America Recycles Day & a Giveaway

This giveaway has ended. Thanks to all that entered!!
Today is America Recycles Day! Today is dedicated to educating and encouraging everyone to recycle and purchase recycled goods. Recycling has become so much easier than in the past. 20 years ago there were only 1,000 curbside recycling programs and now there are over 10,000!!

Here are a few recycling tips that you may or may not know:

Cleanliness: Make sure you wash out all plastic bottles and cans and keep boxes dry. This will cut down recycling costs, which are already high!

What can’t be recycled:

  • Pizza boxes are not ok to recycle. Since they have been contaminated with food and can’t be washed, they can’t be reused. You can always keep the top of the box for art projects with your little ones. They make great canvases and can also be used under paints to keep your kiddos mess to a minimum.
  • Make sure you take off every cap or lid! If you do not take off the cap, the bottle will be trashed since the workers don’t have the time to take off every cap/lid. Most lids are made out of different plastics than their bottles and have to be separated. Caps can also damage the machines used in the recycling process, so most recycling centers do not take them. You can save them and take them to Aveda for them to reuse in their products.
  • Trash bags and grocery bags cannot be recycled in bins. You can take them to your local market for their own recycling program.
  • Styrofoam, ceramics, wax paper, light bulbs and food soiled paper are also not recyclable.


What can be recycled: Steel cans, aluminum cans, milk jugs, newspapers, magazines, phone books, junk mail, plastic bottles, glass bottles and jars, cereal boxes, plastic toys, and other clean dry cardboard boxes. If you break down shipping boxes, they will be accepted.

Check out this video on the recycling process… it’s pretty cool.

The Giveaway: Little Green Books would like to help raise awareness about recycling by giving away 2 “The Adventures of an Aluminum Can” and 2 “The Adventures of a Plastic Bottle.” I did a review several months ago and you can read it here about these amazing books! The 2 lucky winners will also receive “Santa Claus Is Green.” I will be back in a few with that review!

Rules: You have until 11:59 p.m. EST November 29, 2009 to enter. The winner will be chosen by random.org and announced after they respond to the winning email. The winner has 48 hours to respond to the winning email, or a new winner will be chosen. You must leave your email address! This contest is open only to the US


How to Enter: Take the America Recycles Pledge and tell me 1 recycling tip that I didn’t mention. Make sure to leave your email address!! I cannot contact the winner without it!

EXTRA entries: You must complete the “How To Enter” before making any extra entries. Make sure you leave a comment for each extra entry and tell me which one.


2. Become a fan of Mkokopelli on FB, Mkokopelli on Twitter, or Follow my blog
3. Subscribe to my blog by email (on the right sidebar) You must verify and be active at the time of the giveaway- those who are unverified will become disqualified
4. Blog, Tweet or send a message on FB and leave a link here (3 extra entries total)
5. Enter another giveaway I have going on and tell me which one or leave a comment on a non-giveaway post
6. Go to Little Green Books Recycling Activities and tell me 1 of the answers to the “Don’t Throw That Away” activities
7. Go to Keep America Beautiful and look up where you can recycle batteries near you. Tell me the store that accepts them
8. Subscribe to the RSS Feed of the Little Green Blog

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72 thoughts on “America Recycles Day & a Giveaway”

  1. Wraps from cases of soda may be put in recycle bins with plastic bags at markets that accept plastic bags for recycling.

    Thanks for the chance to win these awesome books!

    lmarston AT yahoo DOT com

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  6. Hazardous wastes must be recycled or dealt with separately…

    I actually work for a recycling company, and let me say the rules vary from place to place. It's important to know what's done in YOUR area. Some recycling plants do mixed recycling, where EVERYTHING goes in one chute and is sorted out by machinery. At our place, we don't do glass, but leaving caps on is not a big deal…

    janemaritz at yahoo dot com

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  9. You should check with your child's school too. Many schools participate in plastic bag recycling (and earn money for it) as well as ink cartridge recycling (again, more money for schools) janainmontana (at) yahoo (dot) com

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  12. I signed the pledge.

    I have a few recycling tips:

    This isn’t necessarily recycling, but everyone should check their cardboard items or cans for those school programs (like Box Tops or the Campbell’s program). I try to get them beforehand, but sometimes those coupons make their way into the recycle bin.

    I recommend checking with your local recycle center about the pizza boxes. I know that ours does take pizza boxes. Like you mentioned, they don’t want the food on it so they recommend just recycling the top.

    Also, in our area we have a local business that helps support the handicap they make products from the number 5 (I think) plastic containers. It is in the next county over and our county does accept the number 5 plastic, but I try to set a few aside each month to take over to this business.

    footejennifer at hotmail.com

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  16. Cool! I learned that Glass beverage containers can be recycled over and over again. But they can also be used for other things you may not expect. Like roads. Marbles. Decorative tiles. Surfboards. And a host of other products and materials.

    honey2mommy(at)gmail (d0t)com

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  17. I took the pledge. If you are not sure about a plastic container that is not marked you can always call the manufacturer at their number on the bottle. Hopefully that will encourage them to make items that are able to be recycled.
    wmmahaney(at)att(dot)net

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  23. For the 'Don't throw that away' activity – cardboard boxes make fantastic baby beds (dolls) for toddlers. This what my daughter has taught me 😀 Any kind of container can be made into a bed for her baby!

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  48. Did not know that about lids…also: Hazardous wastes have their place
    Household hazardous wastes like paint cans, motor oil, antifreeze, car batteries, pesticides, pool chemicals, etc., usually need to be disposed of separately. Again, check your community resources and guidelines.

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