EnergyMiser101

Lessons from Montclair's Recycle Master

     If you've ever wondered what happens to the old newspapers, water bottles and laundry detergent  containers you put at your curb once a week, you might be surprised to learn where they go and what they're worth. The items that I thought had value didn't, but things that I thought were worthless were the stars of the recycle pile.

     Environment and economics are the driving factors behind any recycling program.  That's according to Craig Brandon, Montclair N.J.'s Supervisor of Solid Waste Management. Craig spent a good hour explaining some of the ins and outs of the recycling business to me when I visited him in his office.

This Compost Event Can Save You Money

      I took my daughter to the YMCA this morning and picked up a flier on composting that caught my eye. It's a great way to save energy because you don't have to buy fertilizer, which has natural gas as a raw material, as I wrote about in a previous post.

     Our town, Montclair, NJ, is trying to make composting easier for its residents, and it's sponsoring a composting event Saturday, October 17 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Edgemont Park.

     Now this blog has readers from as far away as New Zealand, so, obviously a lot of you aren't going to make it. But read on anyway because you might pick up some ideas that you can use wherever you live!

Remove Caps from Bottles before Recycling

     The Association of Post Consumer Plastic Recyclers (yes, there is such a thing!) has an interesting website with daily recycling tips for consumers. Yesterday their tip was to remove bottle caps from plastic bottles before you put the bottles in your recycle bin. I was told that you should do this, but I never knew why.

      Here's why. Most plastic bottles are made from either PET or HDPE plastic. Both are forms of polyethylene. The caps are typically polypropylene. So, when a capped bottle is put through recycling equipment the plastic from the top contaminates the batch of recycled plastic. Also, caps and lids can jam the machinery. That's bad for the machine, but it also presents a potential danger to the people working those machines.

      So, remember that "caps off" helps the environment by allowing more plastic bottles to be effectively recycled. It also supports worker safety.