iRecycle is a site for information and discussion about recycling businesses and resources.
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Recycle Me Iowa is a cool little start-up very similar to my business idea (conincidence, I am sure).
With the slogan, Don't Be Trashy, Recycle:
RecycleMe Iowa is a doorstep recycling service. We cater to apartments, condos, and small businesses, as well as indoor and outdoor events. We also do waste/recycling consultations along with education.
They pick-up all typical houshold recyclables, bottles, cans, paper, cardboard, magazines, newspapers and plastic. They recycle for you.
WHO-TV spotlighted them in a story, RECYCLE ME: A recycling business is born for apartment dwellers in the metro:
It’s Friday morning and Ciji Mitrisin is making the rounds.
Ciji says, “I've worked as a waitress all my life so I love the service industry.”
But as an apartment dweller she saw a need for a new kind of service.
“I had a lot of friends that wanted to do the right thing but they're so busy and there's all these excuses of why they were not taking their hoards of recycling.”
So Ciji decided she could start taking it to a drop off center for them.
“More people just kept coming up and wanting to be a part of it and signing up and being extremely grateful that they didn't have to lug all their recycling to the drop off centers.”
And out of all that lugging, her business, Recycle Me Iowa was born.
Recycle Me Iowa got its start with grants from the Department of Natural Resources, and the Metro Waste Authority.
think global, recycle local
My friends at Meow Wolf reminded me that the Recycle Santa Fe Art Festival is coming up soon!
The 2011 Recycle Santa Fe Art Festival is just around the corner. The 13th annual event will take place on November 11, 12 & 13 at El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe. Similar to year's past, the weekend will include the Trash Fashion & Costume Contest, Art Market & Juried Art Exhibit for both Adults and Youth. We're planning on having this be our last year at El Museo and will return to the downtown Convention Center in 2012.
In cooperation with Keep Santa Fe Beautiful and their recycling efforts surrounding America Recycles Day (November 15th) and New Mexico Recycling Awareness Month, Recycle Santa Fe is one of the hippest, eco-conscious art markets and juried art events of its time.
Give gum a second live with the gum recycling receptacle. It started with a dream.
The GUMDROP dream began in 2006 when Anna Bullis noticed that not only was gum a material that was being wasted but a litter that was starting to pollute on a global scale. Anna decided there must be a better way to discard gum than throwing it on the floor.
Anna set about solving the problem by spending over four months in a chemistry laboratory with the aim to create a new plastic polymer using recycle chewing gumthat could be used in commercial moulding processes.
With huge success Anna set up GUMDROP Ltd in November 2008.
I don't know about your town or city but mine has its sidewalks full of gum. It is ugly, dirty and pollution. Why do people do it? Walking down the street, chewed all the suger out, people just go "splurp" and spit their gum out as they was. It's lazy and it's gross.
This is a solution, one that would unfortunately need some public service announcments if not police enforcement to work.
Goto GUMDROP Ltd.
See also Anna Bullus.
Photo BBC News.
"Recycling" does not mean just bottle and cans.
I rememer when I was young we had several junk bikes and boxes full of parts; back in the 70's, these ended up in the metal pile at the dump. Today there are places like Recycle a Bike (RAB), which is a cool small non-profit that involves youths recycling bycycles.
RAB is dedicated to the health, development, stewardship, and empowerment of NYC youth. In the past year alone, more than 1,000 RAB youth collectively refurbished 500 bicycles, pedaled 10,000 miles, and burned 1,500,000 calories. On average, RAB salvages 1,200 bicycles each year from the waste stream, diverting a total of 36,000 pounds of waste from NYC's landfills. Every purchase from our storefronts directly supports our youth programs and environmental initiatives.
This is what I am talking about when I say I want to help people start small recycling busineses, by providing a starting point of ideas and resourses (not that I helped them, but maybe I can help someone; maybe you can start a bicycle recycling business in your area).
RAB has a well written website showing that they mean business.
Good luck and Good Bicycling.
Styrofoam, including packaging "peanuts," can be recycled. Here are some links for more information:
These are just a few Styrofoam recycling resources.
iRecycle Computers is a "fully integrated e-waste sorting system." They supply the collection bins and pick-up or empty the bins and recycle the contents ("broken down for processing and commodity recovery").
Their slogan is "iRecycle! Why don't you?!?"
You can buy a bin and set a recycle station up for yourself (a one-time price) or locate one on many tempoary (fairs and festivals) locations or certified locations.
Cool.
From the EPA's eCycle Computers page:
"Many states and municipalities offer computer collection programs. Additionally, many computer manufacturers and retailers provide a variety of convenient opportunities for you to recycle your computer."
Here is another battery recycling company, Call2Recycle, that works with big and small businesses to offer free battery recycling. Check it out.
How the Call2Recycle Program Works
STEP 1: Batteries and Cell Phones Collected at Collection Sites
Collection sites throughout the U.S. and Canada accept rechargeable batteries and cell phones for recycling from their employees or the public. There is no cost to recycle. Simply dropoff at any Call2Recycle collection location.
Who can be a collection site? Businesses, retailers, communities, and public agencies can participate and recycle for free....
STEP 2: Collection Locations Ship Batteries and Cell Phones to Recycling Facility
Collection sites ship batteries and cell phones for free to contracted sorting and recycling facilities. Collection sites setup with Call2Recycle's collection kit will automatically receive additional kits and materials when their inventory runs low....
STEP 3: New Products are Born
Stainless Steel ProductsPrecious metals recovered from used batteries create new batteries and stainless steel products. Cell phones are recycled, refurbished and/or resold.... Since Call2Recycle was created in 1994, 60 million pounds has been diverted from landfills.
Camping Kitchen made out of recycled materials (for Burning Man, 2010).
For 2010 I thought I’d build a camping kitchen. I wanted someting that would offer enough counter space to cook and do dishes for a small group. Though this set up wouldn’t be able to handle the dishes for a group as large as ours it would probably be fine for 4-5 people and it would be quite luxurious for two. It is made almost entirely from dumpster-dived or recycled/repurposed materials. The exceptions being some of the screws, a hinge.
This is from Carbondioxide Camp, Burning Man, 2010.
