Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
One of my favorite recycling ideas, is to reuse certain food containers. There are really neat rectangle clear plastic containers, with snap on lids, some hold about 2 cups and others hold about 4 cups. I buy thinly sliced deli meats in them mainly so I can get the container.
They have a heavy paper label, stuck to the lid, with a few drips of this gummy, sticky stuff and the label peels off easily. Any remaining glue is easily removed. making the container nice for left overs or other small odd items. I wash them and they stack easily, their lids fitting together nicely, not taking up much room, in my cupboard.
They are usually clear, with clear or red lids, at least the ones I buy. When I get in the mood for the thinly sliced lunch meat, which comes in Turkey, Chicken, Ham & Salami etc, I will buy a few of them to use for sandwiches, so I have the container, when it's empty. The meat is in a clear sealed plastic pouch and when I am done with the meat, I peel off the heavy label, wash them and stack them in my cupboard.
They can also be used for small items, such as bolts, screws etc, you can see what is in them and they stack nicely. I love them, they are free and you don't need to buy them. The lids are indented a little, so the bottom of one container fits nicely on the top of another container, so they don't slide.
Since I am single, I might cook something, then put it in individual containers, so I can warm it up in the microwave or freeze it. They last a long time and when they become too damaged to even use for non-food small items, you can just toss them.
Using them for food, the smaller ones are about what I would eat at one sitting. This way I am not tempted to eat too much, which is good, since I could really stand to lose a little weight.
Other plastic tubs and containers, with snap on lids, such as margarine tubs or whipped topping containers. or plastic qt jars, which mayonnaise comes in, which cannot be recycled, I wash and save for the food pantry. They use them for breaking up large food donations, so it serves more people.
When I buy groceries I usually ask for paper grocery bags, some of which I reuse for my recyclables and extra ones I save for the local food pantry, for their clients to put their food in. Since we have single stream recycling, they don't need us to sort anything. They do it at the recycle center and are able to get more recycled, because they know what they are looking for.
I save plastic grocery bags and other plastic bags, which we get from other stores to put garbage in. Then when I get too many, the local grocery store collects them. Not sure if they are actually getting recycled or if they go to the landfill, but at least they are not blowing around outside.
I buy zip lock freezer bags, use them once and when I am done with them, wash them out and use them for sloppy scraps. I can put the sloppy scraps in them, seal them and can either put them in my kitchen garbage or take them to the garbage dumpster, so my kitchen waste basket don't smell as bad.
I usually buy canned soda, because it is about the amount I will drink and aluminum is easy to recycle. I give them to a friend of mine, who cashes them in, for a little spending money.
Since I have a job working from my apartment, over the internet, doing customer service, for a large retail store, I don't need to go anywhere, except to church and the grocery store, or to take my dog, for a walk. I bought these plastic re-usable water bottles, for in my apartment. I have 3, which hold about 2 qts, which I use when I am eating, or sitting at my desk and 2 smaller ones, for my bedside table.
They were very cheap and work great, for me, since I just use tap water to fill them. Since our water has a funny taste, when it first comes out of the faucet, I put it in these bottles and let it sit for a while, so it loses that funny taste. I usually drink my water at room temperature and it no longer has the funny taste. I don't ever buy water, in the plastic soda type bottles. If I need to take water somewhere, I use a small empty soda bottle.
In my area, they mix all the recyclables together and it is taken to a facility, where it is sorted by disabled people, from our local rehabilitation center. We no longer sort the different types of plastic bottles or the colors of glass bottles, the recycling center does it. They know what they are looking for and actually are able to pull off more items, to be recycled, which the average person does not realize.
Since we began single stream recycling, the people throw all the recyclables together and let the recycling center decide what can be recycled and what isn't able to be recycled yet. They are getting substantially more items, which are recycled and kept out of the landfill, because of that. Also new items are added, to the list, from time to time, which can be recycled now, but couldn't before. As new items are added to the list, that many more are not going into the landfill.
It's a boring job sorting the stuff, but these people are proud they can work and get paid to do it. It is not easy, sometimes, to find a job, where a disabled person can work and get paid, contributing their fair share of taxes, for the good of all.
I am lucky, since I am also disabled, to get a job working from my apartment 3 days a week, for a total of 22.5 hours. I get $8.00 an hour and have dental & vision insurance, plus 401k & profit sharing. I work from my apartment and don't have all the expense and worry, of commuting to a job. I do my job with very little supervision, which is nice in a way, but not so nice, when you have a question and need to ask someone.
While on the phone, the calls come in one after the other and I am constantly talking. Even if you are scheduled to work that day, it don't mean you will be working that many hours. If the call volume goes down, they ask for people to voluntarily log off for either 1 or 2 hour breaks, so they don't have so many agents on the phone and don't have to pay you. If they don't get enough volunteers, they will make you log off, most of the time, to the end of when you were scheduled to work.
It is kind of comical, in a way, it seems the minute they have some people log off, then they get a spurt of calls and then they send out what is known as a jumper call, so if you are not scheduled to work, you can log on and work, until the call volume goes down, at which time, they will ask all the jumpers to log off. If the call volume is a little heavy at times, they will also ask for agents to log in early, or stay past their normal quitting time.
It's not easy talking constantly either. You usually end up drinking a lot of water, which is good for you, but at times you end up sucking on cough drops to sooth your throat.
