Recycle Almost Anything & Save Money

I found a great article in E magazine (an Enviormental magazine), that shows how you can be Enviromentally friendly and save money at the same time. One of their suggestions was to recycle your old paint, in an article titled How To Recycle Practically Anything.

Your community’s household hazardous waste program will take paint cans and possibly recycle leftover paint into newly formulated paints available for resale, as happens in Knoxville, Tennessee, and Portland, Oregon. Some nonprofit organizations welcome usable paint; to check locally, go to Earth911.org. Empty dried-out paint cans without lids are accepted as part of the regular curbside recycling pickup program in such places as New York City and Kane County, Illinois. Check your program.

In my community, the county hazardous waste program gives away the recycled paint, rather then sell it like the communities they mention. So I was able to get 5-gallons of paint to paint my shed after rebuilding it, due to an arson fire that had been set inside it a few months back. The remodeling work was completed in late April, and I just got myself around to paint it. My choices of colors were limited, as they mix all the paints they receive together. They did have the colors of each bucket on the lid, so you could view the color, however as I said it was limited. I chose a greyish color as blue was not an option. It still looks decent and you can't beat the price.

Other options they list include, what do with:
Aseptic Packages (those paper-and-foil juice packages)
Autos, Trucks, Trailers, Boats, Jet-Skis, Motorcycles, RVs Several non profits will be glad to take even your non-working vehicles.
Batteries
Books
Car Batteries
Carpet and Padding
Cell Phones, Pagers, PDAs
Clothing
Computers
Eyeclasses
Fluorescent Lights
Fruit Rinds, Veggie Scraps, Coffee Grounds, Tea Bags You can compost with these. I remember my grandma cutting up bananna peels and throwing them around her roses.
Ipods
Magazines, Catalogs, Phone Books
Crayons, Art Supplies, Wine Corks, Fabric
Newspapers, Aluminum Cans, Metel Cans
Packing Peanuts
Paper, Cardboard boxes
Pots, Pans, Aerosol Cans, Aluminum Foil
Plastic Bags
Priority Mail (Tyvek) Envelopes
Records
Smoke Detectors
Styrofoam
Videotapes, Floppy Disks, Zip disks, DVDs, CDs, Jewel Cases
Wire Hangers

Just to name a few. The article is quite lengthy and I had to register to read it online, but I will be getting a years subscription in the mail also.

In addition, you might consider buying 1 or 2 of these tote bags, to use when you go grocery shopping. With the high cost of oils, using the plastic bags, only helps put an increased demand on oil. Using reusable cloth bags not only helps save the enviroment, but also helps decrease our dependence on foreign oil.