Recycling Around The World

2017-countries-visited-totbThink Outside the Bin just hit 200,000 all time views, and the entire globe is watching us!

Thank you for all your support and recycling interest and efforts. People from Alaska to Australia, Sri Lanka to Slovakia, and Zimbabwe, too…are searching for recycling resources for their common household items.

The recycling industry and technology changes regularly, so keep those comments coming and let us know if you hear of any resource we should add to the database of common household items in need of recycling.

TOTB book coverOur Top 12 Posts of All Time Include:

  1. Recycle CDs, DVD, Cassettes for CASH
  2. How Much Is Your Donation Worth?
  3. Don’t laugh, dentures can be donated!
  4. Donate or Recycle Vacuum Cleaners
  5. How to Properly Dispose of License Plates
  6. Do You Have an Unused Swing Set in the Backyard?
  7. 21 Ways to Recycle Medicine Bottles
  8. How do you recycle balloons?
  9. Foam Rubber Reuse & Recycling
  10. Recycle Your Old Trampoline
  11. A Sea of Plastic: More Plastic than Plankton in our ocean
  12. Can you recycle air or water filters?

 

Think Outside the Bin Statistics – Number of Visitors from each country:

"United States",150239
"United Kingdom",7256
"Canada",4131
"Australia",1649
"India",1115
"Brazil",695
"Philippines",602
"Malaysia",450
"Germany",394
"Singapore",341
"France",302
"South Africa",287
"Ireland",277
"Mexico",254
"Italy",224
"Peru",207
"Indonesia",200
"New Zealand",189
"Netherlands",179
"Pakistan",168
"Hong Kong SAR China",149
"Spain",149
"Russia",144
"Thailand",139
"United Arab Emirates",135
"Turkey",131
"Argentina",122
"South Korea",122
"Saudi Arabia",117
"Greece",112
"Romania",110
"Israel",110
"Jamaica",109
"Portugal",102
"Egypt",99
"Belgium",95
"Japan",95
"Puerto Rico",82
"Poland",80
"European Union",77
"Taiwan",73
"Colombia",69
"Sweden",68
"Switzerland",68
"Denmark",67
"Serbia",65
"Bangladesh",62
"Lebanon",61
"Czech Republic",61
"Finland",60
"Norway",58
"Hungary",54
"China",51
"Austria",48
"Vietnam",44
"Uganda",44
"Chile",43
"Bulgaria",41
"Ukraine",41
"Oman",40
"Lithuania",40
"Sri Lanka",36
"Slovakia",34
"Kenya",34
"Morocco",33
"Nigeria",30
"Latvia",29
"Jordan",29
"Venezuela",26
"Malta",26
"Croatia",26
"Ecuador",26
"Costa Rica",26
"Kuwait",25
"Qatar",24
"Cyprus",23
"Trinidad & Tobago",21
"Cayman Islands",20
"Algeria",18
"Barbados",18
"Slovenia",18
"Iceland",18
"Albania",17
"Guam",16
"Mauritius",16
"Guatemala",15
"U.S. Virgin Islands",15
"Dominican Republic",14
"Cambodia",14
"Estonia",14
"Panama",14
"Georgia",14
"Tanzania",13
"Nepal",13
"Bahrain",13
"Honduras",13
"Iraq",13
"Ghana",12
"Macedonia",12
"Bahamas",12
"Belarus",11
"Brunei",11
"Tunisia",10
"Sudan",10
"Uruguay",9
"Isle of Man",9
"Palestinian Territories",8
"Bosnia & Herzegovina",8
"Belize",7
"Fiji",7
"Bolivia",7
"Northern Mariana Islands",7
"Zimbabwe",7
"Paraguay",6
"Bermuda",6
"Botswana",6
"Namibia",6
"Netherlands Antilles",6
"French Polynesia",6
"Syria",6
"Zambia",6
"Luxembourg",5
"Gibraltar",5
"Jersey",4
"Myanmar (Burma)",4
"Laos",4
"Angola",4
"Suriname",4
"Bhutan",4
"Ethiopia",4
"El Salvador",4
"Uzbekistan",3
"Mayotte",3
"American Samoa",3
"Azerbaijan",3
"Libya",3
"Guyana",3
"Faroe Islands",3
"Haiti",3
"Macau SAR China",3
"Rwanda",3
"Kyrgyzstan",3
"Afghanistan",2
"Martinique",2
"Montenegro",2
"Swaziland",2
"Samoa",2
"Armenia",2
"Papua New Guinea",2
"Yemen",2
"Liberia",2
"Vanuatu",2
"Grenada",2
"Cameroon",2
"Equatorial Guinea",2
"Curaçao",2
"Sint Maarten",2
"Guernsey",2
"Côte d'Ivoire",2
"Turks & Caicos Islands",2
"Solomon Islands",1
"Mongolia",1
"Greenland",1
"Kazakhstan",1
"Caribbean Netherlands",1
"Niger",1
"Moldova",1
"Mozambique",1
"Nicaragua",1
"Burkina Faso",1
"Cape Verde",1
"New Caledonia",1
"British Indian Ocean Territory",1
"Seychelles",1
"British Virgin Islands",1
"St. Kitts & Nevis",1
"Guinea-Bissau",1
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Don’t laugh, dentures can be donated!

