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Tips: Top Ten Ways to Recycle

  • Nov 12, 2007
 In 2007, Office Depot compiled a list of the top 10 ways to recycle at home and in the office.
  1. Buy recycled paper and print on both sides. When using paper in the office, print on both sides of the sheet and recycle the paper when you are finished. By recycling one ton of paper, you can save 17 trees, almost 7,000 gallons of water and more than three cubic yards of landfill space.
  2. Recycle your outdated technology. According to EPA, Americans throw out two million tons of e-waste each year. Avoid adding to that waste by recycling your old technology. For more information on electronic recycling, visit http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/hazwaste/recycle/ecycling/donate.htm.
  3. Make recycling bins readily available. Make sure your home and office are outfitted with recycling bins for paper, plastic and metal. Keep them out in the open and label them appropriately. Sometimes the convenience factor is all that is needed.
  4. Recycle your empty ink and toner cartridges. Almost eight cartridges are thrown out in the United States every second of every day. That's almost 700,000 cartridges per day.
  5. Buy remanufactured ink and toner cartridges. Each remanufactured cartridge keeps approximately 2.5 pounds of metal and plastic out of landfills and saves about a half gallon of oil.
  6. Recycle old newspapers laying around the office. When finished reading the newspaper, either leave it for someone else to read or recycle it.
  7. Look for the recycled option in all the products you buy. It's not just paper that is recycled.
  8. Buy rechargeable batteries. It takes 1,000 regular batteries to equal the lifespan of one rechargeable battery. When you are discarding your batteries, recycle them.
  9. Purchase rewritable CDs and DVDs so that you can reuse them from project to project.
  10. Reuse your morning coffee cup. Or better yet, buy a mug to avoid the waste caused by throwing away the paper or Styrofoam.

Search EPonline.com for additional recycling tips, including Tips: Protecting Valuable Data While Recycling and Tips for Paper Use and Recycling.


Comments

Wed, May 26, 2010 printer ink http://www.inkmart.com

Remember, it’s REDUCE, REUSE and then RECYCLE. Reducing the amount of waste we create in the first place will help reduce the amount of materials that need disposal. Many items that you no longer need may still be usable, can find another home and extend its life.

Wed, Apr 28, 2010 Jessiie. Alaska

Cody, That was mean. Really it helps a lot. If you think about it the worldis just going to be coverd in trash one day. Because of people that thought like you. Also, If you didn't care about this why did you comment? :)

Tue, Apr 27, 2010 Spaztastic tree hugger Denver

I don't have curbside recycling, so all my recycling is taken 10 miles away to the nearest facility. What a pain. So, I support products that incorporate less packaging to begin with. For example, some brands of packaged tea bags are typically encased in 4 layers of packaging. Add the shopping bag and you have 5 layers of packaging between you and the product.

Thu, Apr 22, 2010 Alex

I just finished reading this list and wanted to make a quick suggestion to add that people can also purchase recycled auto parts to help the environment, such as from LKQOnline.com (a company I work for). I think that it's something often overlooked by people doing everything they can to help protect our environment and that it would make a useful addition to the article.

Thanks,
Alex

Fri, Feb 19, 2010 Caitlyn Tennessee

Recycling is great and one day will help our kids and their kids and so on.

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