FitSugar

How to rid yourself of stuff that can't go in the recycling bin

Shiloh Jolie Pitt — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 09:57:53 -0700

A Flash In The Can

How to rid yourself of stuff that can't go in the recycling bin
by Jennifer Boulden and Heather Stephenson
photo credit: Alex Farnum

Anyone who’s ever moved from a larger place into a smaller one knows how difficult it can be to jettison unwanted stuff in an environmentally friendly way-especially when it’s bulky, of unknown origin, or the type of thing that requires wearing a Hazmat suit to recycle. Seeking answers, ReadyMade enlisted the help of Ideal Bite, a daily email newsletter devoted to “light-green living,” to create a crib sheet for those with the urge to purge. Downsizers, don’t leave home without it.

APPAREL

Clothing Free up some closet space by giving away that big sack of old threads. Donate women’s professional outfits to Dress for Success (www.dressforsuccess.org), a nonprofit that helps disadvantaged women find jobs. The Salvation Army (www.salvationarmy.org) will take your tees with open arms. If you want to trade, invite friends over for a frock swap, or haul your garb to a Buffalo Exchange store (www.givethegiftofsight.org).

Shoes More than 16 million pairs of sneakers have been recycled through projects like Nike’s Reuse-a-Shoe, which grinds up worn-out soles and converts them to basketball and tennis courts and running tracks. Find out where to drop off your worn-out kicks (whether or not they’re Nikes) at www.nike.com/nikebiz/reuseashoe.

AUTOMOBILE

Motor oil If it’s disposed of improperly, used oil can render fallow a four-acre area of soil for more than 20 years. But recyclers can re-refine it to create lubricating oil. Many auto shops, including Jiffy Lube and Kragen, will take the stuff off your hands.

Wheels Car tires make up 2 percent of all solid waste in landfills. Retailers like Big O and Goodyear will accept old tires for a few dollars apiece, and most local waste management companies organize free collection days. The road-weary rubber gets recycled into playground surfacing, soil additives, and flooring.

CHEMICALS

Cleaners Donate your out-of-use under-the-sink stash to a shelter or other nonprofit (call ahead), or visit www.freecycle.org to find people who’ll cart away your spray bottles and powder cans.

Medication In recent studies, more than 80 percent of rivers sampled contained chemicals from antibiotics, birth control pills, and/or antidepressants, largely because of flushed or dumped meds. The Starfish Project (www.thestarfishproject.org) redistributes certain meds to countries in Africa, while some states, such as Ohio and Wisconsin, run local repository programs. For expired prescriptions, call your pharmacy to see if it’ll accept them for incineration.

Paint If kicked to the curb, a single gallon of the conventional stuff can seep into the earth and pollute 250,000 gallons of drinking water. Earth 911 (www.earth911.org) lists local drop-off locations for both reuse (or proper disposal) and can recycling.

ELECTRONICS

Batteries Some stores (Ikea, for one) will take your alkalines for proper disposal, but you can actually recycle rechargeable batteries when they reach the end of their long lives (you can use them up to 1,000 times). They do contain hazardous chemicals like cadmium, though, so take them to a specialized drop spot (check www.rbrc.org for locations).

Cell phones Rather than sending your expired handset to join the more than 500 million mobile phones already in landfills, bring it back to the store where you bought it-T-Mobile and Verizon will recycle all brands of used cell phones. If you don’t have access to a store, check out Collective Good (www.collectivegood.com), where you can turn cell donations into cash for your choice of charity.

Computers About three-quarters of obsolete PCs-each with an average weight of 60 pounds-are sent to landfills. The Cristina Foundation (http://www.cristina.org">www.cristina.org) will pick up any old-but-working machine for redistribution to someone who can use it. Trade in newish computers through recycling programs organized by tech companies like Toshiba (www.toshiba.eztradein.com) or HP (www.hp.com/united-states/tradein). To find local spots to donate dead computers, visit E-cycling Central (www.eiae.org).

