Waste Free Wednesday

In honor of “Waste Free Wednesday,” we’ve put together a nice little list of common household items (plus a few bigger ones too) that people often throw away, but it would be more advantageous to recycle instead. We preach it all the time, because it’s such a huge part of what we do. So without further adieu, let’s get our Waste Free Wednesday on shall we?

1. Clothes. At the sake of being redundant, we don’t care. There are SO many charitable organizations within our community who will take these off of your hands that you really have no choice but to donate them, or let us do it for you!
2. Food. Donation as well as recycling. Even if the items are perishable and outside of their expiration date, you can still make better use of them by composting as opposed to throwing them away. We usually have quite a selection of gardening tools available for sale as well in order to help you get that project off of the ground.
3. Cell phones. Donate, sell, or recycle. There are many companies online who will pay you in order to take the phone off of your hands. In addition, recycling cell phones means that old parts are used to make new cellphones, reducing everyone’s carbon footprint a tad in the process. And who doesn’t like that?
4. Tires. These things take up a lot of space, and are a bit of a pain for landfills both for that first reason, as well as the possibility that they will release hazardous chemicals over time. If you take them to a recycling center (or have us do it) they can be made into new tires, or shredded and used to make mulch.
5. Books. Books can be donated to charities, schools, and libraries. They can also have the paper on which their words are printing be recycled. We run into A LOT of books on pickups and try to do our part ensuring that they reach the proper destination, whether it be via a donation or recycling.
6. Clothing hangers. These are probably the most simple fix. Dry cleaning shops are always looking for more of these, as it helps keep their operating costs down. So donate!
7. Old toys. This is another list item that we run into a lot on pickups. We try to donate what we can, when we can, but there is a long list of local charities that are willing to take these off of your hands and give them to kids who might not be so fortunate around the holidays.
8. Scrap metal. We can either pick it up for you, or you can drop it off yourself. Either way, it’s going to the same place!
9. Appliances. As a thrift store, we pick up and sell quite a bit of these, provided they are in working condition. If not, they are easily recyclable.
10. Glass. Studies have shown that the recycling process for glass is almost a third more efficient from a production standpoint as opposing to manufacturing the raw product.

Happy Waste Free Wednesday!