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If you live in the city or most of the suburbs, you should have single stream recycling, making it simple to recycle glass, cans, paper, and most plastics (often #1 and #2). But what do you do with all the other items you don’t want to toss into landfills?
Here are some tips for your best recycling bets in the Philadelphia area.
- Clothing - Recycling clothing is one of the easiest things and there are plenty of options. Take your business-appropriate clothing, accessories, and unused beauty products to Career Wardrobe The Career Wardrobe in Center City or one of their suburban clothing drives. And with the opening of a resale store this summer, the wardrobe will soon be accepting more casual clothing.
Casual shoes can go to Soles 4 Souls drop off locations like Philadelphia Runner at 1601 Sansom. All children’s clothing, as well as toys, school supplies, and more can go to Cradles to Crayons in Horsham, Pa.
- Wire Hangers - Make Joan Crawford happy and get rid of those wire hangers. Next time you drop off a load of laundry to the dry cleaners, they should be happy to take those hangers of your hands and reuse them.
- Greeting Cards - Donate your holiday, birthday, and thank you cards to St. Jude's Ranch for Children. They reuse the cards to create new card sets and the proceeds help abused children. The children participate in making the new recycled cards by removing the front and attaching a new back made with recycled paper. The new card is a beautiful, green card made by the children and volunteers. Customers receive green holiday cards while the children receive payment for their work and learn the benefits and importance of going green.
- Magazines - Sure you could toss these in the recycling bin. But why not give them new life by bringing them to the gym, doctor’s office, or any other waiting room where they’d be much appreciated.
- Eyeglasses - Send old frames to Lions Eyeglass Recycling Centers, which cleans and classifies used eyeglasses and distributes them to people in need.
- Food - Don’t know why you stockpiled all those mac & cheese boxes now that your toddler is over them? Donate those cans and boxes of food you’ll never eat to Philabundance, the region’s largest hunger relief organization. . See their Philabundance Web site for information on food drives and current priority items.
- Pet Stuff - Has your dog outgrown his baby clothes and changed his taste in food after you bought that jumbo bag of Alpo? Donate your pet stuff to a shelter like Morris Animal Refuge.
- Just About Everything Else - Plan to be anywhere near Pottstown? Stock up your old batteries, electrical junk, and high-numbered plastics. Recycling Services takes just about everything from silverware to fishing wire. Keep your junk out the landfills and bring it all here.
Have something large like a refrigerator or completely odd like a planter in the shape of a frog? Don’t forget that your trash is always someone’s treasure. Post your junk on Freecycle.org or Craigslist.org’s free section. I guarantee someone will be happy to take just about anything off your hands!
Paige Wolf is the owner of Paige Wolf Media & Public Relations, an environmentally-conscious public relations firm in Center City. She also writes the Philadelphia Eco-Living Examiner. For more information or to sign up for the Paige Turner e-newsletter, visit www.paigewolf.com.