Fax machines Clear some space in your office by sending and receiving faxes digitally via eFax (www.efax.com) or MyFax (www.myfax.com), then list your hulking machine at Throwplace (www.throwplace.org) and send it in as a donation.

Ink The average printer cartridge can take more than 450 years to decompose. The Funding Factory (www.fundingfactory.com) and RecycleFund (www.recyclefund.com) will pony up cash for empty cartridges, then recycle them. Many national office-supply stores also accept ink cartridges.

MATERIALS

Appliances Looking to upgrade your oven or fridge, and need a place to donate your old one? Habitat for Humanity (www.habitat.org), a charity that builds homes for those who can’t afford them, will pass along your in-working-order castoffs to a family in need.

Carpet More than 2.5 million tons of rugs are discarded each year. Get a list of recyclers nationwide from Carpet America Recovery Effort (www.carpetrecovery.org), launched by carpet producers and the EPA, or donate like-new shag to Habitat for Humanity.

Plastics Just because there’s a number inside the arrows on the bottom of your yogurt container doesn’t mean it belongs in the recycling bin. Plastics #1 and #2 (detergent and water bottles, and food containers) are accepted by most municipal programs. Plastics #3–#7 (Styrofoam, shrink wrap, padded envelopes, product display casing, many to-go boxes, and yes, yogurt containers) are more difficult to recycle. If your city’s recycling program doesn’t accept them, try to reuse the items you can’t avoid acquiring in the first place.

Roofing. Construction jobs generate 11 million tons of asphalt shingle waste each year. If you’ve recently reroofed, www.earth911.org has a directory of recyclers who’ll turn old shingles into pavement and new roofing.

Wallboard About 12 percent of new drywall doesn’t survive installation. Luckily, it’s made from gypsum, a mineral that can be recycled into new drywall or used for cement production. Head to www.earth911.org for drop sites.

MEDIA

Books Got tomes that are gathering dust? Trade them in at your local used bookstore, or drop them at the library. You can also list unwanted volumes on Book Crossing (www.bookcrossing.com), a free service that alerts users to books left in public places.

Computer CDs, DVDs; jewel cases; VHS tapes Recycle these through Act Recycling (www.actrecycling.org), a nonprofit that helps people with disabilities find work. GreenDisk (www.greendisk.com) will take any hardware lying around the office (up to 20 pounds of monitors, cords, mice, and so forth) for $6.95.

Paperwork Clear out your filing cabinet by scanning photos and paper documents. Digitize photos on sites like Flickr (www.flickr.com). Check with your local waste management service about photo paper, and recycle all standard-issue stock after digitizing records, articles, and any other notes you can’t bear to part with.

San Francisco: A City Committed to Recycling Is Ready for More

tdsollog — Wed, 07 May 2008 10:16:58 -0700

Found this on the NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/07/us/07garbage.html?th&emc=th

A City Committed to Recycling Is Ready for More

By FELICITY BARRINGER
Published: May 7, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO - Mayor Gavin Newsom is competitive about many things, garbage included. When the city found out a few weeks ago that it was keeping 70 percent of its disposable waste out of local landfills, he embraced the statistic the way other mayors embrace winning sports teams, improved test scores or declining crime rates.

The San Francisco Recycling Center processes about 750 tons of recyclables a day, and Mayor Gavin Newsom wants to add to that total.

So Mr. Newsom will soon be sending the city’s Board of Supervisors a proposal that would make the recycling of cans, bottles, paper, yard waste and food scraps mandatory instead of voluntary, on the pain of having garbage pickups suspended.

“Without that, we don’t think we can get to 75 percent,” the mayor said of the proposal. His aides said it stood a good chance of passing.

How does he describe his fixation with recycling dominance? “It’s purposefulness that could otherwise be construed as ego,” Mr. Newsom said. “You want to be the greatest city. You want to be the leading city. You want to be on the cutting edge. I’m very intense about it.”

In a more businesslike tone, Jared Blumenfeld, the director of the city’s environmental programs, addressed one of the main reasons the city keeps up the pressure to recycle. “The No. 1 export for the West Coast of the United States is scrap paper,” Mr. Blumenfeld said, explaining that the paper is sent to China and returns as packaging that holds the sneakers, electronics and toys sold in big-box stores.

