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 recyclable! And 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!
- http://www.ehow.com/way_5708060_ways-reuse-styrofoam.html
- http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf/Green_Living/Reusing/Reusing-Styrofoam.html
- http://www.wikihow.com/Reuse-Styrofoam
- http://www.livestrong.com/article/201685-ways-to-reuse-styrofoam/
- http://www.stevespangler.com/experiment-of-the-week/how-to-reduce-reuse-recycle-styrofoam/
- http://www.ehow.com/how_8507365_recycle-styrofoam-california.html
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?
