Have you ever wondered why you shouldn’t put your used (i.e. grungy) napkins, paper towels and tissues in your recycling cart along with other paper products? The answer is quite simple. They aren’t accepted in recycling carts because they’re contaminated. Only clean paper products should go in your recycling cart.
Good Green Habits for Napkins, Paper Towels and Tissues
- Put used facial tissue, napkins and paper towels in your garbage cart―not in toilets or recycling and green waste carts.
- Place toilet tissue in toilets or garbage carts―toilet tissue cannot be recycled at this time.
IMPORTANT: You can place “food-soiled paper”―including napkins, paper towels and tissues―in your home compost bin since it is biodegradable. Or, if your city or garbage company offers a food recycling program, you may be able to place them in your green waste cart to be transferred to a composting facility.
If you find your mailbox jammed with catalogs, flyers and advertisements, you’re not alone. Over 114 billion pieces of junk mail are delivered each year by the US Post Office. Plus, Americans collectively pay about $370,000,000 to get rid of the portion that doesn’t get recycled.
Good Green Habits for Junk Mail
Individuals and business can take these FREE eco-friendly steps to prevent junk mail from clogging their mailboxes:
- Call advertisers directly to ask for removal from their marketing list.
- Check the “opt out” box when completing registration forms, filling out warranty cards, ordering products, donating money and when signing up for services (including health care and car insurance), contests, group memberships, and anything else that might put you on a promotional list.
- Write “do not sell this name” at the bottom of bank checks when paying for donations, class and conference registrations, magazines and other types of payments that could generate junk mail.
- Request these companies remove your name from their lists:
Catalogs—Catalogchoice.org
Credit Card & Insurance Offers—Optoutprescreen.com
Direct Mail—DMAchoice.org
Emloyee Mailing Lists: Ecological Mail Coalition
Sweepstakes—Publishers Clearing House (800) 645-9242
Shopping Flyers—Valpak
ShopWise* and Missing Children Ads—ADVO
Eco Fact: Good Green Habit staff took the above steps and now do NOT receive any junk mail. These steps are free, easy and the payoff is huge.
The Earth’s natural resources (like trees and water) are conserved whenever products and materials are used more than once. So, after you read your magazines, give them a longer life by allowing others to read them before they’re recycled into new paper products.
Good Green Habits for Magazines
You can extend the life of your old magazines with these eco-friendly options:
- Donate magazines to hospitals, nursing homes and senior centers.
- Leave them in your work lunch room for co-workers.
- Share with extended family and friends.
- Sell or give away at yard sales or flea markets.
- Take to dentist or doctor’s offices, gyms, homeless shelters, or stores with waiting rooms.
- Use as art material for school projects.
- Wad up or shred to use as filler for shipping boxes.
Eco Tip: Read your magazines online to save trees and money!
You can green up your moving day by packing belongings in used cardboard boxes. Here are several easy ways to find used boxes:
• Ask friends, neighbors and businesses (such as grocery stores) for unwanted boxes.
• Check Craigslist.com or Freecycle.com for used boxes in your area.
• Ask local moving companies if they offer used boxes (rather than new).
• Purchase used boxes at UsedCardboardBoxes.com.
Eco Idea: After you’ve moved, post your unwanted cardboard boxes on Craigslist.org or Freecycle.com for donation so they can be used again or place them in your recycling cart or bin.
