RSS

Recycling Guidance

Recycle, Reuse, Reduce

Recycling helps our environment tremendously by saving room in our landfills and reducing energy needed to create new products. 

Here's what you can recycle:
  1. Paper:  This includes newspaper and everything that comes in it, magazines, colored paper and all junk mail that is delivered to your home.
  2. Plastic:  All hard plastics labeled with numbers 1 through 7 including nursery pots, yogurt containers and even toys are recyclable!
  3. Metal:  Steel, aluminum, aluminum foil etc. are all recyclable. 
  4. Glass:  All food & beverage containers
  5. Cardboard:  Flattened boxes
Here's what you can't:
  1. Batteries:· Batteries contain heavy metals like mercury, nickel, lead and cadmium, which can contaminate the environment if improperly disposed of.
  2. Styrofoam:
  3. Waxed Cardboard:
To go above and beyond simply recycling try rinsing out all food and drink containers and flatten all cardboard boxes.  Doing this reduces the amount of time it takes for items to go through the cleaning and breakdown process at the recycling plant.  Reducing this time reduces the amount of financial resources needed to pay for this time.

DID YOU KNOW?
PAPER
  • More space can be saved in our landfills by recycling paper products than any other materials.
  • Each piece of paper can be recycled up to 5 times before the fibers become weak.
  • Every day 44 million newspapers are thrown away in the trash.  That's the equivalent of throwing 500,000 trees in the landfill every week.
  • Each ton of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil and 7,000 gallons of water.
  • If each person were to reuse a paper shopping bag for just one trip to the store, we would save 60,000 trees.
ALUMINIUM
  • It takes about 95% less energy to make aluminum from recycled aluminum than to make it from raw materials.
  • Recycling a single aluminum can saves enough energy to power your television for three hours or to run a 100-watt light bulb for almost four hours.
  • aluminum dumped into our landfills today will remain there for over 200 years.
 
PLASTICS
  • Plastic bags made from recycled polythene rather than virgin materials save two thirds of the energy required for production and reduce the water used by almost 90%.
  • Recycling is still important however, because there are many items that can be made from recycled plastics. These items include garbage cans, picnic tables, fiber-fill for vests and jackets, traffic cones and many others. 5 Purchasing items such as these that are made from recycled materials will help to further support this industry.
  • Although food and yard trimmings are biodegradable these often sit for long periods of time unable to be broken down through the plastic bags they are stored in.
 
GLASS:
 
  • Glass is 100% recyclable and can go from the recycling bin to a store shelf in as little as 30 days!
  • Glass can be reused an infinite number of times.
  • Recycling one ton of glass saves the equivalent of nine gallons of fuel oil and one sixth of a ton of carbon dioxide!
  • Making a glass container from a recycled container creates about 20% less air pollution, 50% less water pollution and uses only about half the energy of making it from virgin materials.
  • Recycling a single glass bottle can save enough energy to light a 100-watt light bulb for 4 hours!
 
STYROFOAM
 
  • Each year Americans throw away 25 trillion Styrofoam cups. This is enough to circle the earth 436 times.
  • Harmful chemicals are released into the atmosphere during the production of Styrofoam. These chemicals have been shown to degrade the Earth’s ozone layer. 10
 
WAXED CARDBOARD
 
  • Waxed cardboard cannot be recycled. It can only be recycled as mixed paper and many recycling plants will not even accept it meaning that it will end up in the trash.
Do you know of any other products that are or aren't recyclable?

Ways To Go Green

You Can Do It

Going “green” doesn’t have to be difficult. Trying to go completely “green” all at once can be overwhelming so why not pledge to go “green” one small step at a time. It will take time to create new habits and getting your household on board will be easier if your changes are made over an extended period of time. Here are just some ways that you can make your business and household more environmentally friendly.
Avoid Bringing It Home
  • Ask for paper grocery bags instead of plastic bags and recycle them.  Better yet, use reusable fabric bags instead. Reusing a paper bag just once can save up to 60,000 trees, imagine how many trees can be saved if we all used reusable bags?
  • Purchase items that have less packaging. Even though it's good, recycling is very difficult because the separation process for the different types of products is labor intensive and not cost efficient.
  • When you go out to eat take your own Tupperware with you to package your leftovers instead of using the restaurant's Styrofoam, tin or plastic disposable containers.
  • Take your own reusable cup with you when you go to the coffee shop.  Most large chains will give you a discount if you take your own cup saving both the environment and money!
In The General Home
  • Use "green" household cleaners to clean your home or make your own natural cleaning products.
  • Recycle
  • Switch your light bulbs to CFL's
  • Fix leaky faucets
  • Use energy efficient appliances with the Energy Star label.
  • Save paper and get paperless statements.  Pay your bills online.
In The Kitchen
  • Instead of using disposable plates and utensils for your daycare and events try using reusable dishes and flatware instead.
Toys
  • Use rechargeable batteries in your toys and other items. Each rechargeable battery can substitute for hundreds of single use batteries.
  • Hard plastic is recyclable so instead of throwing those old or broken toys in the garbage donate them or recycle them.
  • Before buying new toys or games check Craigslist or Freecycle.
Activities
  • Have a box or bin for scrap-paper and let your kids use it for art & craft activities and to color on the back side of the used paper.

