Paint cans, and VHS tapes, and Styrofoam…oh my!
Have you ever driven around your neighborhood on garbage day? I’m regularly in awe by the amount of trash sitting at the curb. Overflowing garbage cans, mattresses and box springs, flat screen TVs, boxes from newer, bigger TVs, old tires, metal contraptions, broken planters, upcycle-worthy furniture and other not-so-upcycle-worthy furniture.
I can’t help but wonder what the garbage men think. But more importantly, I can’t help but think that all that stuff is destined for a landfill.
Maybe some junkers will beat the garbage truck to it and pull out the metal pieces and salvageable items. But most likely, all that stuff will end up in the landfill.
We all have times when we’re got a lot to dump. For me, it was just before selling my family’s home of 50+ years. Holy cow, I had huge amounts of trash for several weeks in a row. There was a seemingly endless trail of stuff pulled from the garage and attic. Half empty paint cans, automotive supplies from my car-fixing brothers, rusty toys, suitcases from the 1970s, our old moth-eaten canvas tent, boxes of old papers.
It was a lot of waste, but not as much as it could have been. Luckily, I heard about a helpful organization in my neck of the woods that has a mission to help people reduce the amount of waste they send to the landfill. If you’re in the Chicago area, you can check out this organization called SWANCC, Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County. In other areas, you can check out the www.Earth911.com website. Enter the items you’re looking to recycle and find places that will accept them, or locate recycling events in your area.
Here’s some of the stuff I looked up: oil-based paint, VHS tapes, an old set of encyclopedias, and styrofoam packing material.
I took the oil-based paint, along with a trunkful of other household chemicals, to a facility nearby that responsibly reuses or disposes of these items. I didn’t pay a dime or even have to get out of my car; I popped the trunk, they unloaded it all, and I drove happily off.
I took the encyclopedias to a local nonprofit group that accepts donations of any and all books. They vow to send not one book to a landfill. Current books in good condition end up in their Reuse Store, available to teachers on a budget. Damaged, old books are sent to a book recycler.
For our stockpile of styrofoam (packing material from a new TV and several styrofoam coolers used to ship heat-sensitive medicines), I sent my son to a local electronics store that accepts styrofoam and recycles it for free.
The problem is the VHS tapes. I have not found any free recycling option for those. You can pay a certain amount per pound to have them recycled, and possibly pay for shipping on top of that. The only free option to get rid of them is to donate them to a thrift shop, if they’re still taking them, or to leave them on someone’s front porch in the middle of the night. But please, whatever you do, don’t throw VHS tapes in the garbage! They leach terrible chemicals and take decades to decompose. Stay tuned for what I do with these.
So, whether Marie Kondo sparked in you the desire to get rid of everything that doesn’t spark joy, or the “got junk?” commercials are running through your head, or you just want to be able to pull the car in the garage, we all have stuff to shed. Instead of just shoving to the curb, take advantage of the many recycling resources available in our area. You’ll feel better knowing you did it the Earth-friendly way.