A Great Deal More..... Recycling!

Welcome!

We are so excited to officially launch our quarterly recycling newsletter! Our goal is to highlight unique recycling opportunities in our area, share recycling education from sources both within and outside the city, and assist with day to day recycling around our community.  

Educate Me!

This Article is provided by Residential Waste Systems.

Recycling Tips for Beginners

Recycling is one of the best things that you can do for the environment. It helps convert old items into something new again! Do you know what you can and cannot recycle around the house? Recycling doesn’t have to be difficult — here are a few recycling tips to help you recycle more and waste less.

Paper & Cardboard

Newspaper, paper bags from grocery shopping, magazines, catalogs, junk mail, white paper, colored paper and phone books are all common paper and cardboard recyclables. However, don’t stop there! You can even recycle paperback books, flattened cardboard boxes, milk cartons, juice cartons, cereal boxes, and other cardboards!

Note: Pizza boxes cannot be recycled because of the grease on the cardboard.

Glass

Do you have any empty glass bottles and jars lying around the house? Those can be recycled. Pick up any empty beer bottles, wine bottles, pickle jars and mason jars — these can all be added into your recycling bin.

Note: Drinking glasses and light bulbs cannot be recycled.

Plastic

Drinking plenty of water? Recycle the plastic bottles afterwards! All plastics #1-7 can be put out with your recycling. This means not just empty Poland Spring bottles, but also laundry detergent bottles, ketchup bottles leftover from your BBQ, jugs of milk and more.

Note: Containers that hold toxic chemicals, like motor oil, antifreeze and paint cannot be recycled.

Aluminum

Aluminum is commonly used in many household products. From hairspray to cans of soup to bug repellent, chances are you have plenty of aluminum in your home. Put these containers out with your regular recycling pickup.

Pro tip: If you find that laziness sometimes gets the best of you, keep a separate recycling bin right in your kitchen! This is a simple way to make recycling easy. You’ll be more apt to recycle when the bin is right there in front of you.

This article can be found at https://residentialwastesystems.com/blog/recycling-tips-beginners/

Where do I Recycle This?

Light Bulbs!

Let's Think Outside the Can!

City employee Cameron Coronado shares a new step that city employee's are taking to better our environment, maybe it's something you can do too!

There are many reasons why city staff loves working for Lynnwood. City employees have dedicated their careers to benefit the community members of Lynnwood. Besides our fulfilling work, there are other perks of working at Lynnwood like access to our Recreational Center and having Fred Meyer right next door. Many employees use their breaks to shop at Fred Meyer to pick up groceries and other items. In doing so, we have seen a lot of plastic bags making their way from Fred Meyer and into City Hall.

In an effort to be more sustainable, the city's Environmental and Surface Water team in coordination with our Healthy Communities division has created a solution to the problem. We now have reusable bags in all of our break rooms and encourage staff to use them. Not only will our employees be helping our environment but they will be doing so in style!

Why are plastic bags so bad you ask?

• Plastic bags start out as fossil fuels and end up as deadly waste in the environment
• It takes 500 years or more for a plastic bag to degrade. These bags don’t fully break down either, they become microplastics that continue to pollute the environment
• Americans use 100 billion plastic bags a year which requires 12 million barrels of oil to produce
• The average American takes home approximately 1,500 plastic shopping bags per year
• Only 1% of plastic bags are returned for recycling
• 100,000 marine animals are killed by plastic bags annually
• 60% of all seabirds have plastics in their stomachs
• Dead whales are often found with stomachs full of plastic

Recycling Collection Event

Boy Scouts Christmas Tree Collection

Every year our local Boy Scout Troop 304 serves the community by picking up and recycling Christmas Trees. If you receive a hanger on your door, please follow the instructions for pick up. If not, please see the info below for how to drop off your tree. The Scouts take the trees to ecotreeNW, who chip the trees so they can be re-used as mulch/bark. We are very thankful for our local troop who performs this community service and keeps recycling in mind!

Bonus!

Curious about how to handle the extra holiday waste? Check out this article and included videos from Waste Management! https://mediaroom.wm.com/tis-the-season-to-think-green/

Looking at you!

Do you have any ideas or suggestions about how to make this newsletter better? Are you involved in or know of any recycling events in our area? Please send an email to mshipley@lynnwoodwa.gov and reference the Recycling Newsletter.

The city of Lynnwood's recycling education program, including this newsletter, is funded by the Washington State Department of Ecology.