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RECYCLING TIPS FOR EVERYDAY ITEMS
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 HOUSEHOLD:
Republic Services, Las Vegas’ sole trash collection service, also provides a
curbside recycling service. Recycling is picked up every other week on one
of your regular trash days. You can contact Republic at 702-735-5151 to
request the red, white and blue recycling baskets they provide to collect
recyclable materials.
Republic is starting a pilot program
where everything is put into one large
container and then sorted at the plant,
but this is not in widespread use yet.
Below is a list of what can be recycled
in each basket (reprinted from
Republic’s website):
- Red Basket: Aluminum cans, tin cans and plastic bottles. Empty all cans and plastic bottles. Aluminum cans can be crushed and tin cans should be rinsed out. Remove all lids from all plastic soda bottles and milk jugs. Make sure your plastics are recyclable by looking for the recycling symbols that have a 1 or 2 inside the triangle.
- White Basket: Newspapers, telephone books, and magazines. Please remove all strings and rubber bands.
- Blue Basket: Glass bottles. Please rinse bottles. Remove caps. Do not break glass.
IMPORTANT: Keep all glass jars and bottles separate from other recyclables. DO NOT include mirrors, plate glass, chinaware or ceramics.
- Corrugated Cardboard: Flatten cardboard boxes and place them next to the recycling baskets.
Visit Republic’s website at: www.republicservicesvegas.com
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PLASTIC BAGS:
Many grocery stores, including Smith’s and Albertson’s, have bins in the entrance where you can take your plastic bags and recycle them. They can also be repurposed for a variety of things such as lining wastebaskets, cleaning out the cat box and packing for mailing fragile items. |
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 BATTERIES:
Rechargeable batteries and Nicad batteries can be recycled at many
locations around town, including Office
Depot, Radio Shack, Ritz Camera, Black &
Decker, Best Buy, Verizon Wireless,
Circuit City, AT&T Mobility and Lowes.
The bigger problem is recycling those
little alkaline non-rechargeable
batteries that are in everything from
your flashlight to Emily’s talking doll.
There are only two known locations to
locally recycle these batteries, listed below in Table 1:
Table 1: Two names and locations of battery recyclers
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ARC International Corporation |
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4606 Andrews St.
N. Las Vegas, NV 89081
Phone: 702.922.1058
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| Boulder City Disposal |
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2500 South Utah St.
Boulder City 89006
Phone: 702.293.2276
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Fortunately, there is a new online
resource, Battery Solutions, that
recycles all battery types. Check them
out at www.batteryrecycling.com. They
sell pre-paid postage boxes so that you
can collect dead batteries and mail them
in, knowing they will be recycled
safely.
Whatever you do, please don’t toss them!
Batteries contain heavy metals such as
mercury, lead, cadmium, and nickel,
which can contaminate the environment
when left in landfills. When
incinerated, certain metals can be
released into the air or can concentrate
in the ash produced by the combustion
process. (U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency)
Better yet, consider using rechargeable
batteries. This reduces the number of
batteries you need to buy, and they are
easy to recycle locally. |
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COMPUTERS:
Computers have a variety of components that can harm the environment and leech into the water. The Blind Center of Nevada (Table 2) collects and recycles computers, printers and other electronic equipment.
Table 2: The Blind Centers of Nevada
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Items can be dropped off at their location or they will make arrangements to pick up items from homes or businesses for free (depending on the weight) or for a nominal charge.
The Blind Centers of Nevada
1001 No. Bruce Street
Las Vegas, NV 89101
For more information, please go to www.blindcenter.org, or you can call them at 702.642.6000.
You can also send them an e-mail at info@blindcenter.org
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PAPER:
Republic Services will pick up
newspapers and magazines, but those are
just a fraction of the tons of paper
that flood our mailboxes. Don’t forget
the plethora of paper used to wrap, send
and advertise products. And of course
that doesn’t even take into account
commercial business usage. Consider that
every piece of paper represents part of
an oxygen-cleaning tree that has been
cut down, possibly in an unmanaged and
unsustainable way, so that, for example,
a skincare product can be triple wrapped
with instructions in 10 different
languages.
Here’s a way to help: There are
beautiful, inexpensive baskets available
at many stores around town such as
Target, Pier One, World Market and
Walmart. Put one in every bathroom, the
home office and a couple in the kitchen.
Every time you take a new product
(toothpaste, skin care, soap) out of the
box or finish a roll of toilet paper or
box of Kleenex toss the cardboard in the
basket. You can add recyclable plastic
bottles too and separate them out later.
In the office, add envelopes and inserts
from opened mail and other used paper.
In the kitchen, keep one basket for
paper and one for plastic bags. (You can
immediately recycle half your mail when
you sort through it!) Add empty cereal
boxes and food packaging. Then on
recycling day, put everything into a big
shopping bag or Trader Joe’s paper bags
and put it out with the rest of the
recycling. A household of just two
people can accumulate around three big
bags of all kinds of paper every two
weeks. |
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NOTE:
Las Vegas Green List is committed
to the worldwide benefits of recycling
and reusing the many items that are
discarded daily and end up in trash
heaps and landfills.
 In future issues we will be exploring in
depth all the avenues available in Las
Vegas for recycling many items. If you
have questions or resources you’d like
to share, please go the following sections:
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