card holiday unique

• YO U R G U I D E TO R EC YC L I N G T H I S H O L I DAY SEASO N • HOLIDAY RECYCLING Table of Contents Gifts Cards Shopping Entertaining Wrapping and Packaging Unwrapping Special Consideration for Electronics Christmas Trees Recycling Locations The Gift That Keeps on Giving 2 2 3 4 Plan this season to reduce your holiday “waste’ line as you shop, entertain and clean up this season. 4 6 6 7 8 • HOL I DAY R EC YC L I N G : T H E G I F T T H AT K EEP S O N G I V I N G • Gifts • Avoid over-packaged gifts. • Buy durable gifts with long-term warranties and avoid disposables. • Purchase re-chargeable batteries for children’s toys. • Season tickets to theatre, sport teams and the symphony are thoughtful gifts that give joy beyond the season and into the New Year. • Memberships to museums, zoo or nonprofit organizations are perfect for families and no packaging required! • Seniors and busy people appreciate a gift from the heart and kitchen. Give a coupon good for a loaf of homemade bread, soup or a dozen cookies. • Reusable lunch bags encourage healthier eating for the New Year. Fill with non-perishable healthy snack items to get your recipient started. • Think about refillable pens. Fountain pens are a must have for the serious writer or journal keeper. • A family recipe book, printed on recycled paper, is a treasure. Wrap in an heirloom apron! • Put together a collage of pictures commemorating a special event, vacation, etc. • A beloved old toy, tricycle, rocking chair, etc. repaired and handed down to the next generation is priceless. • Gift certificates from favorite stores (home improvement, garden, movie rentals, restaurants, etc.) assure your recipient purchases what they want or need. • Home-made gift certificates for baby-sitting, sewing, housecleaning or pulling weeds are a great idea! • If you haven’t already, trim your gift-list by drawing names to reduce the gift-wrap and boxes needed. • Can crusher • Set of recycling bins or a recycling cart • Compost bin • Energy-saving fluorescent light fixture or compact fluorescent bulb that lasts longer than conventional light bulbs • Cloth napkins • Curbside recycling for the year • Diaper service for new parents eliminates disposable diapers • Cloth shopping bag Give a gift to help someone help the environment: Cards • Make your cards from used wrapping paper, old cards and other items found around the home. • Local friends and family can receive a giant edible cookie holiday card; put on a personal greeting with icing. • Email greetings. • Update and pare down your card list. If we each sent one card less, we’d save 50,000 cubic yards of paper. • When you buy cards, purchase those that are reprinted on recycled content paper.  • HOL I DAY R EC YC L I N G : T H E G I F T T H AT K EEP S O N G I V I N G • Shopping Skip the Mall! • Plan your trip to be fuel and time efficient. • Bring your own shopping bags and consolidate purchases into one bag. • Close-the-Loop and buy recycled content. Look for words “post-consumer” recycled content when shopping. Postconsumer content means the product is made from materials collected from curbside and recycling drop-off sites, so the higher the percentage of post-consumer content in a product, the more its purchase helps to “close the loop.” Many beautiful and unique recycled content gifts are available such as: • Writing paper and journals • Fleece gloves and jackets from recycled #1 plastics (soda and water bottles) • Picture frames • Candle holders • Glass jewelry and home accent pieces • Shopping from home using the Internet or catalogs saves energy – gasoline and your own energy. • Don’t forget to recycle shopping catalogs and store inserts. Recycled Content Gifts on the Web A few sites to get started exploring creative ideas to Close-the-Loop http://www.home-eco.com website for Home Eco, a local environmentally friendly home products store, with a wide variety of organic cotton and hemp apparel, art from recycled materials, stationary from recycled paper, recycling bins, composting supplies, rain barrels, solar ovens and other renewable energy products. Located at 4611 Macklind Ave., St. Louis, MO 63109. http://www.eco-artware.com hand-crafted jewelry, personal, home and office accessories, business gifts and custom awards. All are made from recycled, reused and natural materials. http://www.abundantearth.com products, services and information that ultimately work to further the creation of an ecologically sustainable culture. http://www.uncommongoods.com creatively designed