest Changes to the Recycling Programs in Your Area
People learned how to recycle a long time ago and have been doing it for hundreds of years now. But even still, there is so much to be learned about recycling and how to do it in the most effective way possible.
Every year, cities and towns all across the country are tinkering with their recycling programs in an effort to make them work better. You should keep tabs on what your city or town is doing and adjust your recycling habits.
You should also think about bringing up any recycling-related ideas you might have to those in power in your city or town. You might be able to change the ways in which your community recycles by generating great ideas and mentioning them at town hall meetings.
You have the potential to play a much bigger part in your community’s recycling efforts. Don’t pass up on the chance to do it if you have some great ideas floating around in the back of your mind.
Learning How to Recycle More Effectively Is So Important
Sadly, there are still some people out there wondering, “What is recycling?” It’s a good thing that you’re not one of them!
But just because you know how to recycle doesn’t mean you can’t find ways to improve your recycling habits. Use some of the tips found here to start recycling more effectively than you are today. It could help to build a better future for our planet.
Interested in discovering more about the benefits of recycling? Read the articles on our blog to see why recycling is so essential.
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