21 Things You Didn't Know You Could Recycle
by Jasmin Malik Chua, Jersey City, USA 
on 09.11.07
Photo credit: dotpolka
There's more to recycling than paper, glass, plastics, and aluminum. Did you know, for instance, that you could send off your used Tyvek envelopes for recycling? Or that you could swap your dusty exercise videos for some you'll actually work out to?
Co-op America has a list of 21 recyclables (or at least reusables) you may not have known about. Know of something that hasn't been listed? Tell us in the comments. ::Co-op America
Difficulty level: Easy
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This is a handy list - but I want to know how I can recycle TetraPaks if my local area doesn't have a facility for doing so. Is this possible? I hate throwing out so many milk cartons when I know recycling is possible, just not in my municipality.
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Have you tried plugging in your zip code into earth911.org?
I don't know where you live, but in the UK you can post them to a recycling centre (at the factory where they're made). They used to pay the cost of posting, but recently that changed, the website says they prefer to pay for local recycling facilities to be introduced.
I've just checked this site: http://www.tetrapakrecycling.co.uk/ (UK and Eire) and found I can now recycle them in my normal recycling waste! Excellent.
I don't know where you live, but in the UK you can post them to a recycling centre (at the factory where they're made). They used to pay the cost of posting, but recently that changed, the website says they prefer to pay for local recycling facilities to be introduced.
I've just checked this site: http://www.tetrapakrecycling.co.uk/ (UK and Eire) and found I can now recycle them in my normal recycling waste! Excellent.
A reuse idea: Use discarded cabinet doors (every construction site has a few that don't work out) and glue photos or magazine pics for a cheap and very nice looking framed peice of art.
What I'd like to know is why we even bother to number plastics beyond #2 when the local (and large) municipality of Houston, TX won't take anything but numbers 1 & 2? It's really frustrating and ridiculous that we make all of the plastics here but will only allow two out of six (#7 is often a mix of several plastics) for recycling.
Thanks for the earth911 link, as it allowed me to discover that if I was only a resident of the local neighboring county of Fort Bend that I could recycle all seven plastics. If Houston would just accept all those others, whether there's a market for them or not, they could have an almost unlimited resource for making paving stones, gravel or what-have-you if they would just implement such ideas. Then again, Houston loves to "study" things to death so they don't have to actually commit to doing anything of merit.
Still, I'll use the Co-Op America link for getting rid of some things I have piling up :)
in houston you can recycle all plastics but number 6, not solely 1 and 2. i am trying to find a place where you can recycle tetrapaks.