Paper Recycling - PaperRetriever.com

My kids school started a paper recycling drive during the start of the school year. They are trying to raise money to upgrade the school's playground. In order to do this, they obtained recycling bins from PaperRetriever.com to be able to collect the used paper products.

The recycling bin looks like this and has a picture of a dog carrying a paper. This is the back of the bin and shows a large sign that says "Make Every Page Count. Recycle Paper Here."

This is the front of the bin that shows "Local Fund Raising." To drop paper, you don't need to open the front covers since there are slots on the sides where you can drop the paper items/products.

There are 3 bins at the back of the school and the last time I walked by, I saw 1 bin is already full and the other 2 are about half-full.

The following items are accepted on the bins: Newspapers, Magazines, Office and School Papers, Shopping Catalogs and Mail.
This is the side of the bin where you can drop the paper items. It also lists the type of papers that are accepted (Phonebooks are not accepted). On the side of the paper list, it also list items that should not be included: Plastic, Glass, Metals and Trash.
The are also signs that can be seen around the school campus that directs where you can drop your used paper.
The school had a paper drive week last month and asked each student to bring used paper for recycling. The total weight of collected paper amounted to 6836 pounds. That is about 3 1/2 (short) tons of paper from about 600 students.

We contributed about 80 pounds of paper and old magazines for that week. The drive helped me clear out old bills, statements and magazines stacked in my home office. Most of my bills are now electronic ever since I switch paperless. Here is a previous post about paperless billing and it has the sign-up links for banks, utilities, etc.

One note though. I did shred those bills with confidential information before sending them to school (shredding helps in protecting your identity).

The school's paper drive is still ongoing. All of our junk mail and other paper products are now going to this drive. My regular recycling bin is a little lighter now since I don't put any paper there anymore.

A.I. duPont Hospital for Children

We brought our son last month at A.I. duPont Hospital for Children for a follow-up on his eye checkup. I have noticed something different when we got there. I saw recycling bins around the hospital (see pictures below). The bins are big and green and has a sign at the top for cans and bottles. At the bottom part of the bin, there is a big art work that encourages recycling.

It is a great idea to put the big art work as it attracts attention. Also, the hospital's patients are children and the art work helps to instill the idea of recycling to the young minds.

We were there on the first week of June for the initial eye checkup and I did not see these bins back then. I'm pretty sure that they were not there because my eyes are really trained now for finding anything about recycling or recyclables.

Recycle Some More

My son likes to draw and gave me this and asked me post it on the site. He was bugging me last week to post it but haven't had a chance until now.

On the chasing arrows of the recycling symbol, he wrote the words Paper, Can and Plastic. Beside each chasing arrow he drew an item that you can recycle (Paper - a piece of paper with a picture of the sun, Can - an opened can, Plastic - a water/H2O plastic bottle).

I have been encouraging my son to recycle and I have seen him doing this. For example, he segregates paper that he used for his activities and tells me to put them in the recycling bin. He also likes drinking chocolate milk from fast food places and he does not want to throw the bottles on the trash bin. Instead, he brings them home and tells me to include them also in the recycling bin.

In case you want to see some of my son's drawings (taking my chance here to promote his site), you can visit DK Books and Other Stuff!

Have a nice day!!!!

Recycling at IKEA

I have seen recycling at work at IKEA stores and I was only able to take pictures of their recycling programs about a couple of weeks ago. IKEA has been promoting recycling and reducing waste throughout their stores.

One of the things they eliminated is the use of plastic bags. If a customer wanted a plastic bag, they will be charged 5 cents for it. This was started last March 15 and the proceeds on the first year of this program are donated to American Forests (a non-profit conservation organization). The customer is also given an option to buy a reusable bag for 59 cents as an alternative to the plastic bags.

Below are the recycling bins for plastic and paper that you will see throughout the store.
IKEA also has a recycling bin for Aluminum Cans, Glass Bottles and Plastic Bottles.
They also have a recycling center where you can drop off Bulbs (Compact Flourescent, Incandescent and Halogen) and Batteries (L.I.O., Alkaline and N.I.M.H).
For more information regarding IKEA's program, please visit their website.

(Disclaimer: I am not an employee of IKEA and I do not own any of their shares. The details above are for informational purposes only.)

Office Recycling

I went to a training facility last week and I found out that recycling is also being promoted at corporate offices.

Shown here are two recycling bins. The one on the left has a green lid with two holes (left hole = glass, right hole = plastic bottle). The blue bin on the right has a sign that says "Aluminum Cans Only."

This blue bin is in the same office and it says:

RECYCLE
COMPUTER PAPER ONLY