Recycling - A Learned Skill We Continue to Cultivate

New Brunswicker's do a much better job with recycling than in others places I have lived (http://www.gnb.ca/0009/0372/0008/0004-e.asp). Recycling know-how has been a gradual learning process for me and my family. It is an ever growing skill that needs to be apart of a daily routine and it has to be easy. Tonight when my 5 year old son drained the last of the juice jug he automatically took it to the garage to the blue box. Awesome!

I picked the closest place to our home because the trips wastes less gas and I am more likely to go. Valley View Redemption Center in Dieppe provided me a sheet with what sort of recyclable materials they accept. We pasted their listing right above our kitchen garbage can and I refer to it often when in doubt. They accept:

• Cans, mini-sips, plastics (clear, blue, green), steel cans,
• Non-color & color glass. Jam jars, pasta jars etc.
• Beer and wine bottles
• Tetra box (Oasis juice and other juices and some wines come in tetra boxes)
• Gable top "House"
• Car batteries and other batteries
• Paint
• Newspaper

Wash 'em and squash 'em. When recycling cans and tins make sure you wash them out and squash them to save space. This allows me to pack more into my trips. The place we visit does not accept the caps and no milk cartons. Why not milk cartons? Apparently they are difficult to recycle because many have a wax lining or a plastic coating.  Some recycling centers are equipped to recycle them, but some aren't.  Looks like I have more research here to find one or encourage NB redemption centers to accept them.

Some other useful tips:

• A nice tip from Gillian Deacons book "Green for Life" is to remember printer ink cartridges and computers in recycling. If one cartridge gets "remanufactured" it keeps more than a kilogram of metal and plastic out of landfills and saves nearly 2 litres of oil.
• Recycle you old PCs www.hp.ca/recycle to order a bag or box to return your old HP PCs free of charge.
• Plastic shopping bags. These can be recycled at most major supermarkets. We use reusable bags but there always seem to be some hanging around and we use them in our garbage cans.
• Clothing and other items - We always give gently used clothing and toys to family members and/or drop boxes and the Salvation Army. Never throw these things out so many can benefit from them.

We are always looking for more tips and ideas. Please share if you have one :)

Cost Savings: $120 per year

We bought a 16 gallon blue box at Kent's for less than $10 and it holds approximately 3 weeks of recyclables. The average is about $6-10 per trip (usually every 3 weeks).