Recycling Ideas

First I would like to mention is how I disposed of my pine Christmas tree, or should I say "how my wife disposed of it".  The weather gets pretty cold living in Ottawa Canada.  I usually get a minor soar throat that seems to last throughout the winter season.  Perhaps I have a poor immunity system but in any case the soar throat is actually quite annoying.   Now my wife caught on to the idea of drinking pine needle tea.  Apparently, if you drink a cup a day you will never be sick. 

CAUTION:  pregnant women should not drink this tea as it is known to cause abortions.  

The pine needles have 5 times the vitamin C and A as a lemon.  My wife also claims it is a natural antiseptic.  In any case I was pretty skeptical (especially after I tasted the tea).   So my wife has been making this tea daily by removing some branches from the Christmas tree and boiling the branches with the needles attached. Don't boil too much or the vitamns will be lost.  The tea is then strained and mixed with honey for taste.  After two days of drinking this tea my soar throat was completely gone.   Now the point here is not that this is a better disposal method but that the pine needle tea is natural whereas the drugs used to combat colds and soar throats tend to be polluting. 

When finished with the pine needle tea for the winter season then the Christmas tree can generally be left for curbside pickup where it is often chipped and shredded for mulch.  If you have access to a private fish pond, you can sink the tree into it.  The tree makes an excellent refuge and feeding area for fish.

Did you know that tens of millions of DVDs, CDs and plastic covers are tossed into the garbage every year?  Learn how to recycle them here:  Recycling Old CDs and DVDs,  Recycle Your Old CDs, DVDs, Audio and Video Cassettes.

Mattress disposal is a serious issue, particularly for landfill sites.  There are few recycling options.  Read more:  Mattress Disposal.  Styrofoam is another problem for disposal with minimal options.  The Problem With Styrofoam.  Do you have old clothes you want to get rid of?  Recycling Used Clothing.   Less than 5% of cell phones are recycled.  Read what you can do with your old cell phone here.  Recycle Your Old Cell Phone.   Did you know that there are 3.5 Billion batteries produced every year for the North American market alone?  These batteries eventually have to be disposed of.  Read more:  Battery Recycling and Disposal.   Did you know that 40% of Americans do not know how to dispose of paint?  Recycling Paint.

Most large cities have information on their recycling programs, curbside pickup, etc.  posted on the internet.  You can find more info here:  City Recycling.

And we should not forget about buying recycled products whereever possible.  Why Buy Recycled Paper Products?   Recycled Golf Balls.

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