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April 09, 2006

Recycling made easy

When I was about ten years old, I went around the neighborhood asking people for cans and bottles. I figured I'd pay them half the redemption value and keep the other half for myself. I knocked on a few doors and no one went for it except a nice old lady who gave me a couple of bags she'd been saving up. She didn't even want any money and I think I made about $3 that got turned into 12 packs of Topps baseball cards and a dozen pieces of pink, cardboard-flavored, stick gum.

Recyclebank.com pretty much ripped off my idea. They're a Philadelphia based company that pays residents for their recyclables in coupons and discounts donated by local companies ($5 off a pizza, 20% off an oil change, a free cheese steak, etc.). The company then makes money off the recyclables and charges the city for removing waste from the rubbish stream. In the pilot areas where Recycle Bank operates, recycling rates have gone from 6% to over 90%. The idea is expanding into other East Coast cities.

We recently moved and finally threw all those old batteries in the trash. Just kidding. I took them to work and put them in the battery collection box. But for all you unemployed losers, look at earth411.org to figure out where to recycle them.

If you need to recycle old cell phones, earn a few bucks at cell4cash.com. Turn in ink cartridges for money at freerecycling.com or fundingfactory.com. Finally, you can swap furniture and other random things at freecycle.org.

Posted by brian at April 9, 2006 10:14 AM

Comments

You can recycle CDs and books and games for new ones here:

http://www.zunafish.com/

Posted by: l33t at April 14, 2006 09:43 AM

I saw that you mentioned both Freecycle in your suggested green resources. I hope you consider adding join BorrowMe.com to your list of suggestions to help reduce the impact of consumer waste on the environment.

BorrowMe is a kind of product lending marketplace with a mission. We're in step with the concerns many of us have around our consumer lifestyle & the personal consumption habits and their consequences.

Here a neat group I belong to (that you may have heard of), called 'the compact' whose members have sworn off buying anything new for all of 2006 for the same reasons you sight:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/thecompact/

All the best, and thank-you for your efforts to spread the word about what's happening to our world whilst we sleep.

Sean

Posted by: Sean Young at April 16, 2006 01:23 PM