Recycling Used Goods: Cars, Tennis Shoes, Eyeglasses and More

Recycling is one of the more popular things to do in our neighborhood. When my husband and I moved to Pennsylvania, we moved to a small college town in the suburbs. We noticed that most people had their own recycling bins that were picked up regularly each week. They had one bin for cans, one for newspapers, one for glass, etc. I thought that this is a great way to initiate recycling. I always thought that recycling was restricted to glass, paper, plastic, and newspapers, but as I learn more about how to recycle I learned so much more!

Apparently the United States is the number 1 waste producer in the world and 75% of what we throw away can be recycled. Why should we recycle? To save our environment as much as possible! Now with the computer booms, there are even e-waste centers that you can take your old printers and such to. I had no idea these places existed. In addition to helping reduce pollution, we can also eliminate the need for landfill space and in a country that produced the most waste; we should be motivated to do so. But did you know there were also other things you can recycle outside of metal, glass, paper, and plastic? I didn't until recently. Here is what I've learned:

One thing you can recycle is your old eyeglasses! There are numerous organizations that allow you donate your eyeglasses including uniteforsight.org and www.discoveret.org/weserve/eyeglasses.htm. In addition to eyeglasses, you can give your old magazines that pile up to nursing homes, schools, doctors' offices, and the list goes on. I would always recycle my magazines at our recycling center. Never did I think of actually donating them to places that use magazines. Even tennis shoes can be recycled! You can give your tennis shoes away to help build playgrounds and basketball courts for kids

Cell phones are a great thing to recycle. For example, http://www.cellphonesforsoldiers.com/about.html is a site that gives people information on the importance of donating cell phones for soldiers. According to the site, Americans will replace 130 million cell phones this year. Say you visit this site and want to donate your old cell phone, there's a company that will take each cell phone donated and create a 12 minute prepaid calling card for soldiers over seas to call their families! What a way to recycle something we aren't going to use anyway.

Cars are also recycled, not just for their metal and parts; but for their charitable worth too. Not only is recycling or donating an automobile tax deductible, you get the satisfaction of helping your favorite charity provide assistance to those in need.

Computers are something else that can be recycled. In this day of the internet, computers are needed everywhere and you can visit cristina.org to help the National Cristina Foundation place refurbished computers to disadvantaged persons with special needs in educational institutions.

There are so many things that can be recycled, I had no clue how many things around the house that can be donated. I know about donations and often give clothes and other small things to Goodwill, but I didn't put together the relationship of recycling and donations. The small things that we can take for granted can make a big difference in someone's life. So, not only do I recycle our waste products, I plan on giving away much more than clothes in the future!