Photo by Phoebe Lawson
Crayons are made from petroleum and are able to be recycled, like most other oil based products. Recycling crayons involves melting down the crayon and reforming it.
Recycling: Paper, Plastic, and Diapers?
Paper, plastic, and glass are items that we recycle on a regular basis; however, there are some household items we wouldn't typically think of recycling.
When the time to get new running shoes/sneakers comes along, the automatic thing we do is throw away our old ones. Many people think this is the right thing to do considering they are sneakers; however, you can actually send your old sneakers to be recycled. Nike’s Reuse-A-Shoe program takes in old, worn out sneakers and recycles them into new ones which they donate.
“The program has collected 28 million shoes for recycling since 1990. And, in 2008, Nike placed Reuse-A-Shoe bins in all of its U.S. Retail Stores.”
After the holidays, people take down decorations including their Christmas trees. If you have a real tree you need to dispose of, in New York State you can leave them out with your garbage between the dates of January 2-12. The only requirements to have your tree taken is to have it completely bare. Everything must be off of the tree including all decorations, lights, ornaments, and tree stands.
The National Christmas Tree Association stated that “Real Christmas Trees are biodegradable, which means they can be easily reused or recycled for mulch and other purposes.”
Many local beaches also offer a program where people can drop their tress off to help build the barrier of the dunes which helps protect our island.
Broken crayons are useless to most people as you can not fully use them. Typically, people throw them in the trash. Lucky for us, we can recycle broken, unwanted, and old crayons to a recycling program that takes crayons to prevent them from going into local landfills. This association is called “The National Crayon Recycling Program.”
The National Crayon Recycling Program stated that “This “recycling” education, community service has made it possible to stop more than 120,000 pounds of unwanted crayons from going into landfills with the help from schools, organization educators, and kids across this country.”
The new wave of electronics is taking over which means older versions of cell phones and computers are being replaced with newer models. Throwing away old electronics is not good for the environment considering the materials that are used to create them. So, when your get the latest iPhone, remember to recycle your old one at any store that sells electronics. The materials from the electronics are taken apart and sorted to then be reused for other things.
A national electronic recycling company stated that “Electronic products are made from valuable resources and materials, including metals, plastics, and glass, all of which require energy to mine and manufacture. Donating or recycling consumer electronics conserves our natural resources and avoids air and water pollution, as well as greenhouse gas emissions that are caused by manufacturing virgin materials.”
Makeup containers are able to be recycled easily as well. If you bring them to any makeup store such as M.A.C., they will gladly take the container and even give you a store credit or a free item if you bring in six old makeup containers.
The way to recycle makeup containers is simple and easy. “MAC accepts “primary packaging,” meaning the material that actually encases the product. Lipstick tubes, lash cases, blush compacts, eye shadow pots, foundation tubes and bottles, and skincare bottles all count.”
Other items that can easily be recycled are light bulbs which contain fluorescent light and should not be disposed in a regular garbage. And, believe it or not, wine corks, solo cups, diapers, tights, and stockings can all be recycled to local associations. Recycling any of these products makes the earth a cleaner place and prevents our local landfills from overflowing too quickly.