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!

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

Share on Facebook

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.

Share on Facebook

Top Drawer Exchange in Traverse City is the place for young adults to find cool gently-used clothing from top name brands including:

• Abercrombie & Fitch
• Hollister Co.
• Gap
• Aeropostale
• Many More!

Find everything from jeans and skirts, to tops and shoes, as well as cool accessories, all at a great price.

But that’s not all.  At Top Drawer Exchange they will buy your “just like new” clothes! We are looking for name brands and junior styles.

Tips For Turning Your Clothes Into Cash:

• Make sure your clothes are freshly laundered, smoke-free and wrinkle-free.
• Check for stains, tears and missing buttons
• Keep clothes on hangers when possible

Top Drawer Exchange is open: Mon-Sat 11 am – 7 pm & Sunday 12 – 4 pm

Top Drawer Clothier also buys and sells Women’s and Men’s styles in-season at for a fraction of what you would pay in a retail store.

All items must be:

• Of current style
• Seasonal styles only
• Freshly laundered
• On hangers if possible

Up to 10 Items per day. Call ahead for more details at (231) 929-3121.

Hours: Monday – Friday 9:30 am – 6:00 pm,  Saturday 9:30 am – 4:00 pm, & Sunday 12 – 4 pm

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

Share on Facebook

According to The New York Times, since the mid-nineties regional Federal Reserve banks have negotiated deals with companies that could use large amounts of shredded material for stuffing, roofing and who knows what else. The Fed allows any use short of advertising or confetti.

So far, the Federal Reserve’s efforts have involved the use of old bills in roofing tiles, particle board, fuel pellets, stationery, packing material and artwork.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Los Angeles, for example, is negotiating with Terra Roofing Products of Fontana, Calif., to use shredded bills in its fireproof roofing shingles. The shingles, made of cement and wastepaper, do not burn like wooden ones and have become popular in California as a safeguard against firestorms.

Also, Crane, which is based in Dalton, Mass., began recycling shredded currency from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland into sea-green stationery called — no surprise — “Old Money.” The suggested prices range from $5 for a 100-sheet note pad to $10 for a large box of stationery and envelopes.

The Federal Reserve is constantly looking for new uses for old money in order to lessen the volume of money that goes into landfills. Maybe we can come up with some new suggestions.

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

Share on Facebook

Every year BILLIONS of drink pouches end up in dumpsters and landfills across America. TerraCycle, Capri Sun and Honest Kids are working together to put an end to this awful loss of resources. As an eco-friendly innovator, TerraCycle converts the used drink pouches into unique fashion bags, tote bags, pencil cases, and other items for kids and adults! TerraCycle is proud to team up with the largest producer of drink pouches in the country, Capri Sun, and a young organic entry into the market, Honest Kids, to help address this problem! Together with your help TerraCycle CAN make a difference.

The TerraCycle Drink Pouch Brigadeâ„¢ program allows almost any school, non–profit organization or individual to save drink pouches from taking up space in landfills. TerraCycle will donate $.02 for each drink pouch we receive. which will go to the school or charity of your choice. If you don’t have a charity currently in mind, you may choose from a list of existing charities! There are no signup fees whatsoever.

Along with drink pouches TerraCycle also pays you to take many other items such as:

• Stonyfield® Yogurt

• Candy Wrappers

• Cookie Wrappers

• Flavia Fresh Packs

• Chip Bags

• Energy Bar Wrappers

• Bear Naked Bags

• Kashi Packages

• Cell Phones

• Huggies® Packaging

• AVEENO® Packaging

• Scotch Tape

• Wine Corks

• and many more

For more information on how to send you trash to TerraCycle for Cash visit their website at www.terracycle.net

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

Share on Facebook

Benzie County’s new super store features rows and rows or appliances, furniture, building materials, as well as lighting and plumbing materials.  Along with the vast selection, this store has the lowest prices around.  I know what you’re thinking, did Benzie get a new WalMart?  Not even close.  Benzie County is now a proud owner of a Habitat for Humanity ReStore.  Traverse City Record Eagle reports that The store is located at 13998 Honor Highway and they are open Wednesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.  All items for sale have been donated to Habitat for Humanity so they may be a little used but every item is still in very good working order and have many years left in them.  The best part about this store though is that sale proceeds from donated items go toward Habitat projects in Benzie County.  RecycleChicken loves Habitat ReStores, they take your used stuff off your hands, save you money, and help your local community.

