Now that our holiday hangovers have worn off, you might be looking around your cluttered pad, itching to kick-start an “out with the old” resolution. I know I am. That’s why it’s perfect timing to dip into my Ecoholic question bag and pull out lingering inquiries about how to get rid of random stuff the green way.
By the way, there’s still no great local way to get rid of old clothes that are unfit to donate, other than expanding your rag collection, making arm warmers out of old socks or learning how to crochet or braid a rag rug. The school board’s Artsjunktion at 380 Ossington, accepts fabric remnants and other bits if they’re workable for crafts, but your old underwear has nowhere to go but the dump.
Q: What is the safest way to dispose of leftover hair spray, hand lotion and perfume?
A: A bottle of perfume, hands down, counts as hazardous waste, so bring it to a municipal depot or wait to drop it off at your local Environment Day. Aerosol cans of hairspray can go in the recycling bin in this town (though they are considered haz waste elsewhere.)
Most women’s shelters only want donations of new toiletries, not half-empty ones. What’s your safest bet for stuff like old shampoo or lotion? Please, don’t just dump it all down the toilet. We don’t need more trace PPCP pollutants (pharmaceutical and personal care product contaminants, for those of you not monitoring water quality issues for a living) in our water supply. If your bottle is too full to just place in recycling, I recommend dumping the contents into a leakproof bag that goes in the garbage and recycling the container.
Q: Is there a local company that recycles CDs and DVDs?
A: These days you can hunt down a small handful of electronics recyclers in the city that say they’ll accept your music and movie fossils, but Turtle Island told me they just dump ‘em. Another recycler says the shredded plastic might end up getting incinerated for energy (not exactly a favoured Ecoholic option).
I did find one recycler, ADL Process Electronics Recycling, that will properly recycle your old CDs and DVDs. Once the company collects a few thousand pounds, they send the shipment to our favoured GreenDisk recyclers in the U.S. It’s better than thousands of people sending 1-pound shipments, and no one nearer seems to be transforming old polycarbonate plastic into new items. Did I mention they’ll take ‘em for free? Make your way to 500 Keele, unit 205, for drop-off.
Oh wait, Artsjunktion will transform old discs into new items – they give ’em to students to turn into, well, anything with a glue stick and markers.
Q: Is there anywhere to recycle CFLs?
A: If your compact fluorescents have already burnt out, chances are you put them in an enclosed fixture without looking for specially marked CFLs, your wiring is old or you bought low-quality bulbs. In any case, you want to make sure the mercury in your bulbs gets properly recycled into new bulbs, so bring your old ones to customer service desks at Canadian Tire, Home Depot, somewhat inconvenient Ikea or a municipal waste transfer station. Sorry, no one is recycling old incandescent bulbs. Those go straight into the trash. Or put them in a museum.
Q: Where can I recycle a broken backpack?
A: Once the zipper goes on technical gear like a ski jacket, tent or backpack, most of us assume it’s junk that even Goodwill won’t want. But stop! There’s no need to toss any of your beaten-down camping, sports or technical gear when there’s a place in town that specializes in fixing it. Go to the Sport Sewing Shop on Gerrard just west of Woodbine. Just don’t bring them jeans to hem.
Got a question?
Send your green queries to ecoholic@nowtoronto.com