100 Greatest Books For Kids

Hooked On Books

Are you having a hard time trying to find and pick out good books for your library?  Parent and Child Magazine compiled a list of 100 greatest  books for kids and here they are.  I have broken down by age:

Ages 0-3
  • Goodnight Moon by E.B. White
  • Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
  • The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
  • Pat the Bunny by Dorothy Kunhardt
  • Courduroy by Don Freeman
  • Black on White by Tana Hoban
  • The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown
  • Freight Train by Donald Crews
  • Moo, Baa, La, La, La! by Sandra Boynton
  • Good Night Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann
  • What Do You See? by Bill Martin
  • Sylvia Long's Mother Goose by Silvia Long
  • Smile! by Roberta Grobel Intrater
  • Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes by Annie Kubler
  • My Truck Is Stuck by Kevin Lewis
  • Counting Kisses: A Kiss and Read Book by Karen Katz
  • Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman
  • Peek-A-Who? Nina Laden
  • Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney
  • No No Yes Yes by Leslie Patricelli
  • Grumpy Bird by Jeremy Tankard
  • What Shall We Do With the Boo Boo Baby? by Cressida Cowell
  • Gossie by Olivier Dunrea
  • First Words by Roger Priddy
Ages 4-7
  • The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack
  • Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
  • The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
  • Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans
  • The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds
  • Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale by Mo Willems
  • The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper
  • Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems
  • The Mitten by Jan Brett
  • Swimmy by Leo Lionni
  • The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear by Don & Audrey Wood
  • What Do People Do All Day? by Richard Scarry
  • Not a Box by Antoinette Portis
  • Martin's Big Words by Doreen Rappaport
  • The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne
  • Dear Juno by Soyung Pak
  • The Lion & the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney
  • Birds by Kevin Henkes
  • Blackout by John Rocco
  • Owl Moon by Jane Yolen
  • What Do You Do With A Tail Like This? by Steve Jenkins & Robin Page
  • Yoko by Rosemary Wells
  • Interupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein
  • An Egg Is Quiet by Dianna Hutts Aston
  • I Took The Moon For A Walk by Carolyn Curtis
  • Animalia by Graeme Base
Ages 8-10
  • Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
  • Frog and Toad are Friends Arnold Lobel
  • The Wind in the Willow by Kenneth Grahame
  • When Marian Sang by Pam Munoz
  • Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shell Silverstein
  • The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
  • Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
  • My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother by Patricia Polacco
  • The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett
  • Zen Shorts by John J. Muth
  • Matilda by Roald Dahl
  • The Composition by Antonio Skarmeta
  • Sarak, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan
  • Living Sunlight by Molly Bang & Penny Chisholm
  • Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez by Kathleen Krull
  • Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin
  • The Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan
  • The Magic School Bus at the Waterworks by Joanna Cole
  • Tea With Milk by Allen Say
  • Hill Fly Guy by Tedd Arnold
  • Ivy + Bean by Annie Barrows
  • Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume
  • Puss in Boots by Charles Perault
  • We the Kids: The Preamble to the Constitution of the United States by David Catrow
  • The Adventures of Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey
Ages 11+
  • A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
  • Harry Potter and the Scorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
  • The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
  • Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
  • Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbit
  • Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
  • The Giver by Lois Lowry
  • Are You There God?  It's Margaret by Judy Blume
  • The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
  • Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
  • The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
  • Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
  • The Lightning Theif by Rick Riordan
  • Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges
  • The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
  • The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznik
  • Esperenza Rising by Pam Munoz
  • Bridge to Terabithia by Katerine Paterson
  • Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh by Robert C. O'Brien
  • Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russel Freedman
  • Rules by Cynthia Lord
  • Team Moon: How 400,000 People Landed Apollo 11 on the Moon by Catherine Thimmesh
  • A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park
  • Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman