Precylcing-Recylcing
Pre-Cycling
- We recycle after we've purchased something. We precycle before we shop. The key to precycling is to think ahead. Figure out how you're going to dispose of a product -- and its packaging -- before you buy it. It's all about choices!
- Think of packaging as part of the product. You get what you pay for: If the packaging is designed to be thrown away immediately, all you're getting for your money is cleverly-designed garbage.
- Buy in bulk and concentrates whenever you can.
- Avoid products that are made to be thrown away after only a few uses, like some razors, lighters and flashlights. Look for products that can be used over and over.
- Bring your own cloth grocery bags to the store instead of accepting Paper or Plastic.
- Avoid buying products that contain hazardous materials, which are difficult to dispose of safely.
- Look for containers that can be used or recycled, aluminum and glass, or ones that can be composted, like paper.
- Waste not; want not.
- Why not reduce waste by NOT buying something.
- During World War 1, reducing the weight of bicycles saved 2,000 tons of steel.
Recycling
"If you are not recycling, you're throwing it all away."
Marketing tag-line from the EDF Ad Council (Environmental Defense Fund)
You and your community can write for a free brocure that will tell you virtually everything you need to know about recycling.
Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) - Recycling
257 Park Ave South
New York, NY 10010
800-CALL- EDF
Florida State Recycling Agency:
Department of Environmental Regulation
Division of Waste Management
2600 Blairstone Rd.
Tallahassee, FL 32399-2400
904-488-0300
Question: How do I get recycling bins in Orange County in Central Florida?
Answer: Call the Orange County Solid Waste Hotline at 407-836-6601 and a customer service representative will order the bins for you free of charge. The bins will be delivered to your residence within two to three weeks.
Hazardous Waste Community Collection
| General Info | Aluminum | Autos | Batteries |
| Electronics | Cell Phones | Freecycling | |
| CDs | Corrugated Boxes | Cloth | Glass |
| Newspaper | Metal | Motor Oil | Paper |
| Plastic | Tea Bags | Toothbrushes | Tires |
- Reuse before recycle. Remember that using the same things over again, spares the environment more than recycling.
- Reduce, Re-use, Recycle.
- Recycling is easier than ever with America's environmental hotline. Locate drop-off sites, learn about recycling, access environmental phone numbers and more. Dial 1-800-253-2687 (1-800-CLEANUP), enter your zip code and what you want to recycle. It's easy and free!
- Curbside recycling originated in 1874 in Baltimore.
- We found great recycling resourses at
. - We found electronics recycling resources at www.earth911.org.
- For Orange County, since the start of the residential recycling program in 1990, mandatory refuse and recycling customers have recycled over 230,000 tons or 460.000 pounds of recycled material. If you have recycled faithfully since 1990, your household has probably recycled more than a ton of material. Recently, the average amount of recyclables collected per household has declined. Maintaining an efficient and low cost recycling program requires full participation by everyone. Recycling conserves natural resources and energy and helps to reduce pollution.
- To get rid of unsolicited telemarketing calls that ring you during dinner, contact this address. Tell them to take you off of unsolicited telemarketing lists. Provide your name address and telephone numbers.
- Direct Marketing Association
- Telephone Preference Service
- PO Box 9014
- Farmingdale, NY 11735-9014
- Activist Tim McClure once staked a mining claim on a landfill to dramatize the need for recycling.
- The state of Washington has the honor of being the state that recycles the most.
- Only 10% of all our trash is recycled.
- Japan recycles more than half its household and commercial waste! We should be inspired!
(also see Aluminum Cans Donations)
- Approximately 63% of the aluminum cans in America are recycled. Also recycled are aluminum auto parts, foil wrap, food cans, pie plates, frozen food trays, lawn chair tubing, storm door and window frames and residential siding.
- Each recycled aluminum can saves the energy equivalent of half a gallon of gasoline.
- A "reverse-vending machine" in Dickenson, SC, reclaimed 109 tons of cans in a year.
- The Netherlands has the highest aluminum recycling rate.
- A paper grocery sack holds about 1.5 lbs. of empty aluminum cans.
- The all-aluminum can was introduced in 1964.
- A quarter of all aluminum goes into packaging.
- Don't forget. Aluminum foil is recyclable.
- In America, 1,500 aluminum cans are recycled every second.
Autos
- According to Ford Motor Company, approximately 94% of all cars and trucks are recycled at the end of their lives. 75% (sometimes more) of each vehicle is recyclable.
- More than 43% of the steel used in a new car is recycled steel.
- The cars recycled in 1988 would fill a parking lot 4 miles long by 5 miles wide.
- In 1988, about 9 million steel automobile bodies -- more than the US auto industry produced that year -- were recycled.
- Enough scrap copper was recycled in the US in 1989 to supply the wiring and plumbing for every building constructed here that year.
- Duracell offers a 1-800 phone number to consumers who want to recycle old alkaline batteries. If you call: 1-800-551-2355, they will send a postage-paid bag for free return and recycling of Duracell batteries.
- Virtually 100% of car batteries returned to gas stations and battery dealerships get recycled.
Click here to an EarthWorks project for recycling cell phones, PDAs and pagers.
Just fill out the form, print the mailing receipt and label, and mail in with your phone. All postage paid by EarthWorks.
- There are more than 500 million used cell phones laying around in drawers, and worse, in landfills or incinerators.
- In 2004, less than 1% of retired cell phones were recycled.
- Cell phones contain toxic materials like lead, mercury and arsenic. If incinerated, these substances pollute the air. In landfills, they can leach into soil and ground water.
Recycle all of those junk AOL CDs and other CD-ROMs you don't want; don't just throw them away.
- Over 75% of recycled corrugated boxes get made into new boxes.
- In 1987, Americans earned over $100 million recycling cardboard boxes.
- Your old T-shirt, will do excellent as a cleaning rag, dust cloth or use the sleeves for a nifty shoe polishing rag.
ElectronicEquipment Collection
- Orange County will be participating with a private electronics recycling company in a one-year pilot program to recycle electronic equipment that residents no longer want. The expenses are being paid by the Florida Dept of Environmental Protection grant. The primary force for this new collection program is to reduce the number of cathode ray tubes (CRTs) which are currently landfilled because they contain potential contaminants. CRTs are primarily found in television sets and computer monitors. In addition to televisions and monitors, you can also bring the following electronic equipment:
- .Home Computer, Keyboard, Printer, Telephone, VCR, Fax machines, CD player, Stereo, DVD player, and Computer peripherals
- These items can be brought to the Household Hazardous Waste facility at theOrange County Landfill.
- Recycled glass uses only two-thirds the energy needed to manufacture glass from scratch (virgin material).
- Oregon passed the first US bottle bill in 1971.
- Since Massachusetts passed its bottle bill, emergency rooms report 60% fewer glass-related cuts.
- Germany recycles almost 40% of its glass.
- Every day, Americans recycle about 13 million glass bottles and jars.
- As late as 1947, virtually 100% of all beverage bottles were returnable.
- The average American can save six pounds of glass in a month.
- About 75% of America's glass is used for packaging.
- Reusable glass containers make about 15 trips between factories and stores before being recycled.
- Approximately 58% of US newspapers are recycled, mostly back into newspapers. They also become bathroom tissue; molded pulp products, such as egg cartons and plant boxes; corrugated boxes; box board for packaging; and animal bedding.
- If every family in the US recycled their newspapers, approximately 500,000 trees would be saved weekly.
- Newsprint is the easiest kind of paper to recycle, because it has no chemicals or fillers.
- A cubic yard of newspaper weighs about 600 lbs.
- A 12-inch stack of newspapers weighs 35 lbs.
- The average person generates 8 lbs. of newspaper in a month.
- Newspaper pulp starts out as 99% water and 1% fiber.
- In 1988, America recycled about 1 million tons of stainless steel.
- About 50% of the raw material for steel production comes from scrap.
- If tin cans were really made of tin, you could crush them with your hands.
- During the 1980's, world steel makers recycled about 2.5 billion tons of steel.
- Every minute of the day, more than 9,000 tin cans are recovered from the trash with magnets.
- During W.W.I, removing straps from corsets saved enough metal to build two warships.
- Every day, Americans use enough steel and tin cans to make a steel pipe running from Los Angeles to New York... and back again.
- All major towns in Oregon have curbside collection for motor oil.
- Alabama recycled 6 million gallons of motor oil in 1988.
- Sunnyvale, California collects up to 120 gallons of used motor oil for recycling every day.
- Recycling Magazines in Central Florida -
- 1)Check under Recycling in the blue pages in the phone book,
- 2) Contact Orlando Waste Paper to see what their terms are,
- 3)Find some storefront willing to help by paying to haul away and recycle magazines in their recycling bin.
- Home Depot recycles 113,334 tons of cardboard and paper a year, which translates into 1,926,678 trees saved, 45,333,600 gallons of fuel (manufacturing process) unused or 12,466,740 cubic feet displacement in landfills unused.
- To reduce unwanted, bogus, direct mail advertising pieces from being sent to you and creating more garbage that you have to get recycled, contact this address. Tell them to take you off of unsolicited direct mail lists. Provide your name and your address.
- Direct Marketing Association
- Mail Preference Service
- PO Box 9008
- Farmingdale, NY 11735-9008
- Recycling half the world's paper would free 20 million acres of forestland.
- Butcher paper and bakery paper can not be recycled. It is lined with plastic.
- In 1988, Tucson, Arizona, collected 225 tons of phone books.
- Use both sides of a sheet of paper whenever you can.
- Currently, wax paper can't be recycled.
- Dog food bags can't be recycled; they have plastic linings inside.
- To recycle junk mail, use the convenient "business reply" prepaid postage envelopes to mail back the junk. This helps support the US Postal Service by having the companies pay TWICE for postage, and it helps to keep their marketing junk out of YOUR landfill.
- Most recycled PET comes from the 10 states with plastic container deposit laws.
- Plastic bottles can be recycled to make paint brush bristles.
- We recycle about 20% of the plastic bottles we use.
- Ben and Jerry's ice cream recycles 100,000 five-gallon HDPE containers every year.
- Don't recycle Federal Express or UPS envelopes. They have plastic fiber in them.
- The National Park Service has a pilot plastic recycling program.
- It takes 1,050 recycled milk jugs to make a six foot plastic park bench.
- Don't recycle tea bags with paper -- compost them instead.
- Improperly disposed scrap tires can create a public health problem as a mosquito breeding area.
- Orange County will collect up to 4 automobile tires or light-duty truck tires on your second garbage collection day.
- If you are aware of abandoned tire sites or have more than 4 tires to dispose of, please contact the Orange County Solid Waste Hotline at 407-836-6601for assistance.
- There are approximately 1 billion toothbrushes discarded annually in the US alone. Recycline sells a toothbrush made from 100% recycled plastic. At the end of the brush's usefulness, Recycline takes the brush back (via the provided postage-paid envelope) and reprocesses it into source material for plastic lumber.