and unusual home accessories and gifts. Or Buy Nothing at All! http://www.buynothingchristmas.org/index.html  • HOL I DAY R EC YC L I N G : T H E G I F T T H AT K EEP S O N G I V I N G • Entertaining Planning Serving Buying the right quantity for a holiday dinner can cut down on both expenses and leftovers. At the grocery store – • Buy baking goods in bulk or large volumes. • Buy only containers that can be recycled. • Choose packages made with recycled content. • Use the real stuff! If you don’t have enough dishes for your crowd, borrow from friends and neighbors. • Renting dishes and glasses may be affordable compared to disposables. • Invest in cloth napkins. • Set up festive boxes for recycling beverage cans and bottles. • If you do use disposables, encourage reuse. Wrapping and Packing Gift Wrap and Ribbons Think beyond rolls of gift-wrap and bags of bows and be creative while reducing waste! Here are some ideas: • Use scarves, handkerchiefs or bandanas - two gifts in one! • Have a geography lover? Use an old map or travel poster. • What grandparent doesn’t love kid’s art? Tape all those coloring pages together and design a custom gift-wrap. • Comics and newsprint are fun, and can go right into the recycle bin after unwrapping. Visit a newsstand and buy a foreign paper for the person traveling or studying a new language. • Save brown Kraft paper shopping bags and turn them into gift-wrap. Sponged or printed with color, these bags turn into beautiful and natural looking wrap.  • HOL I DAY R EC YC L I N G : T H E G I F T T H AT K EEP S O N G I V I N G • • Scraps as wrapping! Wallpaper, fabric, magazines, sheet music all make clever gift-wrap. • Rather than wrap the large presents, make it a scavenger hunt, with a series of clues to find the gift. • Give a present wrapped or decorated with a present. • Mittens in the matching scarf • Dish towels for kitchen gifts • A tie or scarf as a ribbon • Hair bows, shoe laces or a jump rope to tie up a package If you buy gift-wrap, try to purchase recycled content Gift Boxes and Bags Packing • Decorate a shoebox and fill with art supplies. • Gift bags are reusable. • If you receive gift boxes, save and reuse them! When worn out, then recycle. • A present in a present: • A pretty basket or wooden box • Cookies in a cute tin • A cake still in the nice new pan Consider these alternatives to new styrofoam and bubble-wrap: • Biodegradable starch packing peanuts • Reuse packing peanuts from previous gifts • Crumpled ads from the newspaper  • HOL I DAY R EC YC L I N G : T H E G I F T T H AT K EEP S O N G I V I N G • Unwrapping Hopefully you followed some of our reduce suggestions when it came to gifts and wrapping, but now as the gifts are exchanged and unwrapped, it’s time to think reuse and recycle by planning ahead with how you will manage all the paper, ribbons and bows: • Save good large pieces of wrapping paper for reuse next year and for craft projects. Fold the gift-wrap carefully and save in a shirt box. • Though it is hard to think about the 2008 Holiday Season, every box saved in 2007, is one less you have to find for next year. • Save bows, ribbons and tissue for reuse or to use in craft projects. • Have recycling bins ready for wrapping paper. If you have single-stream recycling, wrapping paper can go in your curbside bin. • Boxes that can no longer be reused should be broken down for recycling to conserve space. • Save packing peanuts and return to PakMail and UPS Stores. (See recycling section for links to store locations) If every family reused just two feet of holiday ribbon, the 38,000 miles of ribbon saved could tie a bow around the entire planet. Making Room for the New Stuff Share your abundance by donating your good useable books, toys, appliances and clothes to charitable organizations. Before You Pull the Plug  • If you give or receive a new computer or TV for the holidays, consider donating working equipment to charity. • Throwing old electronics away is not environmentally friendly. Go to e-cycle St. Louis website at www.ecyclestlouis.org for a listing of registered collection locations for consumer electronics. • HOL I DAY R EC YC L I N G : T H E G I F T T H AT K EEP S O N G I V I N G • Christmas Trees • Consider buying a potted Norfolk pine, fig tree or indoor houseplant that can be used every holiday season as your evergreen tree. • Purchase a tree from a tree farm rather than cutting one down in the wild. • Use trimmed branches from your tree for decorating around the home or making wreaths. • Consider buying an