Disposing of medicine properly keeps it out of the environment and our bodies.
I was cleaning out our bathroom cabinets the other day, looking for materials to take to our local county special trash collection. While I was cleaning everything out, I came across our medicine box. I opened it up and found that about half of the over-the-counter medicine we had was expired. I threw it all into a box, figuring that I could take it to the special trash collection that was happening in a few days. However, after thinking about the types of trash that I had taken to previous special collections, I started to wonder if they would accept expired medicine or not, so I gave them a call.
It turned out that they do not accept medicine of any type, expired or not. I looked at my box of medicine and started wondering what I should do with it. So, I started researching how to properly dispose of medicine. Here is what I found out.
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There are several ways you can deal with an old cell phone to help yourself and the environment
We recently got a new cell phone for Steph. When the package arrived in the mail, we tore into it to set up the cell phone and see what it could do. After all of the excitement passed though, we were left staring at her old cell phone, wondering what to do with it.
Chances are that you have had this experience as well. The United States has over 200 million cell phone subscribers and 80% of them upgrade their devices every eighteen months. 80% of those 200 million also do not know what to do with their old cell phones. Seth Heine, founder and CEO of CollectiveGood/RipMobile (now FlipSwap), estimates there are 750 million used cell phones floating around the United States, most of which end up in a drawer or a landfill. In fact, Californians throw away 44,000 cell phones every day.
Throwing an old cell phone in the trash is the worst possible way to dispose of it, as cell phones contain several toxic chemicals that leach into the soil when they are put into a landfill. Also, today’s modern cell phones store a lot of data about you. Unless you explicitly wipe all of the data off of your old cell phone, anyone who gets their hands on it has access to all of your personal data.
So, when you upgrade a cell phone, what is the best thing to do with your old one to both help yourself and the environment? Luckily, there are several good options available to you.
Read more on What to do with an Old Cell Phone…
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Ants in compost... good or bad and how do you get rid of them?
I went out to check on our compost bin the other day and saw a bunch of ants around the bottom of it. I have had a pretty bad relationship with ants in the past. They have invaded our homes, gotten into everything and have generally caused problems for us. So, I was not all that thrilled to find them exploring our compost bin. However, rather than run for my favorite natural ant killer, Terro, I decided to do some research on ants in compost to see if it was really a big deal to find them in your compost bin and, if so, what you can do about it. Read more on Ants in Compost…
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These common household cleaners are a good example of household hazardous waste
Whether you know it or not, you probably have hazardous waste in your home. Most of us do. Many of the traditional cleaning products that we use in our homes contain chemicals that are considered hazardous. Also, many of the products that we use to take care of our home, yard, bicycles, cars, toys and other items contain chemicals that make them household hazardous waste. Whether we should even have this household hazardous waste in our homes is a question for another post. The question posed here is, if we decide that we don’t want a household hazardous waste product anymore or if the product is too old or unusable for some reason or the other, how do we dispose of it properly? Read more on Household Hazardous Waste…
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Plastics like these make up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
I was watching a documentary the other day and they talked about something known as the Pacific Garbage Patch or Garbage Island. If you have not heard of it already, the Pacific garbage patch is an area of garbage in the Pacific ocean that sits midway between Hawaii and California. It is currently over 2 times the size of the state of Texas and contains approximately 3.5 million tons of garbage. At that size, it is the Earth’s largest dump and it is growing at an alarming rate. Read more on The Pacific Garbage Patch…
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I came across a great video recently. I think it is a must-watch for all of those interested in fighting global warming or those simply interested to know how all of the “stuff” in our daily lives comes to be and what kind of impact its creation and disposal has on the planet.
The video is called “The Story of Stuff”. I think it is so well done and fascinating, I have already watched it twice. Once you view it, let me know what you think!
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Once they burn out, dispose of fluorescent bulbs properly
I often get asked by my friends and family what the best way to dispose of compact fluorescent bulbs. Fortunately, CFL’s last much longer than incandescent light bulbs, so you don’t have to worry about them burning out for a while, but eventually they will. Up until recently, the best answer I could provide was to put them in a bucket or some other storage mechanism until recycling fluorescent bulbs became more convenient.
Fortunately, recycling of fluorescent bulbs has become convenient. Read more on Dispose of Fluorescent Bulbs Properly…
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You can build a compost bin out of an old garbage can
We picked up a big, bright 55 gallon blue food barrel recently. We were intending to use it to build a compost bin, but after we did a little research, OK a lot of research, we decided to make into a rain barrel instead.
That meant that we still had to find a container to use as a compost bin. After some more research, we determined that a garbage can compost bin would work best for us. Now we just needed to learn how to make one. Read more on Build a Compost Bin…
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All of the time while most of us have been alive, American consumerism has been the way of life. Improve your lifestyle. Keep up with the Joneses. Keep buying new stuff. If something breaks, don’t consider the repair or buy new argument, just toss it out and buy a new one.
But, if I can hearken back to my high school and college history courses, it hasn’t always been that way. Read more on American Consumerism…
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Dispose of paint properly to keep it out of the environment
Paint is great stuff. It is a cheap and is an easy way to add value to your home, especially now that there are so many different brands and types of no and low VOC paint available. However, what happens when you are done painting and have paint leftover that you do not want to save? How do you dispose of paint properly? Read more on Dispose of Paint Properly…
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