Not that Mr. Blumenfeld does not have a competitive streak of his own. San Francisco can charge more for its scrap paper, he said, because of its low levels of glass contamination. That is because about 15 percent of the city’s 1,200 garbage trucks have two compartments, one for recyclables. That side has a compactor that can compress mixed loads of paper, cans and bottles without breaking the bottles. (These specially designed trucks, which run on biodiesel, cost about $300,000 apiece, at least $25,000 more than a standard truck, said Benny Anselmo, who manages the fleet for Norcal.)

Another major innovation in the past decade was the development of infrastructure for turning food wastes - a major part of the waste stream in a city with thousands of restaurants - into baggable compost that is used in California’s vineyards and the vast farms of the Central Valley.

The garbage from San Francisco’s 750,000 residents is picked up on the pay-as-you-throw principle - the more garbage bins you need, the higher your monthly fee. (The average customer pays $23.58 a month.) Also, in the past couple of years, it has banned plastic grocery bags and permitted the recycling of hard plastic toys.

The city has 12 recycling streams, or programs, devoted to different materials, including regular garbage, construction debris, furniture and paint.

“When we look at garbage, we don’t see garbage, O.K.?” said Robert Reed, a spokesman for Norcal Waste Systems, the parent company of Sunset Scavenger and Golden Gate Disposal and Recycling Company, the main garbage collectors in the city. “We see food, we see paper, we see metal, we see glass.”

The recycling rate for this curbside collection from homes, hotels and the city’s 5,000 restaurants is considerably lower than the overall rate, Mr. Reed said, in part because the rates on other waste streams - construction debris or material, like batteries and compact fluorescent bulbs, that the public brings in to special centers - is much higher.

Much of the concrete from demolished buildings, for instance, is recycled in new sidewalks. Another recycling stream is born of the community’s design sensitivities. “People are doing very well here,” Mr. Reed said. “They remodel, and they paint. On Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, people line up to bring us paint” at a facility built for the purpose.

“We separate it into flat and latex, screen it to take out the chunks, and blend it in 55-gallon drums,” he said.

The three resulting colors - off-white, beige and green - are packed in five-gallon tins and sent to local nonprofit organizations, schools or charitable institutions in Mexico.

Norcal’s subsidiaries handle 3,545 tons of waste a day in San Francisco, out of about 7,800 generated citywide, Mr. Reed said. About 55 percent of Norcal’s total goes to the landfill; the rest is recycled. These figures become part of the calculation of the city’s overall diversion rate of 70 percent, which is the figure it just reported for 2006.

As John Sitts, of the state’s integrated waste management board, said, “the diversion rate includes recycling, composting and source reduction” - the last term representing “everything businesses and residents do to reuse things rather than throwing them out.”

The Los Angeles region most recently reported a 59 percent diversion rate, a number still being audited by state regulators. San Jose, at 62 percent, claims the best-in-class crown for cities of 900,000 or more. Statewide, the figure for 2006 was 54 percent.

With the exception of Chicago, which boasted a 55 percent rate in 2006 - the most recent year for which national comparisons are available - Eastern and Midwestern cities lagged well behind their California counterparts. According to the most recent annual survey of the trade magazine Waste News, in 2006 New York City was at 30.6 percent, Milwaukee at 24 percent, Boston at 16 percent and Houston at 2.5 percent.

San Francisco’s system is being noticed overseas. Mr. Blumenfeld’s calendar is full of meetings with officials from Germany and China, most of whom visit Norcal’s facilities, including the food-waste composting centers.

His visitors are learning, Mr. Blumenfeld said, that “you can recycle almost anything.”

All my polishes

CCee — Sun, 31 May 2009 06:02:52 -0700

Hi everyone,

Retail_Therapy was curious about all my polishes so last night I took pictures of all the bottles (and the one's I've worn already I've put one picture of with the name). The ones I haven't worn online so far will come eventually. There are a couple I'll probably only wear once to show you because some of these colours I actually hate (gifts I hadn't the nerve to say I didn't like). But 99% are great colours.

