Houston Recycles Day- Nov. 15

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From CEC newsletter:

 

Let’s Reduce our Waste and Recycle More for America Recycles Day and Beyond! by Susie Hairston   Friday November 15th was America Recycles Day. In addition to it being a celebration of reducing, reusing and recycling as ways of decreasing the 10 pounds of trash/person/day that we, in Houston, send to the landfill, it’s a great reminder to re-educate ourselves on our community’s recycling guidelines to make sure we are up on the latest changes so we can recycle as much as possible. It’s also a great time to challenge ourselves to find ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle materials that cannot go in our curbside bins, but can still be recycled elsewhere.    Fun fact and sad irony, given that Houstonians are currently losing the race to zero waste badly with our more than double the national average amount of trash sent to the landfill:  Two Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) employees started America Recycles Day as Texas Recycles Day in 1994 in order to promote recycling in Texas. When they left TCEQ, they went on to promote Texas Recycles Day as a national event. The first national celebration of America Recycles Day was on November 15th, 1997.   So how are we going to start winning the race to zero waste and live up to our role as the founders of America Recycles Day?   RECYCLING IS NOT ENOUGH! Recycling is not a silver bullet that is going to solve all the nation’s waste ills. We have got to stop consuming so much, we’ve got to stop producing single use plastic, and we’ve got to demand that products are designed to last and be totally recyclable at the end of life. That said, recycling does help, and we need to keep doing it and do a better job of doing it.   So first and foremost: REDUCE. The best way to avoid sending things to the landfill is to not buy them to begin with. Cut back on your consumption to avoid excess waste. Try to avoid single-use items as much as possible, and buy things that are high quality and will last.   REUSE. Rather than buy new, shop at second hand stores, borrow, fix things that are broken, and repurpose items you already have on hand.   Then, and only then: RECYCLE things that are irrevocably broken and unusable.   Why Recycle? About 75% of waste in the US is recyclable. We are literally throwing away valuable materials.  If we actually recycled all the materials we are able to, we would be saving land, forests, waters and all kinds of other natural resources that are being destroyed to produce new goods that could be made from recycled material instead.  Recycling uses less energy and water than making things from virgin materials.  Landfills are running out of space. Because new ones will be farther away, the cost of labor and transportation to get the trash to the landfill will be higher and thus, the fees to residents will be much higher.   Know Your City’s Curbside Recycling Guidelines: In order to recycle properly, it is important to understand the curbside recycling guidelines for your city. Not all cities and communities recycle the same materials. The market for recyclables in your region and the Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) your city uses to sort your single-stream (all recyclables in the same bin) recycling determine what is collected for recycling in your community. Recycling guidelines change frequently, so you should take a look at those for your community at least annually.    Why do curbside recycling guidelines change?  MRFS sell the glass, paper, cardboard and aluminum you have discarded and they have sorted to manufacturers that use those to make new materials. Your discarded recycling is actually a commodity, and just like other commodities in the marketplace, sometimes there is no demand for that item and the MRFs can’t sell it. On the other hand, sometimes, there is a high demand for, say, aluminum, but a low supply, and the MRF is able to sell that item for a high price.   What materials are most marketable? Aluminum and steel cans; cardboard; paper; bottles, jugs, and jars made from  #1 (PET/PETE) or #2 (HDPE) plastic   What materials are least marketable? Plastics that aren’t 1’s or 2’s.   City of Houston Curbside Recycling Guidelines as of 11/10/2024: Metal and Cans: Aluminum and Tin Cans. Examples include soup cans, vegetable cans, fruit cans, coffee cans (emptied and rinsed) Cartons: Both gable top and shelf-stable food and beverage cartons. Examples include milk cartons, juice cartons, soup cartons, soy milk/alternative milk cartons (emptied and rinsed) Glass: Bottles, jugs and jars only (emptied and rinsed) Paper: Newspaper, magazines, catalogs, junk mail, office paper Cardboard: Cardboard and cereal boxes (emptied of packing materials and flattened) Plastic: Bottles, tubs and jugs #1 - 5 and 7. Examples include water and soda bottles, milk jugs, yogurt cups, margarine tubs, detergent bottles, shampoo bottles. (emptied and rinsed)   Live in another city in the area? All cities have information about solid waste and recycling options in their communities on their websites. Take a moment to look yours up. Bellaire: https://www.bellairetx.gov/929/Recycling City of West U: https://www.westutx.gov/336/Recycling  Galveston: does not offer curbside recycling as a city service. It has a drop-off eco-center  and various other item specific drop-off locations in the area and residents can pay a third-party contractor to have a curbside service.  