Every day we see messages on living green and ecologically responsible.
We see it on TV, we see it on billboards, and we see it in the checkout lane with reusable grocery bags.
When you think about it, reusable is not much different from recyclable.
After all, in a way we are recycling the bag when we reuse it.
Paper and plastic bags are usually recycled once as garbage bags although some stores have a bin at the entrance of the store to recycle the plastic bags.
But what about other forms of eco friendly recycling can there be? Thinking along the lines of garbage bags, many municipalities instead have recycling programs.
Many people however think that this is just a waste of their time, but it's not.
Recycling aluminum cans has a huge environmental impact.
Aluminum, while cheap and plentiful is very energy intensive to manufacture.
Recycled aluminum uses just sixty percent of the energy used to produce raw aluminum.
The same goes for plastic bottles and other metal cans.
Plastic, steel, aluminum, and foam products used for food don't really pollute all that much in a landfill, but not recycling causes pollution from excessive refining of raw materials.
Some household items do have the ability to pollute however and should be recycled.
Nickel and Cadmium are two toxic industrial wastes.
The EPA closely monitors plants that manufacture with these two chemicals, yet millions of NiCAD (Nickel and Cadmium) batteries are tossed into the trash and hence into landfills every year.
You could nickel plate a jumbo jet with all of those batteries.
And its not just AA and triple A batteries, its also cell phone, power tool and even old car batteries.
People are also buying energy saving fluorescent light bulbs to replace incandescent bulbs.
What is not commonly known or advertised is that these bulbs contain Mercury.
It seems ironic in a way that after pushing to rid homes of mercury switches in lights and thermostats, we would be pushing a mercury product with an even greater risk of environmental contamination.
Like worn out batteries, fluorescent light bulbs are quickly finding their way into landfills and being fragile quickly release Mercury as the are packed in.
So what can we do about all of these toxic chemicals from batteries and light bulbs? Up in the front of the store, either where the plastic bags can be recycled or the eco friendly shopping bags are, there are generally displays and bins for dropping batteries and light bulbs to be recycled.
What is recycled can vary from store to store, so you might want to make a list or go online and see if a local blogger already has a list.
Local municipalities also generally have lists of where to take other items for recycling including expired pesticides and garden chemicals, and paint.
Most auto care facilities will take used motor oil, car batteries and tires.
Some states require them by lay to do so.
But lets not think in terms of the law, rather what is right an eco friendly to do.
Go out and buy (and use) a couple of reusable shopping bags, be careful about throwing recyclables in the trash.
What goes around comes around, and comes around even more when reused or recycled.