How Can I Recycle This?

Recycling bottles, cans, paper and some plastics has become pretty easy for a lot of us; just drop it in the bin and leave it at the curb, or, in some cases, gather it up and take to a local center, and that's it. The system is pretty painless and benefits us (less trash lying around) and our planet (less junk in the landfills), but what do you do when it comes time to recycle less common items like busted earphones or popped bubble wrap? Thankfully, there's How Can I Recycle This?, a UK-based site dedicated to coming up with creative ways to reuse many common items that are usually discarded without a second thought. From things like shiny foil candy wrappers to plastic twist ties and used calendars and diaries, they've got lots of ideas for quick and easy recycling for random stuff, but that's really only part of the story. About half of their entries are for ways to reuse stuff as well: things like tiny bits of soap, molded polystyrene and old potatoes -- items which are past their prime but still can be useful, even if in a non-traditional or downright weird way. For the foodies, they've recently launched a sister site, Compost This, which tackles similar questions related to the viability of certain food waste in your compost heap or bin. Between the two, we don't think there should be much that absolutely has to be thrown away anymore. ::How Can I Recycle This? and ::Compost This via ::Apartment Therapy LA

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