Often times when you have unwanted items they can be recycled in a number of ways. Almost everything can be recycled, although some items are easier to recycle than others!
If you are interested in recycling something, the first place to start is your township and current garbage disposal service. Often times the place where you live may already have programs in place for common household items such as paper, glass, aluminum cans, and more.
Find a Local Recycling Drop Off Center Near You
Many people are surprised to learn there are often many different recycling centers and drop off locations in a variety of places nearby.
For example, many storage rental companies partner with television recycling companies and non-profit charities to provide drop-off boxes for a convenient way to recycle and donate unwanted items.
Many schools also provide paper recycling drop off locations. This can be a great way to properly recycle a large volume of paper, junk mail, newspapers and even magazines or pages from a book.
Types of Materials and How They Are Recycled
In order to recycle an item, it’s important to know what the item is made out of and how that material is recycled. Glass for example is often recycled in a much different way than metal or paper!
Paper Recycling Centers
Fortunately, more and more local companies are offering paper recycling in addition to its regular recycling program. For many people, recycling paper is as simple as placing it into the dedicated bin your township or city provides.
If you do not yet have paper recycling at your doorstep, there are often many different centers with paper recycling drop off boxes where you can drop off papers to recycle. You can often find these bins at places such as schools, libraries, churches, universities, shopping centers and other places in the community.
While most of these paper recycling drop off bins do not accept books as-is with covers still intact, metal spiral binding or paper with staples, there are still ways you can recycle these bulkier items if you don’t mind doing a little bit of the processing yourself.
Scrap Metal Recycling
Scrap metal recycling not only is easy to do, but it can also be a profitable venture for many people. There are some people who make their entire living simply by going around to collect scrap metals to recycle at the scrap yard.
Making money with scrap metal is not easy and can be a time consuming process, but if you are willing to learn about the different metals and separate them this can be a good way to get rid of unwanted items and save on the costs of dumping it or hiring someone to take it.
Many people do not realize that scrap metal recycling centers also take a wide variety of items beyond just metals like copper, aluminum, and iron. Many scrap yards will also take batteries, electric engines and motors, wire, small electronics and computers.
How to Recycle Tires
The easiest way to recycle tires in most communities is to contact your nearest automotive center or your regular car mechanic. Most of these commercial garages already have recycling programs in place because of the hire volume of tires they deal with on a regular basis.
For example, one of the mechanics we use regularly for tire recycling has a very reasonable fee of $2 per tire. While it does typically cost money to recycle tires, it is important to dispose of them properly with a responsible company to ensure there is no littering or illegal dumping.
How to Recycle Wood and Yard Debris
Many of our customers often hired us to remove logs, branches, firewood, leaves, brush and other landscaping yard waste.
Regulations on how to recycle and remove these items can vary greatly between one jurisdiction to another, since many types of wood can unfortunately harbor invasive pests such as the Emerald Ash Borer, Termites, and other pests.
Most of the time, these natural items will decompose all on their own over time, especially if you are able to use them in your own compost pile. Some of these items may also work as backfill for various projects and can be desirable for people seeking clean fill for various construction and landscaping projects.
If you do not have a compost bin or need items disposed of quickly, there are also many landscaping supply companies who may be able to provide you with safe and responsible recycling services.
Television Recycling
It is a bit challenging to recycle a television, but it is starting to get easier. Some companies have drop off boxes for televisions at storage centers, or they may have a designated drop-off location at their facility.
Another option you can do to recycle televisions is to organize a community pick-up day with your local township or city council. When the community joins together to recycle hard-to-dispose-of items you can often save a lot of money on recycling hard to get rid of items AND enjoy the benefits of a fun family friendly event together.
The biggest part of the challenge is that in many places it is illegal to dump a television – you cannot throw it away! This is because there are often chemicals inside of the television that can pollute the environment and be a hazard to wildlife.
Many electronics stores offer television recycling when you purchase a new TV. This can be a great way to get rid of an old TV if you only have one or two televisions you wish to get rid of.
Some of the very old televisions of the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s are also now considered to be collector’s items. We know it’s surprising. Yes really, grandma’s old television set may have some value to the right vintage electronics collector!
Paint, Gasoline, and Other Chemicals
One of the things that can be most dangerous and difficult to get rid of are paint, gasoline, and old chemicals. Most junk removal companies do not dispose of these items for you or if they do will charge an extra fee because it can be very challenging to safely dispose of or recycle these items.
In most cases, there are not really any “good ways” to dispose of these items, but sometimes you can find someone who might be able to use these items for their intended use. For example, if you have a few extra half-empty paint cans, you may be able to give them to a neighbor who wants to paint a piece of furniture.
Like televisions, this is another thing where partnering with your local community can be most beneficial. Many communities have events where people can come and drop off these types of items to be safely disposed of and recycled properly.
Recycling items doesn’t have to be difficult, but sometimes it does take a little bit of extra effort to do it safely and responsibly. Fortunately, many times recycling is as simple as being aware that a material is recyclable and can be recycled through your regular local trash collection service.