BACK TO SCHOOL: RECYCLING 101 by Claire Stringer

Every body's talking about being "Green" these days. But how much do we really know about what that even means? Sometimes it just looks like a big smoke screen hiding a fad that every company is jumping in on to boost profit. And often the troubles that we hear mounting for Mother Earth and all of her inhabitants seem too great to touch with our busy daily lives.

I personally believe the green movement is so much more than a trend. At its best it contains a holistic vision for healing our bodies, our minds, our one and only Earth, and the imperiled future of hundreds of thousands of species--including homo sapiens. I'm very passionate about the movement to preserve the quality of our home planet. In fact, I think it's really interesting how we commonly distance ourselves from "nature" or "the environment," when without it, we wouldn't exist at all. To say "I care about the envirnment," actually is about the same as saying, "Yea, I like to breathe." But taking our exquisite earth for granted is such an ingrained practice that we often don't make that connection.

For me, one of the easiest and most impactful ways to go green is still recycling. Oh sure, right, recycle, recycle, recycle, bla, bla, bla, we've heard it a million times. But are you doing it? Are you doing it properly? Are you really recycling everything you can? Do you know what a huge positive impact it can have both environmentally and economically? Recycling ignorance doesn't have to be your dirty little secret anymore. Make sure your coworkers aren't looking over your shoulder and read closely! (Then forward this blog to them, with a note insinuating that you knew this stuff all along, however THEY might benefit from a lil recycling brush-up).

So, you know the basics, you can recycle glass bottles and jars. You can recycle plastic bottles and containers. Got it. But, remember that not all plastics are created equal. That little number inside the recycling symbol denotes what kind of plastic you've got in your hand. Different areas do or do not recycle certain numbers, but most of Santa Clara County recycles numbers one through seven. Remove all caps and lids from plastic bottles, jugs and spray bottles, unless they too have a recycling symbol on them. Most of those items are made from a different type of plastic which is non-recyclable.


Metal soda cans, soup cans, metal lids, can be recycled, as well as clean aluminum foil. Okay, here's where it gets really fun: paper and cardboard. I love to constantly challenge myself to recycle everything I can, and watch the recycling bin grow full while the regular trash stays a blissfully pathetic little pile. You may know that you can recycle all of your scrap computer paper, post-its, newspapers, and magazines, but I often see cardboard get overlooked. Of course you can recycle all corrugated cardboard boxes, but what about all those boxes and pieces that our foodstuffs and countless other items come with? You can break them down and recycle them! Pasta box, granola bar box, cereal box, band aid box... toilet paper tube, paper towel tube, and all that paper junk mail--recycle them!

It's also important to know what can not be recycled to save precious time and resources and to potentially amend your buying habits accordingly. Bubble wrap and styrofoam packing peanuts can not be recycled. So save and reuse these whenever possible. Tissue paper, paper towels, and napkins are made of fibers that are too flimsy to recycle. Paper and cardboard items that are coated in plastic or wax are also non-recyclable.

Until just today even I did not know that aseptic cartons (such as the ones soy milk and soups come in) CAN be recycled. This is a tricky one, because most do not have a recycle symbol! There is always more to learn about how to reduce, reuse, and recycle, but that's the fun part. Recycling not only reduces what goes into landfills, it creates jobs and encourages innovation. All you need to start today is a container separate from your trash. To learn more about what you can and can not recycle and what an amazing impact recycling is having on California's economy go here to the site for the Center for the Development of Recycling here: http://www.recyclestuff.org/index.php.