We only get a 10 minute break every 3 ½ hours. It's not much, but I use the restroom, before I start work, so usually don't have to take off to use the restroom. The 10 minutes go fast, so you don't have a lot of time to use the restroom, if you need to and yet get a bite to eat, from your kitchen. The other nice thing, is you don't have to worry about a dress code, since you are in your own apartment and can wear what you want.
I was very lucky and managed to find this job, when I applied at the Department of Workforce Development, which used to be called the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation. I had a fair amount of computer skills and they linked me up with a company called Employment Options, which looks for Employers looking for Employees to work from home. They make sure it is a legitimate job, which the Employer is offering and they screen the applicants for the Employer. The Employer has to treat you as an Employee, taking out the necessary taxes, in order to qualify for this special program, through Social Security.
In my situation I am working with a special program, through Social Security, in their Ticket to Work program. They are experimenting with 2 counties, in Wisconsin, one of them Oconto, where I live. It is called BOND, which stands for Benefit Offset National Demonstration. It is through the Social Security Administration that will last 5 years and give you a chance to return to work or earn more than you do now.
I work with a woman, who handles the BOND clients, in the 2 experimental counties, in Wisconsin. I e-mail my check stubs to her and she keeps track of how much I am making and notifies Social Security for me. She helps me understand what is expected of me, by Social Security. I am allowed to make $1010 a month, before it affects my Social Security, so she steers me in the direction I need to go, to make sure everything is on the up and up.
The main thing disabled people are afraid of is losing their benefits & the Medical insurance. I have Medicare through Social Security and qualify for MAPP, the Medicaid Purchase Plan. I also qualify for my Medicare and Medicaid premiums to get paid by a special program also, so I consider myself very lucky.
Since I got way off on a tangent, my point of this diary is although there may still be a lot of plastic going to the landfill, which can not be recycled as of yet, there is still a tremendous amount of it, which is actually recycled! From what I have read, in the news, China was taking a lot of the plastic, which we were not recycling yet and were recycling it themselves, since they don't have the huge overhead, to do it, because of their cheap labor.
They also had found a way to recycle it, which is more cost effective, but the United States is still behind in that area and needs to catch up. The main problem is they need to find a way to recycle it at a reasonable cost. There also is the fact they have to build a market for it, where companies are willing to buy the product and have the ability to recycle it into a useful product.
You would be surprised at the many different items, which can be made, from recycled plastic bottles. Many plastics, such as soda bottles, are made into carpeting or even clothing, detergent bottles can be made into other products, such as garbage cans & minnow buckets. If you open a minnow bucket, made from detergent bottles, you will smell a faint odor of that detergent.
I know this, because I did a speech on recycling, when I was taking classes at the Technical College working toward a 2-yr degree, in Marketing & Retail Management. I visited the recycling center, in Green Bay, before it moved into it's huge new quarters, in the Fox Valley near Appleton.
There are 3 counties, who are working together and they are all using the same landfill and Green Bay ships it's garbage and recyclables, via semi loads, to the Fox Valley, where it is placed in that landfill or recycled. When that landfill is full, they will open a new landfill, south of Green Bay, where they got the approval, several years ago.
Since there is a bigger recycling center, in the Fox Valley, all the recyclables go there, from all 3 counties. When they built the huge new recycling center, at first they were going to let the disabled people go and hire able bodied people to do the work. There was a huge backlash, when the people in this area thought the disabled were going to lose their jobs, but things worked out and they decided to keep the ones working and as far as I know hired more. It is something certain disabled people are able to do.
There is a plant in Luxemburg, a short distance, east of Green Bay, which recycles the milk jugs into plastic lumber, which is used in the construction industry. Many of the lumber stores, in our area, such as Menards, Fleet Farm and Home Depot, sell this plastic lumber as deck boards, railings, fences etc. Since it is plastic, you don't have to worry about it rotting and it can be nailed, just like wood.
I went to the sorting facility, when it was here, before it moved to their larger facility. The trucks bring the co-mingled recyclables to the facility and dump them on the floor, of the warehouse. A little Bobcat loader pushes them into a hopper, where a conveyor takes them up to be sorted.
I'm not sure just how the paper is separated now, with the new recycling facility. When it was here, the recycling truck, kept the paper and cardboard separate, taking it to a local paper mill here, to be recycled. The cans, bottles, glass, plastic jugs, aluminum cans, etc go up a conveyor, where it passes under an electro magnetic belt, which pulls off all of the metal items, it then passes down a a wide shaker table, of rollers, which shakes all the broken glass out.
The broken glass falls between the rollers to a slanted table underneath, which guides it down to a conveyor, which takes it to a special dumpster, for broken glass, which can then be used in the construction of roads etc. There is a revolving chain, with heavy weights hanging off it, which guides the light weight plastic and aluminum cans off to the side, while the heavier glass bottles go through the revolving chain, to a conveyor, where sorters sort it as to color.
Aluminum cans and plastics are pulled off to the side, by the revolving curtain of metal weights, which pulls off the lighter objects, such as aluminum cans and plastic bottles. The aluminum cans end up in a hopper where they are bounced and somehow end up being separated while the plastics go a different way, where they go down to a conveyor and people separate the different types of recyclable bottles, pulling off anything, which is not recycled.