How I store them:

All names are from left to right

Estee Lauder:

04 Black Berry
08 Red Cherry
10 White Petal

Miss Helen:

80
9
37

Rimmel London:

60 Seconds Vinyl Shine in 826 Big Night Out
60 Seconds Vinyl Shine in 626 Be a Star

Wild & More:

119:
81 (Grey)

Essence:

Make a Wish in 02 It’s Magic
Multi Demension in 12 Blind Date

GOSH:

064

Sally Hansen:
Diamond Strength in Honeymoon Red:

Bourjois Mini:

Breakfast a Londres in 16
Breakfast a Londres in 15
Diner a Paris in 37 (2)
Techno Bar a Tokyo in 40

Bourjois:

Fan Effect Brush 1 second polish in no. 9 (purple)
Fan Effect Brush 1 second polish in no. 22:

En Toute affinité in no. 21 Beige Ivoire

Sephora:

L19 Tagada
L23 Myrtille:
L22 Curacao

Chanel:

Le Vernis 479 Kaleidoscope:
Le Vernis 210 Lilac Sky:

Dior:

Vernis 905 Black Sequins:

China Glaze Kaleidoscope Collection:

It’s my turn
Don’t be a square
Rated holographic
Spin me Round
Visit me in Prism
Let’s do it in 3D:

Tickle my Triangle
How about a tumble:
Octa gone wild
Kaleidoscope him out:
He’s going in circles
Sexagon:

China Glaze OMG! Collection:

QT:
TMI:
TTYL:
FYI:
GR8:
L8R G8R

DV8:
BFF:
IDK: 2NITE:
OMG:

China Glaze:

It’s Poppin’
Red Stallion
Sky High-Top
B-Girlz
Sneaker Head:
Custom Kicks

Innocence:
White on White:
For Audrey:
Bahamian Escape:
Secret Peri-Wink-Le:
Agent Lavender

China Glaze E-collection:

Unplugged:
Hybrid:
Solar Power:
Tree Hugger:
Shower Together:
Recycle:

China Glaze:

Adore:
Wireless Holographic TopCoat:
Ghoulish Glow TopCoat
Ink:

Nfu-Oh:

no. 51:
no. 52:
no. 54
no. 53 June 10th 2009
no. 50
no. 38
no. 59

Nubar:

Foundation Base Coat
Lavender:
Pharao's Purple
Pyramid Purple: June 18th 2009
Pasadena Purple:
Peacock Feathers
Dolcetto
Barbera:

Misa:

Sun Kissed 13:
Radiant 14
The grass is greener on my side 183
Dirty, Sexy, Money 197: June 20th 2009

Color Club:
Pure Energy:

KOH:

114 Bright Pink:
134 Rainy Day:
135 Black Diamond:
130 Midnight Blue:
133 Platinum Silver:

Essie:

Loophole:
Flawless:
Status Symbol:
Mesmerize:

OPI:

Happy Anniversary
Birthday Babe:
Stars in my Eyes
Give me the Moon

You’re a Doll:
Done out in Deco:
Parlez-vous OPI?:
You don’t know Jacques!:

Curry up, don’t be late!
Thrills in Beverly Hills Glitter TopCoat:
Treasure (Designer Collection):
Bronzed Perfection
Music Hall Curtain Call:

Redipus-Oedipus:
Quarter of a cent-cherry
Don’t toy with me:

Lincoln park after dark
Russian Navy:
Black Onyx:

Fit for a Queensland
Your Royal shyness
Canberra ‘t without you:
Bubble Bath:
Suzi & the Lifeguard:

Teeny bikinis:

Done out in Deco:
Suzi & the Lifeguard:
Overexposed in South Beach:
RapiDry TopCoat:

RapiDry TopCoat:
Natural Nail BaseCoat
Original Nail Envy
DripDry

Expert Touch
Nail Laquer Thinner

Konad:

Konad stapling nail art set (M2 plate)
Konad Silver
Konad Black
Konad White
Plates I own are: no. 1,3,10,13,30,57,60,65,71

