I shared this tip with my clients at the University of Pennsylvania, but I think it is worth sharing again here…

Sustainability Tip #7 – Tis the Season for Recycling

With the holiday season upon us, households will be getting a lot of new things. This means that there will be a lot of old (or not so old) things to get rid of.  For items that cannot be re-used, here are some recycling avenues:

Christmas string lights – holidayLEDs.com – They take old string lights for free and recycle all the parts into new products.  AND, they will send you a 15% off coupon redeemable for new LED lights.

Wine Corks – recork.org – They collect real wine corks and grind them up to make new products, such as flooring and shoe soles. The link takes you to a locator page to find a drop off location near you.

Remote controls, CDs/DVDs, Gaming Controls, etc – Best Buy – Their front-of-store recycling bins take large items like TV’s, VHS and DVD players, but also smaller items like those listed.  The link will take you to a store locator for recycling.

Computer mice, keyboards and other home office waste – Staples and Radio Shack– Staples accepts up to 6 items per customer per day, regardless of where the item was purchased.  They will also do trade-ins, making you an offer and paying with a Staples e-cash card. Radio Shack will give store credit for trade-ins. See the links for more information.

Plastic gift cards – Swipeit.com – Mail them your used gift cards and they will recycle them into new plastic products.  The link provides the address to mail them to.

Flash Drives – RecycleUSB.com – They recycle USB drives into a standalone computer system for children in poorer parts of the world.

Thanks to Dannyseo.com for the links to these companies.