Packing Peanuts: Yay, your birthday gift just arrived! But it’s brimming with foam peanuts. No need to swallow your guilt and stick them in the garbage; the Plastic Loose Fill Council is happy to take them off your hands with hundreds of drop-off locations across the country. Find one near you at loosefillpackaging.com. Easy Ways To Stop Global Warming Bras: Your old brassiere could get a new lease on life. Bras are made with non-biodegradable materials—like underwire, clasps, and synthetic fabric—which means once you’re done with one, it languishes in a landfill for eternity. The Bra Recyclers, an organization based in Arizona, finds your gently-used bras a second home overseas. Go to brarecycling.com. [sidebar] Wine Corks: Talk about uncorking the possibilities: An organization called reCORK repurposes your wine corks into shoe soles. Plus, they’ve planted more than 7,000 cork trees in Portugal to make their endeavor even more sustainable. We say cheers to that! Find a drop-off location at recork.org.
Makeup: Before you chuck your old compacts, check with your makeup company to see if they’ll accept spent packaging. MAC, for example, accepts returns through its Back to MAC program. The double reward: If you take six pieces back to a MAC store counter or send them in, you’ll receive a free lipstick. Isn’t recycling beautiful? Shoes: Instead of kicking your old sneaks to the curb, donate them to be used to make running tracks, playground surfaces, and basketball courts through the Nike Reuse-a-Shoe program. Since 1990, this program has collected over 25,000,000 sneakers to make sustainable sports arenas. Head to nikereuseashoe.com. Water filters: Good for you for cutting down on wasteful water bottles in favor of filtering your own water! But what happens when your filter’s done filtering? Hand in your used Brita pitcher filters and bottle filters to Preserve, a company that turns old plastics into products such as toothbrushes, cups, and cutting boards. Visit preserveproducts.com. Plastic Bags: If you forgot your planet-friendly reusable totes on your last trip to the grocery store, don’t fret: Your plastic bags don’t have to end up hanging out in a landfill forever. A group called Plastic Bag Recycling helps you repurpose those flimsy supermarket bags into other useful goods like composite lumber. Find your closest drop-off spot at plasticbagrecycling.org. Also see: Green Your Pet, Put Yourself On A Paper Diet, Could A Nuclear Meltdown Happen Here?