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

Share on Facebook

Shag your Fridge?  That’s right, one of the biggest energy hogs in you home is your refrigerator and RecycleChicken has found a way for you to reduce the cost of keeping your beer cold.  Covering your fridge in shag carpet along with some insulation board can help to reduce your electric bills.

How It’s Done

1. Tape insulation board to the top and sides of the fridge.
2. Place carpet or corkboard over the panels.
3. Don’t put insulation board on the doors.
4. Cover the doors with the carpet or corkboard.

Now your fridge is carpeted. You have reduced your energy usage. Open fridge and enjoy beverage.

All of this information comes from the book The Carbon-Free Home by Rebekah Hren, Stephen Hren.

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

Share on Facebook

An article by Brian Merchant says that one study on Kleenex and Kimberly Clark, the brand’s manufacturer, found that a total of 300 million tons of tree fiber from virgin forests in the US are used to make its paper products each year. So how can we stop the arboreal slaughter, and replace Kleenex with a greener alternative? We bring back the handkerchief. Some may view the use of a handkerchief to be quite gross but it can also be a reminder of old fashioned manliness as well.  I’m sure all had a grandfather that always had a hankie in his pocket.  Brings back some happy memories doesn’t it?  Grandpa was embracing the 3 R’s and didn’t even know it but you can make a conscious efftort to reduce and reuse by following his lead.

There is the drawback of having to wash your handkerchiefs on a regular basis versus just tossing a kleenex in the garbage but the benefits really outweigh the cost in this situation.  So give the hankie a whirl and reduce your annual paper consumption. Have fun with it, this guy certainly is.

Reducing Can Be Fun.

For more info in the handkerchief see Brian Merchant’s interview with Brett McKay at Green Planet.

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

Share on Facebook

USA Today reports that a green global economy will require much higher recycling rates of specialty metals like lithium, neodymium and gallium, says a new United Nations report.

These metals, needed to make wind turbines, solar panels and hybrid car batteries, are scarce in nature and expensive yet only about 1% of them are recycled, according to preliminary findings by the U.N. Environment Program (UNEP). It will publish the final version later this year.

Unless recycling increases dramatically, the report warns that specialty and rare earth metals could become “essentially unavailable for use in modern technology.”

It says recycling rates are much higher, between 25% to 75%, for metals such as iron, steel, copper, aluminum, lead and tin. Still, it says increasing these rates could reduce greenhouse gas emissions, because recycling metals is much more energy efficient than smelting them.

“Boosting end-of-life recycling rates not only offers a path to enhancing those supplies and keeping metal prices down, but can also generate new kinds of employment while ensuring the longevity of the mines and the stocks found in nature,” said Achim Steiner, UNEP’s Executive Director, in a statement.

Concern has been rising about the supply of specialty metals. In March, scientists warned a congressional committee that growth of green-tech industries will be limited by China’s export limits on rare-earth elements, according to a CNET’s Green Tech blog.

Lithium is a specialty metal used to make hybrid car batteries such as those in Kia's Forte Hybrid.

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

Share on Facebook

Going Green doesn’t always have to be clean and pretty, RecycleChicken has found several ways that you can reduce what you use by putting forth little or no effort at all. And we mean that literally, some of these suggestions involve just cutting out things that you normally do every day, thus no effort on your part.  Here  is a list of 10 gross ways to go green.

• Eat Over the Sink
• Drink Straight From the Package
• Bathe Less
• Don’t Flush Every Time You Pee
• Do Laundry Less
• Shave Less
• Don’t Wear Make-Up
• Pee Outside
• Use a Handkerchief
• Stink

Josh Peterson tells you how these 10 activities will lead the way to a greener life but might scare away some friends. So embrace these practices at your own risk. Read more at 10 “Gross” Ways to Go Green

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

Share on Facebook