Sunday, April 22, 2012

Time to recycle and reuse styrofoam!

The above symbol is what many of us are looking for under, on the side of, on the back many of our products today.  Why?  Because we don't want to fill our earth with products that years and years to break down.  For some people this is a tiresome task but that's because they've not established a habit of recycling.  

Here in California we've been recycling for many, many years. This is a of necessity for a number of states and for other states they are just coming into this need.  And in this article we're focusing on that item that seems like it will just never go away...  STYROFOAM.  You can find recycling centers for Styrofoam at Earth911.com.

Here where I live in Southern California, there is "recyclable  styrofoam."  Yes, it's true.  And I have a picture to show you of just two products that are made of styrofoam that are recyclable and one of plastic (that might easily get overlooked) because many people are still not able to recycle many forms of plastic yet because their states don't have the resources at this time.

In the above photo I've outlined and circled the recycle symbol on these products.  One is a plastic container that had cotton candy in it for Easter.  I love love love cotton candy so I had a number of these and told my husband that I would be able to reuse the containers because they are recyclableAnd those egg cartons, well this one is Eggland's Best and is recyclable.

For my reuse of these products (just in case your styrofoam is not recyclable) I am showing the following picture and will describe to you some excellent reuse.

In the cotton candy plastic container I put some rubber stamps (also the small pads fit nicely into another container.) I have bins for crafts but I always know that I'll be adding to my craft projects with items that I need so I save my containers that are sturdy for that use. 

In the egg container I can fill the sections with potting soil and then plant some seeds.  Now mind you, I cannot transfer the entire section right into the earth of my garden because they are not biodegradable in the garden. 

Here are some other articles on the Internet about "reusing" styrofoam and how to recycle it in California!
Maybe you have a blog entry about the reusing of styrofoam and would like to share it?  Which of these ideas is most interesting and do-able for you?

Happy Earth Day every day!

9 comments:

Diane said...

We don't even have recycling bins where I live! If we did we would recycle! We take back the soda cans/bottles though!

DisneyMom said...

What awesome ideas, just in time for Earth Day!

Ann said...

I have seen recyclable styrofoam but not in a number that my recycling company accepts. :(

I like your suggestions, though.

Melissa Say What? said...

I recycle, but I don't know if styrofoam is included nor did I ever think to recycle my styrofoam egg cartons. Thanks for the tip. If styrofoam is not included in my local program, I may see if the local schools can use them in their art programs as paint palettes.

Petula said...

Now that I live in an apartment I don't recycle as much as I used to. Just not as much room as I had in the house to store it neatly until the trip to the recycling place. Our place here doesn't take styrofoam, but I've heard of places/states that do. I'm always trying to think of an idea to reuse everything, but often I can't come up with anything. I really feel bad when I have to throw some things away... I do my best for right now and hope to continue to do better.

Thanks for these great ideas.

MaureenT said...

We recycle just about everything. The scrapes go into the compost. Our egg cartons go to a farmer for refills!
We do try!

Lil Wranglers Rescue said...

Great ideas! Love finding ways to resuse stuff before it goes into the trash!

Melissa Say What? said...

Thanks for the post, again! I went to Earth911's site and I love it!

Amy said...

Great post. Here we can recycle, but its not manditory. I try to recycle as much as possible. Living in a small house makes it a bit more difficult though because of the space.

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