You don’t have to wait until International Moment of Laughter Day, to recycle old teeth!

Ever wonder what you can do with dentures, or how to recycle gold crowns? Those old teeth don’t need to sink into the landfill!

According to Green Eco Services about 3.6 million sets of dentures are manufactured in the world, and each set contains about $25 worth of precious metals, including gold and silver.

Japan Denture Recycling Association (JDRA) has a denture recycling program and the proceeds are donated to UNICEF and other organizations.

The Gold Box- will buy your old gold crowns and porcelain bridges.

Check out other ideas here: http://www.greenecoservices.com/seven-ways-to-recycle-dentures/

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Donate motorized vehicles and farm equipment to serve a Veteran

VETERAN CAR DONATIONS

My brother, my hero

Do you know how to donate old cars, tractors, lawn equipment? How about that old RV, jet ski or other vehicle you need to get rid of? Even if it is not running, the donation could help in many ways!

Your vehicle donation could help the lives of a Veteran who sacrificed for your freedom. The process is simple, click on your state and fill out a form, they will come pick it up for your ultimate convenience. Tax write off is a bonus…knowing you’ve given back to a Vet is the biggest gift you can give yourself.

https://www.veterancardonations.org/

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Recycle Pallets – Prevent Pollution, Get Paid

Wood Rack from PalletsConstruction and demolition is costly to our environment, with the majority of debris and
waste being lawfully destined for a landfill. Most materials are delivered on wooden
pallets, so they are at the core of the pollution pile. My teenage son recently enjoyed strategically demolishing wood pallets and reconstructing them into a wood pile rack, and my husband made a new compost bin, all from job site leftovers.

As it turns out, pallets have a huge fan base for recycling and reuse! At 1001 Pallets you can tap into the “World’s Largest Pallet Community” and get almost 4,000 ideas, share your own creative Compost bin made from wooden palletsthoughts, take free tutorials, and engage in a community sharing DIY projects using wooden pallets.

Some of my favorite simple ideas are found at Fantastic View Point, and even I can make the simple shoe rack made from wooden pallets. I also like the garden planter and wine rack made from up-cycling wooden pallets! Check out these ideas and more at: http://www.fantasticviewpoint.com/16-the-most-creative-ways-to-recycle-wooden-pallet/

Pallets can also be sold for cash. Here in the Carolinas, and around the country, there are businesses like Starnes Pallet Service, where you can drop off pallets and get paid cash, depending on the market and current demand. At Starnes, they manufacture, recondition and recycle about 30,000 pallets per week!

Even old, damaged wooden pallets can be ground and recycled into wood fiber, a commodity that recycling companies can then sell. Please keep wooden pallets out of the landfill!

 

 

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Art Project: Decorate Your Recycle Bin

At a recent visit to Hollins University for the Tinker Mountain Writer’s Workshop, IMG_1808the beautiful campus welcomed me with surrounding mountains and rolling hills. Among the traditional collegiate columns and brick buildings, colorfully decorated recycling bins added flavor and flair at every turn. Students at Hollins University have “Bin Thinking” and created interesting themed pieces of art that enhance and encourage recycling efforts.

Like the students have, we encourage you to EXPRESS YOURSELF, and think outside the bin!

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IMG_1831 IMG_1830 IMG_1850 IMG_1824 IMG_1846 IMG_1823 IMG_1848 IMG_1847 IMG_1814

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Keeping Watch on Earth Day Events

Keeping WatchRiver trash-pic from keeping watch

In partnership with historians, writers, scientist, environmental experts and artists, the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute and College of Arts & Architecture have begun a three-year initiate that profiles natural environmental issues. It is designed to bring a higher profile to engage the public in issues related to plastic waste and recycling, water quality in urban streams, air quality and the value of trees.

Each year’s events will center around Earth Day in April. In 2014, they are ‘Keeping Watch on Plastics’ and future years include Keeping Watch on Creeks, Air and Trees. You can find interesting, artistic components of environmental education in the following exhibits and events to celebrate Earth Day this year:

Is This Yours?

Throughout the streets of Charlotte, NC, there are strategically placed outdoor installations of items that encourage passersby to examine their own trash. In the series titled, Is This Yours, Sculptor Kurt Warnke and photographer Nancy Pierce place towering plastic totems and compelling photographic imagery to bring awareness to pedestrians about the responsibility we all have in proper disposal of the things we use.

