Living Like Ed (18 page)

I use shredded waste paper as packing material.

Why go the extra step? Because the mixed paper that’s going in the blue curbside recycling bin will be used mostly for backing material for roofing tiles. It’s a very low grade. Think about it: It gets mixed in with old tuna fish cans, and most people don’t rinse things out really well. What kind of paper is it after it’s been mixed in with everything else? It’s a crappy paper, so it doesn’t get a high use.

My good white paper and colored paper that’s clean and dry is a higher-quality recyclable. It can even, conceivably, be made into paper again, or into file folders or something like that.

What about recycling newspapers? Newspapers are absolutely recyclable—every part of them, even the glossy inserts—and you can mix brown paper grocery bags in with newspaper, too.

We’ve been recycling newspaper in this country for decades—for a profit. When newspaper gets recycled, it often gets made into newsprint again, or it gets made into corrugated boxes or folding boxes.

Magazines can also be recycled in curbside bins. Of course, you can find other ways to recycle magazines, too. You can donate them to a library or a veterans hospital or a doctor’s office. You can even use the pages as gift wrap or let your kids use them for arts and crafts projects. The same goes for catalogs.

Phone books are another easy-to-recycle item. Just put them in your curbside bin, along with most of your junk mail (you just need to pull out any stuff like magnets or product samples first).

You can put corrugated cardboard into curbside recycling bins, too. And if you’re recycling boxes or office paper, you don’t have to worry about removing staples. They’ll get taken care of during the recycling process. But you do need to remove packing tape.

The one exception, with regard to recycling cardboard, is dirty card-board. Things like greasy pizza boxes can’t be recycled. They’re just going to contaminate the other stuff you and your neighbors put in your recycling bins, so they have to go in the trash.

Other paper that cannot be recycled includes wax paper, paper that’s been contaminated with food, carbon paper, thermal fax paper, paper with a sticky backing (like stickers and Post-its), and paper that’s been laminated.

Because they have a waxy coating, milk cartons and juice boxes cannot be recycled. Well, technically, they can be recycled, but the process is so difficult and so expensive that very few companies are recycling that stuff right now. A few cities’ curbside recycling programs will take milk cartons, like the program in Boston. But this stuff mainly does not get recycled right now. So when I go to buy milk or juice at the store, I choose to buy it packaged in a glass container—or if I can’t, then I’ll buy it in a recyclable plastic container.

Hazardous Waste

Hazardous waste comes in so many forms. Hazardous waste is AAA batteries, 12-volt batteries, car batteries. Hazardous waste is hearing-aid batteries. Hazardous waste is old paint cans. Hazardous waste is old household cleaning products. Hazardous waste is e-waste—that is to say, electronic waste—an old computer monitor, an old printer, an old computer.

All of this hazardous waste contains toxic elements that wind up in a land-fill and leach into the water table or otherwise enter our environment. So at the most basic level, anything toxic or corrosive is considered hazardous. That includes:

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oven cleaners

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drain cleaners

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wood polish

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metal polish

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toilet bowl cleaners

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tub, tile, and shower cleaners

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bleach

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pool chemicals

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motor oil, transmission fluid, and brake fluid

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carburetor and fuel injection system cleaners

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antifreeze

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air-conditioning refrigerant

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rat poison

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flea repellents

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mothballs

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bug sprays

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roach traps

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snail pellets

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weed killers

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adhesives and glues

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oil- or enamel-based paint

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wood stains

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paint thinners and turpentine

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paint strippers and removers

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photographic chemicals

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driveway sealer

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batteries

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mercury thermostats or thermometers

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fluorescent lightbulbs, which contain mercury

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incandescent lightbulbs, which contain lead

Flammable products, anything that can be ignited, are also considered hazardous waste. Things including:

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propane tanks and other compressed gas cylinders

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kerosene

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home heating oil

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diesel fuel

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gasoline and oil mixed together

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lighter fluid

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automotive starter fluid

Sadly, most people don’t realize that a fraction of these things are hazardous waste. And they also don’t realize that disposing of such products in their trash cans will reintroduce them one day to their environment, their children’s environment.

People usually have a lot of this stuff lying around. An average home can accumulate as much as 100 pounds of this hazardous waste—in the basement, in the garage, in sheds, and in closets.

So how do you dispose of hazardous waste? Responsibly, I hope. Many cities have a designated hazardous waste pickup day. It’s also quite easy to find drop-off locations. People regularly write me after watching the show
Living with Ed:
“I heard you talk about disposing of hazardous waste. I’m in Texas and we don’t have anything like that here. Where do you dispose in a place like Texas?” And I Google “hazardous waste pickup Texas.” Turns out there’s a place in Austin. So I e-mail them back, “You said you lived near Austin. There’s one in Austin. There’s one in Houston.” All you have to do is do a Google search for “hazardous waste” and your city, and you will find one in your area. “Hazardous waste Albany.” “Hazardous waste Schenectady.” You’re going to find a hazardous waste pickup or drop-off service in your city or very near your city.

I never throw away any of that stuff. I certainly don’t buy any non-rechargeable batteries. Occasionally we’ll get something that has them, and I use them until they run out. So I get a few without even purchasing them, and those have to be recycled maybe once a year. If one of the many compact fluorescent bulbs I have goes out, if it’s finally seen the end of its fifteen- to seventeen-year life, it has to be dealt with. I have a shoe box in the garage, and it takes me a year or so to fill it with batteries and things like that.

There are other options for dealing with hazardous waste, too, specialty programs. Let’s say you’ve got some leftover paint. You certainly don’t want to throw partially full paint cans in the trash. Regular oil-based paint and latex paint are hazardous waste. And even if you were using nontoxic, biodegradable paint, there’re better things to do with the leftovers than to send them to a landfill. Many cities have what’s called a
paint exchange.
You bring in your leftover paint. It gets sorted right there on the spot. And then people who need paint can get those leftovers for free, right then and there. Some cities also collect leftover paint and use it for their beautification efforts or to paint over graffiti. So you can find environmentally sound ways to get rid of almost anything.

COMPUTER AND ELECTRONICS RECYCLING

Household electronics items—like televisions, printers, fax machines, computer monitors, keyboards, computer mice, VCRs, cell phones—all these things are hazardous waste. In many cases, they can contain stuff like lead, mercury, cadmium, and chromium. Stuff you definitely don’t want leaching into your groundwater.

I know there’s a lot of pressure to upgrade this stuff. But I try to use a piece of electronic hardware as long as it’s functioning and current enough to just work. I stuck with Windows 98 for a long time—until it just didn’t work for what I needed to do. I had to upgrade to XP, and I had to get a new computer. But I try to stick with the technologies for as long as I can. And then I usually give my computer, which is still working well, since I take care of it myself, to a family member—a grown son or daughter, my young daughter—and recycle that way.