Eco-Tip Wednesday ~ Free Cycle

I don't know if your town is like mine, but they only take 1's and 2's. I'm talking about recyclable plastic containers. For some reason, they only accept the ones that have the numbers 1 and 2 on the bottoms. I'm sure there's a good reason, but I don't know what it is. They also don't accept any cardboard with a foil coating. So whenever I come across an item that I use a lot and it's not recyclable, I think of ways I can reuse them instead of throwing them away. Two such items in my household these days are the small lidded containers that my son's baby food comes in and the foil coated cardboard cans that my son's baby formula comes in. I've been setting these aside for a few weeks now and needed to find a use for them.

So what I did was joined my local chapter of The Freecycle Network. It's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Each local group is moderated by a local volunteer (them's good people). Membership is free.

I use some of the baby food containers to store & freeze baby food that I make myself, but I don't have a use for the other containers and cans. So I listed my items, waited for someone to reply with interest and then arranged for them to come to my house to pick them up! I just placed them on my porch and off they went to a good home. An art teacher, and a couple of local charity groups got dibs on the formula cans and I hope that someone into beading or other craft snags the lidded containers! They are clear and are the perfect size to store beads, buttons, and other findings.

Another way to avoid using items that aren't recycled by your township is to reduce the amount of non-recyclable products that you buy. At the grocery store, simply look on the bottom of the container and if your town doesn't take it, choose another brand that packages the item in something recyclable!