Target’s car seat trade-in for April/Earth Month is happening next week. The event starts Sunday April 16 – Saturday April 29, 2023. Take any old car seat that is expired or damaged to your local participating Target to be recycled and get a 20% off coupon for a new car seat, stroller or select baby…
Plastic Bags and Stickers
Recycling Reminder : Lots of different plastic bags and plastic film can be recycled at your local grocery store like HEB, Central Market, Home Depot, Target and Walmart. Recycling stations are usually at the entrance of a store or just inside. Plastic bags cannot be recycled in the blue recycling carts and actually jam up…
Food Pantry
We just took our pantry clean out over to a partner of the Central Texas Food Bank. We stock up on pantry items for winter storms and then donate those items to the food bank after winter. After my colonoscopy and endoscopy in January there was still some food left that I am no longer…
Donating/Recycling Shoes
Donating or recycling shoes? Zip tie, rubber band, or use the laces to keep the pair together. In sorting large bales of shoes, the partner shoe may not always be found if separated and it’s more likely the shoe will recycled at that stage rather than reused/resold and then later recycled. There are markets for…
Cell Phones
“Don’t store old phones long-term in your home or office. Unused cell phones and batteries can become dangerous if exposed to temperature extremes or moisture, potentially exposing you and others to harmful substances. Be safe and take your old phone directly to a local recycler” or trade it in as soon as you are able.…
Greener Tip: Reusable Water Bottle/Cup
I think a reusable water bottle/cup is the first and easiest greener and zero waste tip to implement. As long as you live somewhere where there is good water quality, or water fountains and water bottle refill stations, this is easy to do. If you don’t have good water quality, and you can check reports…
Keep batteries and hazardous waste out of carts
Batteries power our lives every day. They also become dangerous when they’re not recycled right. If something lights up, moves on its own or makes a sound, it has a battery and should not go in your carts. Batteries can catch fire or explode in your cart, dumpster or the back of trash and recycling…
Book Donations
I just made a donation dropoff to Recycled Reads. “Recycled Reads receives all of Austin Public Library’s weeded material, as well as donations from the public. They sell, recycle or repurpose this material, and all our proceeds benefit the Austin Public Library.” I cultivate what gets put in the Little Free Library program or the Recycled…
Pet Food Packaging
More and more companies are working with TerraCycle to recycle their pet food packaging bags and pouches. These bags and pouches are not normally recyclable locally because they are a mix of materials (a composite) or a mix of plastics and single-stream recycling only processes single source items. If there are choices you make for…
Freezer Burn Frozen Food
Freezer burn green beans, not for dinner, thank you. Tip #1: lock your freezer controls so the preschooler does not change the freezer temperature getting his own ice and water. So cute though. Tip #2: eat your freezer food in a reasonable timeframe to avoid freezer burn. I’m actually not sure how old these were anyway. Tip…