Stayin’ Alive

McColl Center Artist-in-Residence, Aurora Robson’s massive installation uses plastic trash, materials that have all been intercepted from local waterways, to illustrate the growing problem of improper waste disposal and effects on local water quality.

Upcoming Events

On May 16, come to a free eco-film screening of “Bag It, The Movie”, followed by a panel discussion on local recycling issues. If the movie has no appeal, perhaps the free ‘clean martinis’ made by local distilleries from local products and some locally sourced hors d’oeuvres, compliments of Slow Food Charlotte, will be enough to bring you out.

On June 13, there will be another ‘Clean Martini Screen’ event on the documentary Growing Cities, and short clips from Jean Paul Ganem. Afterward, a panel discussion on landfills versus recycling should attract some ‘thinking outside the bin’!!

www.KeepingWatch.org

 

 

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Sustain Me Baby Recycles Plastic Toys

Sustain Me Baby

Sustain Me Baby Picture

Combining the work of two artists, this display is traveling to many cities, and currently presides at the Projective Eye Gallery at UNC Charlotte’s Center City, in Charlotte, N.C.

Joyce Dallal’s “The Other Toy Story” is a clever, artistic way to show how massive the problem of plastic waste is now and will continue to be in the future. Plastic toys are collected (here is where you recycle plastic toys!) and they are placed inside a 10-foot sculpture shaped like a giant wire baby. Since there are no viable recycling options for these commonplace items, the idea is that the structure can then become a piece of art for local communities and even in your own home (on a smaller scale).

www.TheOtherToyStory.com

Chris Jordan’s Midway series are photographs surrounding the giant baby of plastic…and they are a sobering documentation of images of dead baby albatrosses. Their dead bodies aren’t the most disturbing part, the contents found in their stomachs are what is so powerfully telling: they are full of plastic pieces of trash, mistaken for food and fed to the youngsters by their well-meaning Albatross parents. Jordan provides a stunning visualization of the magnitude of plastic waste in our society and the effects on wildlife and the environment.

www.ChrisJordan.com

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Clean the World: Recycle toiletries and soap

Join in the 2014 Spring Clean Soap Drive to support the Graduate Business Association!

recycle soap, toiletries

Take your extra toiletries, sample/travel soaps, shampoo, lotion, etc. and drop them off at the Charlotte, NC Projective Eye Gallery, at the corner of Brevard and 9th Street in the UNC Charlotte City Center Building.

 

 

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Donate Vehicles to Bart Starr’s Rawhide Boys Ranch

Bart Starr and Quote

RAWHIDE BOYS RANCH

Years ago, I had the honor of working for Bart Starr in his real estate development company in Alabama. He and his wife, Cherry were two of the kindest people I ever met in my career. My heart is heavy since learning of his passing last week. Rest in Peace, famous friend and special soul. The world will not soon forget Bart Starr and his efforts with his constant, genuine smile to make the world a better place.

The Starr family co-founded and has supported the Rawhide Boys Ranch in Minnesota for decades, where troubled young men change their lives every year. Bart and Cherry Starr are recipients of the Outstanding Lifetime Philanthropy Award for their efforts, donating all of the proceeds from Bart’s signed autographs (from a famous career in football with the Green Bay Packers), raising awareness and spending time with the boys on the ranch. They lost their own son, Bret Starr, tragically in his teen years and the memorial fund in his name continues to help Rawhide Boys Ranch today.

You can help, too, by donating vehicles, cars, motor homes, RVs, campers or boats to this wonderful organization.  You can also donate stocks and other assets. Your donation makes an immediate difference in a young man’s life. They also accept airplanes and industrial equipment which provides work experience in mechanical repairs for the young men.

http://www.rawhide.org 

Posted in Airplances, Industrial Equipment, Tax Deductions, Think Outside The Bin, Vehicles | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Stuff Stop

The Stuff StopProfessional Organizer Sue Anderson at Simplified Living Solutions has launched a new website called The Stuff Stop that matches up people’s unwanted stuff with people (charities & ministries) that need your unwanted items. With a simple click of the mouse you will be connected with places that want your stuff or that can help you dispose of it in a green way.

The Stuff Stop is a nationwide resource for donating and recycling electronics, hobby and sports equipment, household items, kids items, medical equipment, medical supplies, office, school and packing supplies, party and event supplies, shoes, clothing, accessories, and vehicles.

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Think Outside The Bin is a Go-To Resource

Frances Bland RandolphAt the 2012 Virginia State Conference of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Think Outside The Bin was recognized as the “go to” source for recycling. This resource guide helped the Frances Bland Randolph Chapter in Petersburg, VA win the State Recycling Award!

Frances Bland Randolph daughters have a long tradition of being excellent stewards of the environment by annually recycling hundreds of pounds of newspapers, aluminum, plastics and other items.

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