I Didn?t Know I Could Recycle That!

Hershey’s Kisses

Those little bitty foil wrappers sure add up. Around 80 million chocolate Hershey’s Kisses are wrapped every day. That’s enough aluminum foil to cover nearly 40 football fields. Instead of tossing it out, toss it into the bin with aluminum cans.

Corks

We like our chocolate and our wine. 13 billion natural wine corks are sold each year. Get mailing instructions or find a local cork drop-off location on the websites for recyclers ReCORK and  Yemm & Hart. Used corks can  find new life as placemats, shoe footbeds, flooring, and other building materials.

Terracycle turns food packaging into products like clipboards and backpacks. Terracycle aceepts:

Drink pouches (like Capri Sun) and single-brew coffee pouches (like Flavia)

Single-serve treat packaging (granola bars, cookie, gum, and candy bar wrappers)

Lunch kits (like Lunchables)

Chip bags

Cooking oil

I hope you know not to pour used cooking oil down the drain. It’s the number one cause of clogs, so clearly a lot of people are pouring it out. Whatever you’ve been doing,  you might be surprised to learn that your used oil can be recycled into biofuel. Check Earth911 for a nearby recycling location.

Bottle caps

Bottle caps need to be removed for plastic recycling. But don’t toss them. Salons and retailers that carry Aveda hair products partner with local schools to collect caps?threaded caps from water, milk, juice, and soda bottles, flip tops from ketchup bottles, and squeeze tops caps from dish and dishwasher soap. Find a participating drop-off location.

Produce stickers

Barry Snyder doesn’t recycle but will upcycle all those little stickers that come on supermarket produce, turning them into mosaic homages to well-known works of art. Visit Stickerman Produce Art to check out his work and for sticker shipping details.

Kitchen appliances

Remodeling a kitchen, or even just replacing the old toaster? use the Steel Recycling Institute’s location finder to pass along old appliances large and small.

If your unwanted items still have some life in them, get them into the hands of people who can use them. Sell them or offer them up on Freecycle, Craigslist, Throwplace, or iReuse.com.