Living Lightly

Recycling plastic is good. It’s better than letting it pollute our air, water, land, wildlife, and scenery. But, is it worth it? I’ll have a lot more to say on this in upcoming blogs (Reducing Plastics #3 and Preventing Plastics #4). But for now, I’m wrestling with the question of how much recycling is worth my time? The question popped up as I wondered what to do with empty printer cartridges that had accumulated in our basement,

With Covid-19 prompting more people to work at home many of us need supplies for a home office. Jim and I have had home offices for at least a decade. Each of us has a printer. Thus, we’ve accumulated quite a few empty plastic cartridges – 70 to be exact. They were taking up storage space, but more importantly we wanted to be good environmental stewards. I did some research (so you won’t have to) and this is what I found.

• Are printer cartridges refillable? Yes, sort of – for a limited number of times. You have to buy some equipment, ink, and be very careful.  Click here for a mixed review.
• Are printer cartridges recyclable? Yes. Office Depot takes cartridges as long as they are one of the brands they sell. 23 of mine qualified. Staples accepts all brands. I took the remaining 47 to Staples. Each store has a small rewards program which gives you a $2 credit for each cartridge (up to 10 cartridges a month).
• Are they really recycled or are they just sent to a landfill or overseas? After many phone calls and emails I was not able to get a definitive answer from Office Depot. Staples sends their cartridges to Clover Environmental Solutions which reuses or remanufactures them. I’d go with Staples.
• Is it worth the trouble? Yes, it was easy to drop the cartridges off at a local store. Although I would save more money by taking in a batch of 10 for the next 7 months and buying something with my $20 reward, I decided it wasn’t worth the hassle of planning my shopping around this limit. I gave them all I had at once.
• Another solution: Copy less. Paper copies used to be the standard way of communicating information. Since much more can be stored digitally now, we don’t need paper copies as much. There’s something satisfying about having a piece of paper to highlight, make notes on, and crumble up and throw if you’re upset. Besides, paper is recyclable. BUT, think of all the information that can fit in even a tiny mobile phone. There’s got to be a balance.

Are other recycling tasks worth it?
Maybe you don’t have a home office or a ton of printer cartridges. So what recycling items are worth the effort?
1. Curbside municipal recycling is easy and worth it. Most cities collect metal, glass, paper, and plastic bottles. Metal, glass, and paper are pretty economically recycled, Plastic is a harder sell.
2. Single use plastics (especially #5s) are becoming the albatross of our day. Very few places really recycle them. BUT, they’re so convenient and it’s hard to get groceries without plastic packaging. My next blog post will be about reducing single use plastics.
3. Furniture, tools, food, toys, etc. Sure, share them with friends or give them away. Stay tuned for Beyond Plastic Recycling #5.

Plastic Challenge #2: Your challenge for the next 2 weeks is to watch Plastic Wars, a PBS, Frontline documentary. It’s free. It’s 53 minutes. It’s worth your time. It will prepare you for Plastics #3.
Bonus Challenge for those who are willing: For the next 2 weeks count and list the things you buy (especially at the grocery) that cannot be reused or easily recycled.

Plastics are convenient. They are light, durable, and often cheap. However, they are becoming toxic to the air we breathe, the water we drink, the animals we love, the soil that supports our food, and the beauty of natural landscapes and roads.

I’ve recently become involved in a Pachamama Alliance action oriented environmental program. I chose PLASTICS as my focus. You are all familiar with the slogan “Reduce; Reuse, Recycle.” In this and the next several blog entries I will be sharing with you a Challenge for each of these components ending with Prevention. Today, I start with RECYCLE.

I’ve previously blogged on different aspects of recycling plastics: Plastics Do’s & Don’ts,  Recycling Basics, and Taming Xmas & Plastics. Assuming you already recycle plastics in your own home, today’s challenge is to go beyond your home to your community. It will raise your awareness and multiply your efforts. See if you can meet or exceed my recent plastic recycling experiment below.

Step 1: Know what items your local curbside recycling company takes beside paper (usually cans, glass, and plastic bottles).

Step 2: Collect. For a day or a week, scour your neighborhood for recyclable trash along the roadside. Collect it. I decided to use my daily bike route for this experiment since I often see trash along the roadside but it’s not convenient to stop my bike and pick it up. This time I put 2 plastic bags on my handle bars, took half of my route (about 2 miles round trip) and stopped to pick up plastic or glass bottles, and cans, along the way.

Step 3: Count. I had 31 plastic bottles, 22 metal cans, and 5 glass bottles. It took me one hour to do a 2 mile loop which is half as far but twice as long as my usual bike ride.

Of course you could just walk your neighborhood. Or you could choose a generally littered part of your town if you really want to beat me. The point is to take recycling plastics (and other curbside recyclables) to a new level of consciousness.

This may be the easiest of the Plastic Challenges I will offer you. The next 2 Challenges will include home based actions and influencing others. I offer you no prize other than knowing you are becoming part of the solution (and a little self-satisfaction 🙂 ) Let me know your numbers, what works, and what doesn’t.