Herome:

3 Nail files
Rapid Nail Dry Spray
Caring Nail Polish Remover
Nail Hardner
Natural Nail Colour (silver)
Natural Nail Whitner
Cuticle Remover
Cuticle Peeling Gel
Hydrating Nail Gel
Nourishing Nail Oil

Essie:

Quick-E

Sally Hansen:
Nail Revitalizer
Hard as Wraps

H&M:

- Enchantres Emma June 7th 2009
- My Favourite Jeans June 12th 2009
- Goddess On Stage June 16th 2009

Showing you MANY China Glaze nailpolishes... (part 1) (will keep updating)

CCee — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 04:53:26 -0700

Hi everyone,

Well, I just ordered "some" nailpolishes in the US.... and I was wondering what you guys think of my choices before I can actually show you how they look on my nails. I'm curious to see if your opinion changes or not.

I've never used or seen this brand in person, so I'm very curious!! I ordered these because of pictures I've seen of people wearing them or because the colour in the bottle intregued me.... I'll add the pictures of the colours I can find with them. Sources for my inspiration to buy these and the pictures I'm showing here are: http://www.alllacqueredup.com/ , http://polishaddict.com/ and http://www.makeupandbeautyblog.com/. For more pictures of the China Glaze nailpolishes, go to http://e-polishblog.blogspot.com/, she has amazing pictures!!

I ordered "some" China Glaze nail polishes:

China Glaze Kicks Collection (summer 2009)
- Custom Kicks (ocean blue/green)
** Will be added soon

- Sky High-Top (vibrant blue)
** Will be added soon

- Its Poppin' (pink)
** Will be added soon

- B-Girlz (pink)
** Will be added soon

- Sneaker Head (pink)
** Will be added soon

China Glaze Romantique Collection (Spring 2009)
- China Glaze Nail Polish-Adore
Sun:
April 9th 2009
Shade:

Flash:

China Glaze Bahama Blues Collection (Spring 2009)
- Bahamian Escape (blue)
** Will be added soon

- China Glaze Nail Lacquer, For Audrey
This is one coat of For Audrey!!! Amazing huh! I do have to get used to the brush though, it's soo much smaller then the other ones. But look at the colour payoff!! It's super. The first one is in the shade and the second picture is in sunlight.

China Glaze Ghoulish Glow (Winter 2008)
- China Glaze Ghoulish Glow Topcoat
The Topcoat I used on these nails is the Ghoulish Glow, this does glow a little in the dark and glows more if you keep your hands in front or a light before turning off the lights. But it's not like they give light or anything.
Sun: April 12th 2009
Shade:
Flash:

China Glaze Operation Colour Collection (Winter/fall 2008)
- Secret Peri-Wink-Le (lavender)
Semi Sun: May 7th 2009
Flash:

- Agent Lavender (light lavender)
** Will be added soon

China Glaze Rodeo Diva Collection (Fall 2008)
- Red Stallion (red)
** Will be added soon

China Glaze INK Collection
- China Glaze INK with Nail Art Brush
April 11th 2009

China Glaze ecollection
Golden Reddish Brown = Unplugged
Sunlight:
Flashlight:March 31st 2009

Light Silvery Brown = Hybrid
** Will be added soon
The Hybrid colour is the lightest colour on my nails. I made 3 pictures in 3 different types of lighting, to show you how different these colours look in each and every one.
Sunlight:

Shade:

Flash:

Azure Blue = Shower Together
This is 3 coats of Shower together and 3 coats of White on White. (The dots are Konad White and Sephora Curacao)
Lamp: May 5th 2009
Flash:

Green = Tree Hugger
Sunlight: April 3rd 2009
Shade:
Flash:

Grey = Recycle
** Will be added soon
The grey art on the nails is the colour Recycle:
Sun: April 12th 2009
Shade:
Flash:

Yellow = Solar Power
Sun: April 11th 2009
Flash:
Shade:

