You wouldn’t expect to fit more than a few dollars in the back of today’s flat-screen televisions, but TVs of yesteryear with their bulky backs full of tubes and cords were apparently another option for consumers who have a tendency to stash away money. You know, if their box springs were already full: More than $100,000 was recently found hidden inside an old TV at a recycling plant. [More]
recycling
Goodwill Has A Use For That Pile Of Amazon Boxes In Your Garage
By 12.21.16 — Updated: 12.22.16
If you’ve been shopping online a lot this holiday season or just in general, you probably have a lot of cardboard boxes in your house that you don’t need. You could break them down and recycle them, or you could fill them with crap around the house that you don’t need and make someone else recycle them. [More]
We Throw $62 Million Worth Of Coins In The Trash Every Year
By 10.13.16 — Updated: 12.29.16
The ash that’s left after incinerating garbage is not pleasant to look at or smell, but it’s still very valuable. How? The massive furnace leaves behind metal, including coins. It turns out that we throw away a lot of coins, as well as the occasional diamond ring or Chuck E. Cheese’s token. [More]
Man Tries The ‘Seinfeld’ Michigan Bottle Deposit Scam In Real Life, Fails
By 7.26.16
Fans of classic ’90s TV and wacky schemes may remember an episode of the show Seinfeld where a character hauls soda bottles from New York to Michigan to redeem them for the deposits. There, the redemption rate is 10 cents per item, while it’s only five in New York. By collecting bottles and cans in New York and redeeming them in Michigan, they could cash in. Now a man from Michigan is accused of trying that scheme in real life. [More]
Our Growing E-Commerce Addiction Means Mountains Of Cardboard
By 2.16.16
It’s a great accomplishment of modern logistics and technology that we’re able to order a case of toilet paper once have new ones magically re-appear on our doorsteps every few months, but the amazing convenience of shopping online has a cost in addition to credit card bills. Shopping online means cardboard boxes, plastic wrap, and other protective packaging is used once and then thrown away, and delivery trucks visit individual houses instead of malls. [More]
Judge Overturns NYC Ban On Foam Containers
By 9.23.15
New York City’s ban on plastic foam containers — what you may call styrofoam — didn’t live for long after going into effect this summer: a judge overturned the prohibition on foam takeout containers, coffee cups, egg cartons and other vessels, saying the city hadn’t fully explored cost-effective recycling methods. [More]
H&M Offering $1M Prize Every Year For Best Clothes-Recycling Idea
By 8.26.15
In a shopping culture where it’s easy to find something you like, when you want it, for a price that’s on the cheaper side, many of us end up simply chucking clothes we don’t want when we buy replacements. In an effort to combat that “disposable” clothing culture, H&M is offering up a $1 million prize every year for the best idea on how to recycle those unwanted garments, and keep them out of the trash. [More]
H&M Sells Customers’ Old Clothes Back To Them As Recycled Denim
By 8.21.15
A few years ago, H&M was caught destroying unsold clothing to discourage dumpster-divers, enraging people, especially if they were already opponents of fast fashion. A few years later, the Swedish chain did the exact opposite: they offered customers a discount for their old clothes, and promised to recycle those old duds into rags, insulation, or even new clothes. Now, three years later, you can theoretically buy your old clothes back from H&M in denim form. [More]
California Says Alleged Recycling Scam Trucked In Bottles & Cans From Arizona For $14M In Illegal Refunds
By 5.8.15
It might just be a bunch of bottles and cans, but when you get enough recyclables together it can mean a hefty wad of cash. California authorities say a group involved in an alleged illegal recycling scheme was flush with $14 million in refunds after trucking roughly 250 million cans and bottles from out of state and redeeming them. [More]
Apple Now Accepting Android, BlackBerry & Windows Phone Trade-Ins For Credit Toward iPhones
By 3.30.15
As predicted a few weeks ago, a new report says Apple is now going to accept smartphones and PCs from other manufacturers and give owners a discount on new iPhones. [More]
GameStop Dumpster Diver Accuses Employees Of Deliberately Destroying Usable Products
By 3.16.15
Stuff breaks, and sometimes you have to throw it out. That’s life. However, when a dumpster diver discovered a batch of games and equipment thrown away outside of a GameStop store, he was angry when he discovered that many of the items had been deliberately destroyed. Why scratch up games that could be donated to a hospital games room or some other place where people in need could have fun? [More]
California Authorities Stepping Up Efforts To Combat Cardboard Thefts
By 2.12.15
While you’ve heard of people swiping copper pipes or hauling away scrap metal to trade it in for cold hard cash, perhaps not so familiar to many is the crime of stealing cardboard set out for recycling and trash collectors. In California, authorities are now trying to cut down on the thefts, which could end up costing residents and shopkeepers by way of higher collection rates. [More]
Seattle Will Start Charging $1 Compost Fee For Too Much Food Waste In The Trash
By 9.24.14
The residents of Seattle will soon be busy staring intently into their trash cans. Or at least that’s what I’d be doing if I lived there, because the Seattle City Council just okayed a new rule that amounts to $1 fines for anyone chucking away too much food waste or compostable paper products. [More]
Would You Like To Be Able To Buy A Big Mac With Empty Soda & Beer Cans?
By 8.29.14
Got a hankering for a Big Mac but don’t want to spend the money? Your recycling bin may hold the key to sating your special sauce craving… or it would if you were living in Sweden. [More]
What Should I Do With This Used Child Car Seat?
By 10.21.13
The good news is that advancements in child safety seat technology mean that the products we depend on to protect our tiniest citizens from injury in a car crash are getting safer all the time. The bad news is that these advancements, and close monitoring of child safety products, mean that car seats are getting outmoded or recalled for safety reasons all the time. Where do old seats that can’t be reused end up? The trash, of course. [More]
Oregon Zoo’s Dazzling Array Of Waste Bins Knows You Better Than You Know Yourself
By 9.20.13
Recycling is a good thing. It’s such a good thing that there are places where you really have no choice but to recycle unless you want to be deliberately jerky about it. Have you met Portland? [More]
How A Recycled Glass Bottle Becomes Another Glass Bottle
By 6.19.13
Have you always wondered what happens to glass containers after the recycling truck scoops them up from the curb? The crack GIF-making team at NPR’s Planet Money visited a plant in New Jersey that’s now able to take glass bottles and turn them into something other than sparkly construction materials. In a series of animations, they take readers through the whole process. [Planet Money] [More]
When You Cut Trash Collection To Every Two Weeks, Parents Will Still Find A Way To Get Rid Of Dirty Diapers
By 5.20.13
In Oct. 2011, Portland, Oregon, switched from weekly trash pickups to an every other week system, which is fine for many people who probably just needed to invest in another garbage can or two to hold that additional refuse. Additionally, the city had a weekly pickup for recycling and its new composting program, so smelly bottles, cans, and food scraps were being hauled away every seven days. But some parents of babies with stinky diapers are not waiting for that next garbage truck to swing by, and are instead tossing out the dirty diapers with the recycling. [More]
