“Green” Tips
If you want to live a greener life, try not to buy or use too many things that can't be recycled. Try a different product that can be recycled. Here are some examples.
Instead of buying paint in a spray can, which can't be recycled, buy a can of paint and a paintbrush. Make sure, when you are done with it, to throw away the paint can in a safe place. If you are not sure where, ask the people at your town landfill.
Buy a lunch box and use it all year, instead of bringing lunches every day in paper or plastic bags.
Ask your parents to try and only buy products that come in plastics with the #1 or #2 marked on the bottom. These are recyclables. Try not to buy products sold in plastic bottles marked with a #3, #4, #5, #6, and especially #7. You can help by going along on the next shopping trip and helping your parents look at the recycling numbers.
Buy milk and juice in #2 plastic jugs and recycle them. Waxed cartons can't be recycled.
Bring your own canvas bags to the grocery store to pack your food in.
Try not to buy products with a lot of extra packaging, like plastic trays inside boxes with extra plastic wrapping. All that packaging uses resources and just has to be thrown away or recycled in the end anyway!
Join and shop at your local food co-op. You can buy food in bulk with little or no packaging at all.
You might be confused about how to recycle certain things. Learn what they are and how to do it. Make a list and post it at your school. This will help others know that there are places for recycling a lot of things that might have ended up at the landfill. Write a letter to the editor of your local paper telling everyone what they can recycle and how. Here are a few examples.
People use a lot of ink cartridges in their computer printers. You can now recycle them through your local post office. Clear, plastic, stamped envelopes are available that you can package and send each cartridge in after it is empty. It won't cost you a penny!
Old cell phones can be donated to people who need them. For how to do it, look on:
www.wirelessrecycling.com Even your old computers can be recycled. Donate your old computers that still work to your local school or daycare center. If they don't work, you can recycle them through electronics recycling companies who will even pick them up at your home. Look online for “computer recycling.”
