Reducing Waste and Recycling

Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle
Produce Less Waste by Practicing the 3 Rs:

• Reduce the amount and toxicity of trash you discard.
• Reuse containers and products; repair what is broken or give it to someone who can repair it.
• Recycle as much as possible, which includes buying products with recycled content.

This website discusses trash, which is usually generated at peoples’ homes, but also comes from commercial, institutional, and industrial sources. A growing number of communities and schools have adopted waste reduction, reuse, and recycling programs. This site provides information on how we can all produce less waste.

Environmental Benefits of Recycling
Measure the environmental impacts of your waste prevention and recycling efforts—for example, recycling one aluminum beverage can saves enough energy to run a computer for three hours.

Your Home and Community
Understand the type, amount, and impact of wastes generated in your home and community, and what you can do to help reduce and better manage waste.

Recycle your cell phone. It's an easy call.
Plug-In To eCycling has teamed up with leading cell phone manufacturers, service providers, and retailers to encourage Americans to recycle their cell phones and accessories. There are many places and ways to recycle your cell phone. Recycling your phone recovers valuable materials and helps save energy!

Earth Day
Earth Day celebrated April 22, is a time to show your commitment to a clean environment by volunteering for a cleanup effort in your community or initiating a cleanup effort in your school, on your street, along roadsides, vacant lots, or other local areas.

America Recycles Day
America Recycles Day is a national all-volunteer, non-profit organization. The goal of its annual campaign is to encourage Americans to recycle and to buy recycled products. America Recycles Day 2007 is November 15. Learn about recycling events in your area on their Web site.

Earth 911
Earth 911 is a nonprofit organization that provides you with community-specific environmental information simply by entering your zip code. Do you want to know where in your community to recycle glass, paper, or aluminum? Do you want to dispose of that old computer or cell phone? Are you changing your oil and want to find a used motor oil recycling center just around the corner? By inputting your zip code, you can find the nearest recycling center.

Municipal Solid Waste: Facts and Figures
Describes the type of materials—paper, glass, metals, plastic—that make up our solid waste stream, and provides information on recycling and composting treads in our country.

Public Service Announcements
Listen to radio clips advocating recycling.

Reuse + Recycling = Waste Reduction: A Guide for Schools and Groups (PDF) (32 pp, 676K) | en Español (PDF) (32 pp, 6.8MB, About PDF)
Be part of the solution! This booklet describes how schools and community groups can set up their own waste reduction and recycling programs. It also lists the benefits of waste prevention and provides case studies of waste reduction programs that work.

Videos/Podcasts

Small Steps Recycle Podcast
This podcast is the first episode in a series called Small Steps. The podcast highlights tips and information on how people can individually reduce personal waste.

National Geographic: Coastal Cleanup
This video highlights an annual volunteer activity, where hundreds of thousands of volunteers gather to clean up coastlines around the world. The annual activity began in 1986 and progressively drew more and more volunteers each year, hoping to beautify and restore coastlines.

Energy Star Podcasts
These consumer electronics podcasts looks at the growth of consumer electronics and how ENERGY STAR qualified products can help save money and protect our environment by using energy more efficiently.

Without You, It's All Just Trash
Learn the importance of recycling and how NY residents can recycle their trash. From the New York Department of Sanitation.

Whole Earth Generation
Learn the importance of recycling paper and plastic, and find tips for recycling in the community. From The Whole Foods Market and Organic Valley.