https://www.galveston.com/faq-how-to-recycle-on-galveston-island/ Humble: https://www.wm.com/us/en/location/tx/humble/trash-pickup-humble-tx Kemah: https://www.kemahtx.gov/547/Garbage-and-Recycling-Collection The Woodlands: https://www.thewoodlandstownship-tx.gov/185/Curbside-Recycling   Having trouble remembering your city’s guidelines? Stick to the Six: cardboard; paper; metal cans; glass bottles and jars; plastic bottles, jars and jugs; milk cartons and aseptic containers (like soup boxes).   Still confused and want to find out about a specific item? City of Houston has an app, HTXCollections, which you can download with a search feature to check and see what to do with that item. It also has a search bar where you can look up items on the website: https://www.houstontx.gov/solidwaste/htxcollects.html Many other area cities also have searchable apps or a search feature on their recycling page. Check your city website.   Still don’t know what to do with a specific item?  When in doubt, throw it out.   Keep these things out of your recycling bin (this applies to all cities): plastic bags/film; hoses, styrofoam, window glass, pyrex (melts at a higher temperature than regular glass and can’t be melted down with regular glass), food and liquids, clothing/textiles, any plastic item that is not a container such as toys, hangers, eating utensils, and other objects made from plastic.    Proper preparation of materials:  Empty all liquids and foods from containers. Any packing material should be removed from cardboard boxes and donated to your local pack and ship ( Styrofoam peanuts, air pillows, bubble wrap) or dropped off for film recycling at your local Krogers or HEB (deflated air pillows, bubble wrap, but not styrofoam peanuts or packing material), and the boxes should be flattened. Do not bag items. They should be loose in the recycling bin.    Does stuff really get recycled?  Yes, with some caveats. Sometimes, if a load is too contaminated with non-recyclable materials, that load will get landfilled. Sometimes, when there is no market for certain items, say plastics 3,4, and 7, the MRF can only hang onto them for so long waiting for someone to have a need for them and buy them before they have to landfill, or worse, burn them. Never let anyone tell you that Waste to Energy is recycling. It is destroying, not recycling, the material; it creates toxic air pollution and literally tons of toxic ash that then has to be landfilled in a much more hazardous format than if the original unburned material had just gone to the landfill in the first place.   What can you do to make sure more things get recycled?  Keep contamination out of your bin. When in doubt, throw it out.   Theme for America Recycles Day 2024:  “How to Recycle Items You Didn’t Know Were Recyclable”   Once you get a handle on what goes in your recycling bin, you can look beyond it to find out where items that can’t go in the bin can still be recycled.   Food Waste: Many drop-off and curbside pick-up services that collect and compost food waste are available in the City of Houston and surrounding areas for as little as $10/month for weekly curbside pick-up. There are also drop-off options available. Providers include: Zero Waste Houston: https://www.zerowastehoustontx.com/ Moonshot: https://www.moonshotcompost.com/ Happy Earth Compost: https://happyearthcompost.com/ Curb to Compost: https://www.curbtocompost.com/ Karma Pharma: https://karmapharmatx.com/ Farm Dirt Compost https://www.farmdirtcompost.com/   Clothing/textiles: A variety of options exist where you can consign (Charity Guild of Catholic Women, Bluebird Circle among many others) or donate clothing that is still in good condition, including Goodwill, the Salvation Army, Purple Heart, Donatestuff.com; you can schedule a pick-up of both useable and unusable (stained/torn) textiles by contacting Green City Recycler. They also have drop-off bins around the city. https://greencityrecycler.com/ They recycle damaged textiles and make sure clothing in good condition gets reused.   Plastic bags/film — dry cleaning bags, plastic bread bags, plastic retail bags, newspaper sleeves, 100% plastic bubble mailers, deflated packing pillows, and bubble wrap can be dropped off at your local Krogers to be turned into composite decking. https://www.kroger.com/blog/food/be-a-zero-hero    Electronics:  Best Buy stores take a variety of electronics for recycling. Check their website here for a list. https://www.bestbuy.com/site/services/recycling/pcmcat149900050025.c?id=pcmcat149900050025 The City of Houston offers many locations and opportunities to recycle electronics.   Westpark Recycling Center takes computers, laptops, smartphones, DVD players, and microwaves (throw away plate)  https://www.houstontx.gov/solidwaste/westpark.html Environmental Service Centers (ESC) North and South accept a long list of electronics. Check this webpage on CoH electronics recycling for details and more locations: https://www.houstontx.gov/solidwaste/electronics_recycling.html Thanks to take-back laws, computer and tv manufacturers are required by Texas to provide free recycling of their products to consumers. Check the website of your tv and/or computer brand to find out where you can take your non-functioning item to be recycled.