Health & Fitness
Every Little Bit Helps
Recycle the little things like receipts, greeting cards and plastic caps. It makes a bigger impact than people think.
Ever give your pop tab to charity? Recycle a receipt? Leave a plastic cap on a bottle you recycle?
Rest assured these efforts make a difference. If you recycle your aluminum can, you can easily keep the tab on and it will be recycled. However, if you donate the tab to a charity, such as the Ronald McDonald House or the Shiners, know that it will also be recycled. Every 100 tabs is worth about four cents but the collection of them for charity serves several purposes which include publicity for the charity, a community effort and some funds for the charity.
Consider a grocery receipt or a greeting card. Each of these items is small in comparison to the mail we receive or the newspaper we read. Yet, they can be recycled as easily. In the United States, we purchase 7 billion cards a year, while most weigh less than an ounce, if all of them were recycled; we would recover over 200,000 tons of paper!
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The tiny cap on the water bottle may seem insignificant, but when you consider 50 billion bottles are made each year, those caps start to add up. This is only the water bottles. There are caps on laundry bottles, soda bottles, pill and spice bottles. The best way for these to be recovered and made into new plastic items is to leave them on the container when you place it in your recycling bin.
The next time you think your efforts may not make a difference, consider the impact of these small items. Recycle all the items you can, all the time and rest assured that it truly does make a great impact. If you don’t have curbside collection at home or at the office, remember that Will County partners with townships, cities and park districts to offer drop-off sites. All current sites and their hours of operation are listed on willcountygreen.com under the green guide tab.
