Thursday, April 28, 2011

What Exactly Can I Recycle?

You might be wondering what you can and can't recycle - trust me, it's more than you think :) - so here is a list of the items accepted and not accepted. At least, according to Round Rock, Texas.







Accepted:



Paper - newspaper, magazines, phone books, junk mail, office paper and brown paper bags



Plastics (#1 through #7 [to be explained in a later post]) - milk jugs, water and soda bottles, detergent bottles, plastic tubs and jars

Tin and Steel Products and Cans - labels may be left on.



Aluminum Products and Cans

Corrugated Cardboard



Fiberboard - cereal, cake and soft drink boxes, etc.

Glass - Jars; green, clear and brown bottles



Not Accepted:



Plastic bags
Pizza Boxes


Pyrex Wax
Coated Items


Ceramics Food


Scraps Yard Waste
Garden Hoses


Textiles or Used Clothing


Light Bulbs


Electronics



We were cleaning out the office closet upstairs a while ago, and decided to throw out a bunch of spiral notebooks. BUT - guess what? You can recycle them! Just as long as you take the wire spiral out, because that part is NOT recycable. After that, it's just a bunch of paper! Also, we've had this bad habit for a really long time of throwing away our cereal boxes once they've been poured into another container (or after every child has had his/her turn looking at the back of the box...). But since we've gotten our new recycle bins, it seems that a whole lot of things we've been throwing away can be recycled! Yes - that includes your cereal boxes (don't forget to cut out the box top first!). We also try to flatten them so more fits in our bin.



Citation: "Curbside Recycling." www.roundrocktexas.gov. City of Round Rock, 2011. Web. 28 April, 2011. <http://www.roundrocktexas.gov/home/index.asp?page=378>

7 comments:

Karie said...

I'm going to do better recycling all my newspapers. I buy 4 each weekend for the coupons.

I do recycle plastic bags though at the local grocery store.

Anonymous said...

I promise to do better at recycling! (Especially now that I have seen the pictures to help me remember WHAT to recycle. Thanks!)

KaeLynn said...

You did a great job on this blog Kaely! The pictures help so even my young grandkids can understand what can be re-used.

Maybe you could post some pictures of how to re-use what's recycled?
One idea is toilet paper and paper towel rolls- They make great bases for puppets, napkin rings or other crafts children can make.

Re-cycled glass baby bottles make fun bug jars, rock collection keepers, and snow globes kids can keep.

Good luck on your project- It's a great one.

Michelle Oldroyd said...

It would be helpful to know how we could recycle things such as batteries, light bulbs, printer cartridges & computer parts, and cell phones.

Jill Wilding said...

You did such a great job. I do recycle some things, but forget every once in a while. I found the little plastic containers that strawberries come in can be recycled. I was surprised by that, in a way. Thanks for the information.

Jean said...

This section is VERY helpful to me. I am lousy at recycling because I wasn't very clear on what was recycleable and what was not. I feel like being "green" is possible for me now! Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Great job Kaely. Lots of good information shared on this site. Did you come across any reason why we cannot recycle plastic bags in Round Rock under the new program? Is the best place to recycle them now the grocerty store? Thank you. Jan and Gary