artificial tree that can be reused every year. • Reuse a live tree for wildlife habitats if you own several acres: • Placed in a field for cover for small animals. • Submerge the tree in a pond or small lake to create fish habitat. DO NOT DUMP your tree into a ravine or along an eroding bank. • Visit Missouri Department of Conservation website at www.mdc.mo.gov for additional ideas to learn how old Christmas trees can benefit wildlife. When you are ready to dispose of your cut tree and you don’t have yard waste collection, here are some commercial composting facilities that will recycle your tree into compost or mulch in addition to other yard waste year round. Residents are encouraged to call and verify information provided below. ORMI Fort Bellefontaine Compost 314-355-0052 $1 per tree 13060 County Park Road 63034 (Hwy 367 and Lindbergh) Mon.- Fri. 7:30am-4:30pm Route  Landscape Supply Center 636-271-3352 $1 per tree 18900 Franklin Road 63069 Mon.- Fri. 7:00am-5:00pm Sat. 9:00am-12:00pm St. Louis Composting 636-861-3344 $1 per tree 2 Locations 1. Valley Park 39 Old Elam Ave. 63088 (Elam Ave and Hwy 141) Mon.- Fri. 7:00am-5:00pm Sat. 7:00am-3:00pm . Maryland Heights 11294 Schaeffer Rd. 63043 Mon.- Fri. 6:00am-4:00pm  • HOL I DAY R EC YC L I N G : T H E G I F T T H AT K EEP S O N G I V I N G • Recycling outlets for the holidays and all year round! (No foil wrap, ribbons or tissue accepted at any of these sites – Reuse for next year!) Eureka Wal-Mart 131 Eureka Town Center Eureka, MO 63025 Earth Circle 1660 S. Kingshighway St. Louis, MO 63110 Florissant Recycling Drop-Off #1 St. Ferdinand Park Drive Florissant, MO 63033 Kirkwood Recycling Depository 350 S. Taylor Ave. Kirkwood, MO 63122 City of Shrewsbury Recycling Center 7309 Melbourne Ave. Shrewsbury, MO 63119 City of St. Louis Refuse Division 24 hours a day Cardboard and gift boxes Wrapping paper, boxes, aluminum cans, cardboard, chipboard, office paper, magazines. Phone books, glass bottles, plastic containers #1,#2, #3, #4, #5, #7, steel “tin” cans and cell phones Corrugated cardboard, newspaper, magazines, office paper, phone books, aluminum, glass, steel cans, plastics #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #7 Wrapping paper, boxes, aluminum cans, office paper, phone books, glass bottles, plastic containers #1,#2, #3, #4, #5, #7, steel “tin”cans, catalogs & magazines (less than 1 ½” in thickness), cell phones and textiles Green, brown, and clear glass, newspaper, magazines, office paper, aluminum cans, steel “tin” cans, telephone books, cardboard, #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #7 plastic containers Wrapping paper, boxes, aluminum cans, mail, office paper, magazines, phone books, glass bottles, plastic containers #1,#2, #3, #4, #5, #7, steel “tin” cans and textiles Wrapping paper, boxes, aluminum cans, mail, office paper, magazines, phone books, glass bottles, plastic containers #1,#2, #3, #4, #5, #7, steel “tin” cans, textiles, cardboard, cell phones and electronics Wrapping paper, newspaper, magazines, catalogues, junk mail, NO boxes or phone books Aluminum cans and bottles Recycling Locations 314-664-1450 Monday - Friday 7 a.m. – 5 p.m. Saturday 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. 314-839-7654 Monday - Friday 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. Saturday - Sunday 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. 314-822-5828 24 hours a day 314-645-7441 Monday - Friday 7:30 a.m. – 4 p.m. Saturday 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. www.stlouis.missouri.org/citygov/recycle Numerous locations. Visit website for address and materials accepted. Not all locations take all materials. 314-505-8581 Monday - Friday 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. 314-381-3700 www.paperretriever.com 314-631-3400 www.recyclechallenge.com University City Recycling Center North Rear Parking Lot Heman Park Community Center 975 Pennsylvania University City, MO 63130 Abitibi Consolidated, Inc. Green and yellow Paper Retriever™ recycling bins at schools and churches Recycle Challenge Blue and yellow aluminum beverage can bins at schools and churches E-Z Mailing Centers, PakMail Stores and UPS Stores Plastic Loose Fill Products Call or visit website for location Packing Peanuts Recycling - no ribbons, wrapping paper or molded foam packaging Check the Yellow Pages for phone number of nearest location. 1-800-828-2214 Call first to make sure the location accepts packing peanuts. Visit www.loosefillpackaging.com/pages/hotline.htm for details