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

Cardboard tubes from various packaging and paper rolls can be transformed into a trendy art gallery in just a few steps according to Apartment Therapy.

Here’s how to do it:

• Clean the rolls by removing any labels or leftover paper.
• Mark the rolls by using a ruler and pencil to mark the width of each ring will help you keep the cuts straight and level. Make different sizes to add interest and dimension.
• Cut the tubes into rings using an X-acto knife and/or scissors.
• Trace circles around the ring to mark a circle on the photo you want to frame. Cut out the circle using scissors. The circle should be just a bit wider than the outside of the ring.
• Glue photos to rings by drawing a thin bead of glue on the rim of the cardboard ring. Glue the photo circle in place. Consider gluing the photo to the front of the ring so it stands out from the wall, or to the back of the ring so you can peer in at it.
• When all the rings are done and dry, use a little white glue on the side of the rings to glue them together.
• Hang the rings on the wall by putting up a few pushpins or small nails and slipping the rings over them.

Thanks so much for the great idea Apartment Therapy.

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

Share on Facebook

Preparation

Assuming you’ve already collected a drawer full of empty pill bottles; you’ll need to do a couple of things to prepare them for recycling projects.

• Remove the labels. Nobody needs to know what medications you have been taking.  A citrus based cleaner, some vinegar or a good soapy soaking will usually remove any residue adhesive from those pesky labels.

• Thoroughly wash and dry the pill bottles.

• Sort them by size, color, clarity (but only if you’re really compulsive)

Pill Bottle Uses

1. Pill Cups. Why clutter the dinner table with your pill bottles when you can place your evening dose in a pill cup instead? Pill cups also sit nicely on the breakfast tray. With a trusted set of PVC pipe cutters, you can quickly turn a pill bottle into two easy to use, semi-disposable pill cups. The trick to cutting the bottles in half without shattering them is to apply pressure with the pipe cutters, slowly turn the bottle scoring it until a cut begins, then rachetting down on the cutter to complete the cut.
2. Coin Holders. Tired of rummaging through the ash tray in the car for coins to feed the parking meter? Do you have that “special place” in the bedroom/bathroom that coins pile up when you empty your pockets? Various sized pill bottles will quickly tidy up your coin collection and make it useful! Quarters, nickels, dimes, even pennies sort neatly into most bottles. The larger wide mouth bottles are great for dumping handfuls of change.
3. Rubber bands. Make recycling your rubber bands even easier by cleaning out that kitchen drawer and putting them into a pill bottle. Then, next time you need one, it will be easy to find! This works pretty well for hair bands in the bathroom too.
4. Tackle Box. You could become the uber-recycler and create your own fishing floats from the empty bottles by devising some clever way to attach your line to the bottle. Be careful poking holes in the bottle though because they’ll fill up with water and maybe sink. Of course, if you figured out the clever way to attach the line and then filled them with sand, they’d be weights great for bottom fishing (and lead free!). Less engineering is necessary, however, to use the pill bottles to hold sinkers, swivels, loose hooks, small lures, fishing flies, and the like. Pretty much anything in the tackle box that originally came in a flimsy plastic bag can be repacked and neatly labled in a pill bottle. A large, wide-mouth pill bottle can be recycled into pocket tackle boxes with a little planning. Extra fishing line can be wrapped around a cut-down popcycle stick or wrapped around the outside of the pill bottle
5. Toothpick dispensers. Tired of that half-empty toothpick box spilling it’s contents all over the cabinet every time you pick it up? Take a pill bottle long enough to hold the toothpicks with the cap on. Carefully drill a hole in the cap to shake a toothpick out when you need it.
6. Toolbox Organizers. Washers, small screws, extra drill or screwdriver bits all seem to get misplaced when you really need them. Pop them into a pill bottle and they can’t escape.
7. Arts & Craft Organizers. Sort beads,glitter, sequins, googly eyes, dangles and doodads to keep them organized and handy. The rule of thumb is that if it comes in a plastic bag, it’s going to get lost. Pill bottles are geenrally clear enough to see through so you might not even need to label them.
8. Arts & Crafts Projects. Schools, youth groups and kids with proper parental supervision can reuse empty pill bottles (and film canisters) in a variety of arts and crafts projects. A quick search of the World Wide Web yields a variety of plans and ideas. Key Word Search: film canister and pill bottle crafts
9. Pocket Sewing Kit. Pins, safety pins, needles, and a few buttons easily fit into a small pill bottle and can be slipped into your pocket, purse, glove box or backpack. Various color threads can be wrapped around a piece of popcycle stick.
10. Recycle Them! “Wait!” you say, “They’re not made out of the right plastic to dump them in my blue recyling bin.” Sadly, most municipal recycling programs can’t or won’t recycle pill bottles (number 5 plastics). But all is not lost! RecycleChicken has several listings of recycling programs in Michigan that take #5 plastics as well as pill bottles specifically.  Local charitable service organizations may collect the empty pill bottles for medical missions to poorer countries where they are acceptable. Finally, ask your pharmicist if they participate in an empty pill bottle program of any type.

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

Share on Facebook

Tiffany Hoffman and HighlightsKids will show you how to bring out your inner child while creating gum wrapper chains.  These can be made in bracelets, necklaces, and even Christmas and other holiday decorations. Here’s how to do it.

	1.  Open the chewing gum wrapper.  For obvious reasons, printed wrappers are desired as they make interesting chains.
	2.  Crease in the middle and tear in half along the length.  Wetting the crease with your tongue helps but it not necessary.
	3.  Fold the wrapper half lengthwise, in half.
	4.  Open and fold one edge of the wrapper in towards the center fold line you just created in step 3.
	5.  Fold the other edge in towards the center.
	6.  Fold in half along the length.
	7.  Fold the wrapper from step 6 in half.
	8.  Then fold the ends in toward the center.
	9.  Repeat steps 1 through 8.  Step 8 creates a folded wrapper with slots.  Slide the prongs of the first wrapper into these tabs.
	10.  Keep adding links to the chain.

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

An average restaurant can produce 150,000 pounds of garbage each year.  The goal of green restaurant certification is to encourage food service facilities to move toward the goal of becoming zero-waste, through reducing waste output, increasing stock of reusable items, and recycling and composting what is left.  You’re already recycling in your home and now you can eat out without wondering what’s going to happen to that wine bottle when you leave the table.

Green Certified Restaurants are required to recycle:

Dine Green also has a search engine that allows diners to find green restaurants in their area. This allows you to easily find restaurants in your area that are active recyclers.

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

Share on Facebook

This tutorial shows how to transform all of those plastic grocery bags you have lying around into a really cool reusable tote.  By fusing bags together a durable plastic fabric is created that can be sewn into a really trendy tote. Made: A Creative Collection will show you how to create your own custom bag that can be used for just about anything once you master the art of ironing plastic there are endless possibles for what you can create.  We are showing a grocery tote here but if you get those creative juices flowing you may come up with other great uses for this plastic fabric, so grab that pile of bags and get sewing.

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

Share on Facebook

In looking for ways to save money, mom entrepreneur, Tina Beatty came up with the first designs for her new line of reusable snack packing  gear — Eco Lunch Gear.

The designs are fresh looking and extremely easy to use. While hand washing will extend their life the best, you can also toss them in with the regular kitchen towels and they’ll keep on working for you.

RecycleChicken staff have been reviewing them and find them even better performers than expected. They’re fun, they’re easy and best of all they’ll save you money!

Save money, wrap and reuse!

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

Share on Facebook