Many are aware of Earth Day each spring, but fewer know of November 15’s designation as America Recycles Day. The day, a Keep America Beautiful initiative, celebrates its 21st anniversary this year. Repurposing items is great, and reducing waste is always desirable. But some items, such as appliances and batteries, simply have a finite life span and then must be discarded—or must they?
As the Environmental Protection Agency notes, electronic products are made from resources and materials, including metals, plastic, and glass, that require energy to mine or manufacture. Recycling consumer electronics conserves these resources and reduces pollution. In fact, recycling 1 million laptops saves energy equivalent to that used by more than 3,500 U.S. homes in a year. Find a breakdown by ZIP code of drop-off sites for everything from laptops, printers, and game consoles to shoes and plastic containers on the America Recycles Day website.
For battery recycling, many big-box stores accept rechargeable varieties, which are melted down and used to make other products. Single-use battery recycling can be more elusive and costly, so local household hazardous waste events may be your best bet for disposing of them responsibly. To find out more about recycling rechargeable batteries as well as cellphones, visit the Call2Recycle website.
Let’s all do our part to recycle, this month and year-round.