Don’t have the yard space for a garden? You can reuse rain gutters to create a lovely herb and salad garden right on the side of your house or garage.  Simply attach gutters to a wall, fill with topsoil, and get planting.  These gutter planters are perfect for herbs as well as lettuce, and any other vegetables that have shallow roots and don’t spread out too much.

Great Picture from Recyclart.

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Welcome to the season of holiday joy, packaging materials and dead batteries!

If you’ve ever wondered where to recycle these items, wonder no more.
RecycleChicken.comis a site, searchable by zip code, that will tell you where you can take anything and everything for recycling and reuse in your area.

Let’s search for how to reduce our waste this holiday season. RecycleChicken has recycling/reuse locations for the following holiday items:

• Christmas lights: You can recycle those burnt out incandescent lights. LEDs are all the rage these days.
• Scotch tape dispensers: Yes, tape dispensers!
• Snack chip bags: Recycle your Frito Lay brand snack chip bags after the holiday bowl games.
• Styrofoam: Even the molded stuff! Visit the site to find Bay Area Recycling for Charities and Kalkaska County recycling program.
• Packing materials: We’re talking foam chips, bubble wrap, etc!
• Christmas trees: Find listings for local collection programs. Often times the resulting chips are used on area recreation trails.
• Household batteries: Don’t throw them away. Find recycling locations close by.
• Small appliances: Did you get a new blender for Christmas? You can find a location to take the old one whether dead or alive.
• Cardboard: You know how this stacks up in the garage.
• Sports equipment: Miss the swaps? Take skiing, snowshoeing, skating, hockey equipment to a reuse location.
• Electronics & video games: ‘Tis the season to upgrade your electronic gear and try out the latest technology. Take your old techy toys to a local drop-off location.

Also, please remember your waste hauler when tipping or gifting this holiday season. Did you know that every year, waste handling is ranked among the Top 10 dirtiest and most dangerous jobs? We owe a bit of gratitude for these guys. We’d be in a real pile without them.

Happy Holidays from RecycleChicken!

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Raising a family is a lesson in handling STUFF–and, if you’re a parent, you’ve muttered to yourself more than once about how your family has way too much of it. We’re all familiar with the items we can recycle at the curbside or drop-off. What about everything else? Nearly everything else is recyclable. I think you’re going to be excited to hear about the things you can recycle right in your local community.

RecycleChicken, tells you where you can take anything and everything for recycling and reuse in your area. The site, searchable by item and zipcode, lists businesses and programs in your area that accept your beyond the curbside materials. Here is a listing of seasonal waste reduction suggestions.

• Pumpkins: A few ideas here. You could, of course, make pumpkin pie. You could feed the deer. You could add to yours or a neighbor’s compost pile. Roast the seeds or plant them for next year’s crop.
• Baby: Green Island Earth Friendly Goods in Traverse City is accepting used cloth diapers and cloth diaper systems. Call 231-933-8465  for accepting conditions.
• Vacuums & vacuum parts: Check with your local vacuum repair shop about what brands and conditions they accept. Most shops rebuild and sell used vacuums–a potential deal in itself.
• #3-#7 Plastics: Check in with Bay Area Recycling for Charities or American Waste.
• Garden Plastics: Bay Area Recycling accepts black (and other color) nursery pots, trays and plastic lawn edging. The Head Hen’s personal heroes!
• Dry Cleaning Hangers & Bags: Most drycleaners will take back their own or unprinted paper hangers as well as plastic dry cleaning bags. Call ahead to your favorite cleaner to check.
• Computers & Accessories (working or not): In the Traverse City area, some easy options include Goodwill and TC eWaste. In Emmet County, take to the Recycling Center on Pleasantview Rd.
• Other Electronics: In Traverse City area, take to TC eWaste. They take a wide array and even have drop boxes at Oryana Food Co-op. In Emmet–Pleasantview Rd. center.

To add your business or location to RecycleChicken’s recycling/reuse directory, use this easy “Get Listed” form.

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That’s right, latex as well as lamb skin condoms will biodegrade in your compost.  Latex is a 100-percent natural substance that breaks down both in sunlight and water.   Latex condoms do take a bit longer to break down than lambskin but the degradation process does begin almost immediately.  Exposure to sunlight quickens the process, but natural microorganisms attack natural rubber even in the dark. Research shows that under similar environmental conditions, latex balloons will biodegrade at about the same rate as a leaf from an oak tree.  This research also applies to latex condoms as both products are made from 100% latex.  The actual total degradation time will vary depending on the precise conditions, but condoms will break down in your compost pile.

