Americans throw away 300 million pairs of shoes each year1. These will take between 30 and 40 years to decompose1. Recycling athletic shoes separates each material — rubber, foam, fiber, leather, and textile blends2. The materials go into a range of products, including new footwear, apparel, and sports playing surfaces2.
Recycling your athletic shoes is easy if you live near a participating store. You just need to remember to turn in your old pair when you buy a new one. Even more brands have donation programs for shoes that are in good condition.
The Reuse-A-Shoe program collects Nike and Converse brands and has drop-off locations at most of their stores. You can mail in the shoes if you cannot drop them off. However, the program does not pay for shipping.
Columbia's ReThreads program collects all their worn products for recycling, including shoes. You can drop items off at one of Columbia's stores. Items that are still wearable will be donated, while unwearable items will be recycled into insulation, carpet padding, toy stuffing, and fabrics. The program is available at US stores and outlets.
The adidas Make Every Thread Count program collects sports apparel and athletic shoes of any brand. However, the program is in its pilot stage. As of the date of this article, they only have 7 drop-off locations worldwide.
The world pops more than 13 billion corks from bottles each year1. Recycling would keep them from taking up landfill space. Used cork can be ground to
replace petroleum-based materials in our everyday products2,
be mixed with recycled paper to create shipping material3, and
become a floor insulator.
How easy is it to recycle corks?
You have two options for cork recycling — find a drop-off location or use a mail-in location that provides a prepaid shipping label.
ReCORK has several drop-off locations in the US. The website has an option to alert them if there is no location near you.
Whole Foods Market has partnered with Cork Reharvest to recycle used corks collected in their stores.
Recorked UK has drop-off locations in the UK. This organization is currently seeking new business participants to collect corks.
CORKCLUB collects corks via shipments. You fill a box and they provide a prepaid shipping label. The program donates up to 2 cents per cork to Forest and Ocean Conservation.
We send more than half a million pounds of crayons to the landfill every year. The Crayon Initiative remanufactures crayons and donates them to children's hospitals.
All you must do is mail the crayons to the recycling organization. You do not even need to take off the wrappers. In fact, the organizations can sort colors more easily with wrappers on. Unfortunately, you will have to pay for shipping.
Capri Sun alone manufactures at least 1.4 billion juice pouches each year. That means that millions, and probably over a billion, juice pouches end up in the landfill annually. Juice pouches have aluminum foil between two layers of plastic. Standard recycling plants cannot separate these layers.
We found two juice pouch mail-in programs, both from TerraCycle. Both programs provide free shipping labels, but one requires you to buy a special box.
The TerraCycle and Honest Kids program provides you with a prepaid shipping label. Unfortunately, at the time of this article the recycling program was full and not accepting new members.
Zero Waste Box by TerraCycle requires you to buy a special box used for collection and shipping. At the time of this article, the smallest box cost $62. As with all TerraCycle programs, you can earn points for your school or charity.
Recycling markers is easiest for schools, which can use Crayola's ColorCycle program. Otherwise, you must find or sign up to be a marker collection center. Both programs below provide prepaid shipping labels.
Crayola ColorCycle accepts all brands of markers. The program collects large amounts of markers from K-12 schools. The program provides pre-paid shipping labels, and you can use any sturdy cardboard box for mailing.
The TerraCycle program collects all writing instruments. The UK program provides the collection location with a prepaid shipping label. The US program requires you to buy a Zero Waste Box, a special pouch or box used for collection and shipping. At the time of this article, the smallest pouch cost $42. As with all TerraCycle programs, you can earn points for your school or charity.
Cost-effectiveness. Your mattress recycling costs will be about the same as other mattress disposal costs. Some mattress recycling companies and nonprofits do not charge a fee. Connecticut, California, and Rhode Island fund recycling by collecting a mattress disposal fee at the time of purchase1.
Creates jobs. The growing mattress recycling industry is creating new jobs. The Connecticut, California, and Rhode Island mattress recycling programs created about 200 jobs in a year2.
Saves landfill space. Mattress trash entering the landfill is harder to compact than other items, so it takes up more room. Each mattress takes up about 23 cubic feet of landfill space3.
How easy it is to recycle mattresses depends on your manufacturer, local mattress store, and municipality. Some manufacturers and stores offer take-away and trade-in programs. Many municipalities will schedule a mattress pickup date and time with you.
America alone sends about 100 million tennis balls to landfills every year. Each tennis ball takes 450 years to decompose1. The company reBounces recycles tennis balls to provide cushioning for tennis court surfaces. If we recycled all our tennis balls, we could surface 10,000 courts each year2. Recycle Balls grinds tennis balls for use in a variety of new products3.
How easy is it to recycle tennis balls?
The recycling process is easy, but you may have to pay for shipping depending on the program.
reBounces accepts mailed tennis balls for recycling. The program once provided prepaid shipping labels, but the response was so successful that they cannot continue doing so. You can ship as few or as many balls as you would like.
Recycle Balls has programs for individuals, organizations, and "champions". Individuals can get a prepaid label, but you must send 100 balls at once. Organizations receive a no-cost program that includes collection bins, posters, and ongoing support. Champions are high school or college players that rally their communities to collect and recycle tennis balls. The program offers a letter of reference and a sponsor package. Recycle Balls programs are not available in Alaska or Hawaii.
Around 40% of Americans use home water treatment units1. Even if everyone changed their filters only once a year, this amounts to about 129.24 million water filters potentially going to the landfill.
Water filters have three materials — plastic, carbon, and ion exchangers. The plastic can be used in new products, the carbon in wastewater treatment, and the ion exchangers in new water filters2. Some material can be recycled into concrete aggregate for infrastructure3.
Many water filter brands have a recycling program that provides prepaid labels. Some programs require you to collect a certain number of filters before sending. Search your manufacturer's website if its program is not listed below.
TerraCycle's water filter recycling programs collect name brand water filters. The programs provide a prepaid shipping label. As with all TerraCycle programs, you can earn points for your school or charity. Each water filter brand has a separate program. You can sign up for BRITA, PUR, and Everpure water filters. The BRITA and PUR programs collect other water filter-related products as well, such as pitchers.
Whole Foods Market collects BRITA water filters in their stores for recycling.
g2 revolution's Whirlpool program collects Whirlpool refrigerator water filters. You must purchase an $8.99 recycling kit, which comes with a 20% discount on your next water filter purchase.
