Gift cards, plastic bottle caps, CDs and CD cases. I don’t know about you, but I have a nifty collection of these items and some, sitting in my closest. I never threw them out- I always knew deep down, I would find a place that would recycle them or at the very least find a second use for them. Looks like my “environmental” hoarding tendencies paid off.
Gift cards and CD’s and other random items
I was pleasantly surprised when I strolled into Best Buy the other day and found a rather large bin with different compartments for recycling. And when I took an even closer looks I saw “gift cards” and “CD’s and CD cases” marked above the holes. I am not going to lie I did the “green” happy dance.
In September, we did a big clean up of our condo when we were back home. I kept all our used and random CD’s and their cases. It will probably be no surprise when I tell you that I trekked them from Montreal to Fort Worth in the hopes that I would find a place to recycle them. So, you can understand my excitement when I saw the glorious blue Best Buy recycling center. Not to mention, they also take those used gift cards that I have been holding on to use gift cards, which only added to my ecstasy.
Best Buy will not only recycle the items mentioned above, but they will take remotes and game controllers, plastic bags, rechargeable batteries, ink and toner cartridges, and lastly wires, cords and cables. So, if you are looking to dispose of theseitems, it looks like you do not have to add them to the ever growing pile of junk in a landfill.
Plastic Bottle Caps
Whether you purchase a drink in a plastic or glass bottle, the cap is usually plastic unless you get really lucky and find a metal one. For almost a year now, I have been collecting plastic caps from all sorts of bottles. The reason I do is most recycling facilities do not accept small caps. While living in Wichita, Kansas I was fortunate enough to visit the recycling plant. I was told, seeing as the caps are so tiny, most of the time when mixed with other plastics they run through the machine and stay in tack. So all in all it is a pain in the butt to recycle them, unless you do it separately.
There are some recycling companies that tell you to just leave the cap on and the whole thing will be recycled. I know this sounds like a super simple answer, but we all know that recycling should be the last resort and reusing and upcycling are much better options.
What if I told you there was one company that not only takes back the caps, but creates all sorts of doormats from them? Let me introduce ReCap Company. To me this is pretty great idea and totally worth collecting my caps for. Look at the mats- aren’t they just perfect?
CFL light bulbs
For the longest time, I never knew CFL lightbulbs could be recycled. About 3 months ago, I had an accident and broke one. After cleaning up the light bulb, I immediately ran over to my computer to figure out how to dispose of it properly. In the past, I put them in a glass jar and dumped them in the trash. I was super happy when I found a local company (LRT Lighting Resources) here in Fort Worth that accepts all bulbs - broken or intact. I did, however, find out through my research that the city of Fort Worth, Lowe’s and Home Depot will take the CFL’s intact- not broken.
As you can see, if there is a will, there is most definitely a way. Sometimes it just takes a little extra effort to find ways to dispose, recycle or even upcyle uncommon items. Not sure where to begin? Head on over to Earth 911 and discover where and how to recycle anything from plastics to glass to paper!
Let’s work together to keep our planet green and our landfills clean.
What items do you have difficulty recycling or disposing of?
Reduce Footprints challenge for the week of February 14-22, 2012: Create a recycling bin for all non-curbside recyclables- batteries, CFL bulbs, misc. plastics, etc. – and then find out where to recycle them.
Best Buy, Earth 911, environment, green, Plastic, recycle, upcycle
I am the Good Girl Gone Green. Seeing garbage cans overflowing with recyclables breaks my heart.
This is great news since I mail my gift cards to a company that recycles in Ohio. For years, I have been using Green Disk for plastic cases, CD, and DVDs, but I had to pay for it. Free and convenient is good.
Free is very good, Anna!
I just stopped by from the Sorta Crunchy link up. I’m so excited about this! I have a whole stash of CD cases I wasn’t sure what to do with.
Great!
I didn’t know that they took the CD cases … and I just recently found out about the gift cards. I was like you … hanging on to them because it seemed so bad to toss them in the garbage. I was thrilled when I found out that they could be recycled. Whoot! Thanks, as always, for another wonderful post!
I hang onto stuff all the time in the hopes I find a purpose for them or a way to recycle! Thank you so much.
Thanks for the resources! We are cleaning out our basement and have found some odd things that need to be recycled.
Any idea how to recycle plastic/foil coffee bags?? I try to buy bulk coffee in a reused container most of the time, but sometimes I get those bags, and they SEEM so reusable; I’m just not sure for what….
Good question. I need to make a list of stuff to investigate. My list is getting long!
This is great info! I’ve kept all sorts of these things, waiting to be able to recycle them. I even have a ton of those AOL CDs I used to get in the mail all the time, though some of them I repurposed as closet organizers in the nursery (cut through to the center hole so they can go over the closet rod, covered with decorative paper and marked each with different sizes Newborn – 24 months to keep all those clothes organized). Anyhow, it’s great to know where I can take the things that I can’t reuse in a craft project – thanks!
It is great to reuse things, but sometimes we just have too much stuff to reuse, right? And recycling is the answer to that problem!
YOU are an inspiration. I am loving your blog!
Here is what I know:
Terracycle upcycles the odd bags, juice pouches, etc. find a “brigade” near you. I head it up at my children’s school and it is very successful.
Whole foods has similar bins- not sure if they vary by location, but worth looking into.
Target also has a few bins for recycling, worth checking out as well.
Thank you so much! Whole foods has basic recycling, but they do compost. that is where I bring my compost weekly!
Do you what they do with the stuff they recycle? We have a local company that takes platic bottle caps, grinds them up and reuses the plastic pellets. Just wondering how they reuse the power cords.
No idea. But I think I am going to investigate that one!
I save all of those items in a box for the next time we are headed to Best Buy! Love how much they recycle.
Awesome, Jessica!
I haven’t set foot in Best Buy… I can’t remember when, but I love that they are taking recycling so seriously! I love all the recommendations of people and organizations that upcycle various recyclables. I have a terrible tendency to keep stuff in the garage that I am sure could be used for something, I just don’t know what. I hate to recycle when I don’t have to, but it is better than trashing it I suppose.
I don’t like recycling every either, but sometimes I just have to. I don’t go to best buy either, went with my parents!
I absolutely LOVE the ReCap mats! Thanks for the link. I emailed about how to become a collector for them.
Susan
http://75percenthippie.blogspot.com
http://happyhippieheart.blogspot.com
That is so awesome that you did that!
I’m moving and i’m going through all sorts of things. The CD recycling will be great since we have way too many of them. My question is about video tapes. Can they be recycled or should they be just donated to a thrift store? Any thoughts.
No idea about video tapes. I have to look into that!
Love this post! Had no idea Best Buy was doing such extensive recycling. We don’t have one near us but I can save up for the times when I will be in a community that has one.
Thank you!