China Glaze OMG! Collection (2BKEWL Palette)
- China Glaze OMG Nail Lacquer, DV8
Basecoat: O.P.I. Original Nail Envy, 2 coats of DV8, nailart, Sally Hansen Hard as Nails topcoat
Flash:
Lamp: March 29th 2009

- LOL (holographic purple)
Sun:
* more will be added soon

- BFF (holograpihic purple/pink)
Sun:
* more will be added soon

- IDK (holographic purple)
Sun:
*more will be added soon

- China Glaze OMG Nail Lacquer, 2NITE
Lamplight:
Flash: 3rd May 2009
Shade:

- China Glaze Nail Polish, OMG
** Will be added soon

China Glaze OMG! Collection (2BHOT Palette)
- QT (holopgraphic purple/pink)
Sun:
* more will be added soon

- TMI (holograhic red/orange)
Sun:
* More will be added soon

- TTYL (holographic (orangish)
Sun:
More will be added soon

- FYI (holographic gold)
Sun:
* More will be added soon

- GR8 (holographic gold)
Sun:
* More will be added soon

- L8R G8R (holographic green)
** Will be added soon

- China Glaze Wireless Holographic Top Coat
Added over the colour Sexagon
Flash:
Shade:
Sun:

China Glaze Blush Collection
- China Glaze Nail Lacquer, White on White
Sun: April 12th 2009
Shade:
Flash:

China Glaze Kaleidoscope Collection 2006 (Warm palette)
- It's My Turn (holographic gold)
** Will be added soon

- Don't Be a Square (holographic pink)
** Will be added soon

- Rated Holographic (holographic orangepink)
** Will be added soon

- Spin Me Round (holographic)
** Will be added soon

- China Glaze Nail Lacquer Visit Me In Prism
I don't have enough hands to try all my nailpolishes on... so I had Nicole model these. The first one is in sunlight and the second is with a flash. This is 3 coats of polish.
Sun:
Flash:

- China Glaze Nail Polish-Let's Do it in 3-D

China Glaze Kaleidoscope Collection 2006 (Cool palette)
- Tickle My Triangle (holographic pink)
** Will be added soon

- How About a Tumble (holographic lilac)
Yellow lamp light:
White lamp light:
Flash light:
Shade:
Half shade half sun:

Sun:

I do think these holographic polishes need many pictures in many different lights to give you a proper idea of the multitude of colours of the polish.

- Octa Gone Wild (holograhic purple)
** Will be added soon

- China Glaze Nail Polish-Kaleidoscope Him Out
Flash:
Shade:
Sun:
Setting Sun:

- He's Going in Circles (holographic silver)
** Will be added soon

- China Glaze Nail Polish-Sexagon
Sun:
Shade:
Flash:
China Glaze Creme Couture Collection
- China Glaze Nail Lacquer, Innocence
When I used this nailpolish I wanted the colour to be very much pink and opague, soooo I placed 4 coats of nailpolish on my nails to create this effect.
Sunlight:

Flash light:

Sooo tell me what you think (yes, I'm very into holographic and silvers for some reason),I'll update this post with my own pictures of every polish mentioned here.

** UPDATE
Placed the polishes in order of release... added all I’ve already worn.
Last colours added are the OMG collection
* Added Secret Peri-Wink-Le pictures
** Added How about a Tumble pictures

(check out my group Life Through a Lens)

Kick it up a notch

Lindsb — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 17:58:26 -0800

I just read an article about recycling shoes and was totally inspired.

You can donate any brand of athletic shoes to Nike's Reuse-A-Shoe program and the company will recycle them into materials that will be used in sports surfaces, such as playgrounds, basketball courts, and running tracks, for under-served communities around the world.

Go to: http://www.letmeplay.com/reuseashoe for the nearest drop off location near you.

On the website - when you look for drop off locations, it also shows you the existing contributions they have made with donated sneakers!! I searched and there are 3 courts/playgrounds in Philly that they have created. It warmed my heart - I tutored young kids when I lived there and I know how much they struggle to stay out of trouble..

How many have they created near you!? I am definitely dropping off my old sneaks next time I drive by a donation center.