To add your business or location to RecycleChicken’s recycling/reuse directory, use this easy “Get Listed” form.

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Recycling involves processing used materials (waste) into new products to reduce the consumption of resources and save money. Recycling is the modern component of waste reduction and is notably third in the “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” hierarchy. (Hashtags for Twitter: #recycling #rcycl #rchk #3r, #3rs)

A Recycling Pioneer

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Wondering what to do with the cookie tins that are cluttering your corners?

Here are a few fun ideas:

Cookie Tin Organizer

Organized Cookie Tin

Cookie Tin Banjo

Click here for a Banjo how-to.

Cookie Tin Lamp

Cookie Tin Lamps

Find these lamps and more at Crystal Lake Emporium

To add your business or location to RecycleChicken’s recycling/reuse directory, use this easy “Get Listed” form.

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Our trash waste is the fecal matter of our cultural existence.

It is that which comes out of what we consume. Yes, this is a crude analogy, but a dead-on one nonetheless.

Taking this analogy a bit further, we can say that learning to recycle is much the same as potty-training. Early in an individual’s life, it is quite appropriate to go in your pants and someone else cleans it up for you. There comes a time around age two, when someone tells you it’s time to put your waste in a different and more appropriate place. You are changing your behavior–from going in your pants to going in the potty.

As a society, as a culture, we have been going in our pants for long enough. It’s simply time to deal with our waste in a more appropriate manner.

What is a landfill if not a great big (albeit highly engineered) diaper that leaks when too full, wet or heavy? And just like any leaky diaper, the leaking makes a mess of that which is adjacent and connected to it. Don’t get me wrong, a landfill is a highly appropriate place for that which cannot be reduced, reused or recycled.

So, learning to recycle is analogous to potty-training. It’s funny, I know. You giggled didn’t you when you realized how simply true this is?


Reduce, Reuse, Resell, Recycle & Rebuy today!

Straight talk from the coop!


–Head Hen
a.k.a. Kelly Ignace


www.RecycleChicken.com

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How much FUN is this moustache pillow from Loop Loft ?

No wax required

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FREE COMMUNITY-WIDE RECYCLE & REPURPOSE EVENT FOR DAYLIGHT SAVINGS
‘Fall Back’ into Action to Clean Up and Green Up

The Michigan Green Consortium will once again produce a free community-wide recycle, repurpose and reuse event from 10am until 3pm on Sunday,November 7, 2010 at Parking Lot B in downtown Traverse City. The event is held twice a year, the morning following the time adjustment, and serves as a reminder to residents to renew their pledge to do their part to preserve the environment.

The Daylight Savings Clean Up and Green Up Event will be hosted by the Consortium and a dozen or more local area businesses that provide recycle and reuse services. The event is comprehensive, offering residents the chance to bring recyclable items to one location and at no charge for collection.

Area businesses will be on site that day to process a realm of household goods that have reusable or recyclable value. While not all vendors are yet confirmed, past vendors have included. American Waste; Bay Area Recycling, RecycleChicken, Rifkin Steel, L & B Recycling, Cartridge World, Goodwill, GT Profile’s Shredmonster, TC eWaste, Odom Reusable Building Products, Northern Michigan Garment Restoration, Evergreen Bottle Company, Team Elmer’s and Home Depot.

Michigan Green Consortium is a trade association established in 2008 to promote and support green and sustainable businesses; to educate the business and local community on what should be done to ensure a healthy environment and provides networking opportunities for green
companies. The consortium is funded solely by member dues and public contributions.
To learn out more about the Daylight Savings: Clean Up and Green Up event, call (231) 947-1688 or visit www.mgconline.org

To add your business or location to RecycleChicken’s recycling/reuse directory, use this easy “Get Listed” form.

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A RecycleChicken Facebook fan wishing to avoid the landfill asked today what to do with an old T.V. that doesn’t work.

Here are a few ideas to get you started.

• Fish Tank (you’ve seen this before, I’m sure)
• Retro Ambiance Diffuser
• Combine with an Altoids to turn it into a web configurable dashboard (geeks only)
• Mod lighting fixture
• Take to a local e-waste recycler (may cost you a small fee)

To add your business or location to RecycleChicken’s recycling/reuse directory, use this easy “Get Listed” form.

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