Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff mom never told you?
Speaker 1: From House Towards dot com. Hey there, and welcome to
Speaker 1: the podcast. This is Kristen and this is Molly. All right, Molly.
Speaker 1: Even though we are well into spring and uh down
Speaker 1: here in Atlanta, we are even farther on our way
Speaker 1: into summer, I still need to do some spring cleaning,
Speaker 1: do you know. Yeah, my room is just I don't
Speaker 1: have any closets. That's the problem. There closets, some storage
Speaker 1: closets in my house, but I have no closets to
Speaker 1: myself in my bedroom, and so beneath my bed is
Speaker 1: just a treasure trove of junk. And I don't want
Speaker 1: to throw away because it's just things like old handbags
Speaker 1: and shoes and random clothes that I just don't really
Speaker 1: want to see ever. But I don't want to throw
Speaker 1: them away, you know, fair enough. But the same time,
Speaker 1: I don't want them under my bed anymore. I've got
Speaker 1: so much stuff like this. So on that note, I
Speaker 1: thought that we could use our podcast as a double
Speaker 1: duty for me to find out some surprising things that
Speaker 1: I can recycle to get rid of some of these
Speaker 1: wastes in my room. Fair enough? Uh, first off, do
Speaker 1: you have any prom dresses under your bed? Actually, Molly,
Speaker 1: I I do have prom dresses. I have prom dresses,
Speaker 1: and I even have homecoming dresses, which is kind of
Speaker 1: weird because I wasn't really a fan of either of
Speaker 1: those events in my adolescence, but I somehow still have
Speaker 1: the mementos from it. Well. One of the first things
Speaker 1: I think this is kind of interesting the commuter cycled
Speaker 1: are all those prom dresses in your handbags that matched
Speaker 1: and the shoes that matched. If you look for an organization,
Speaker 1: the national one is called Donate My Dress dot org um.
Speaker 1: What they do is they take all those formal dresses
Speaker 1: and turn them around and give them out for free
Speaker 1: to girls who can afford to buy their own for
Speaker 1: the prom. So that way, no one, you know, it's
Speaker 1: denied a prom just because they can't pay for it.
Speaker 1: And they're you know, local chapters of this everywhere. UM
Speaker 1: Chicago for example, has the Glass Slipper projects, so I
Speaker 1: would advise looking into that for Numero Uno. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think how staff Works actually had had a prom and
Speaker 1: homecoming dress drive last year for I think it was
Speaker 1: something to do with maybe Hurricane Katrina, although that doesn't
Speaker 1: make sense because that wasn't last year. This is a
Speaker 1: terrible story that I'm feel like, So that's why I'm
Speaker 1: going to move on to the next surprising thing that
Speaker 1: you can recycle, um, which are cosmetics. I also have
Speaker 1: a lot of old cosmetics that's like, you know, eyeshadow
Speaker 1: that I'm like, well maybe I'll want that baby blue,
Speaker 1: your early experiment experiments with makeup and terrifying um. But
Speaker 1: I can actually send empty cosmetic containers back to some
Speaker 1: cosmetic companies and they will recycle them for me, which
Speaker 1: is pretty exciting because you know, you don't really think
Speaker 1: about it. You just you have an old you know, uh, eyeshadow,
Speaker 1: lip gloss, it's empty, you toss it. But we're actually
Speaker 1: tossing a lot of cosmetics. So uh. Origins from Essay
Speaker 1: Lauter actually just launched a new cosmetic recycling program and
Speaker 1: they will accept any empty and clean cosmetic container at
Speaker 1: any Origins counter and you can just take you take
Speaker 1: the empty stuff and though they will recycle it for you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and if you're if you're pretty brand loyal, I know
Speaker 1: that some brands have their own programs, like Mac has
Speaker 1: one where I think it's six containers and you get
Speaker 1: like a free lipstick out of it. So some of
Speaker 1: them you might actually get a deal if you look
Speaker 1: and recycling them that way. And you know old makeup
Speaker 1: always good to like grind down uses an art supply. Yes, Molly,
Speaker 1: I didn't know you were so crafty. I'm pretty crafty.
Speaker 1: One craft I will say, Um, I don't know if
Speaker 1: you do have any uh spare rolls of wallpaper lying around,
Speaker 1: But I did have a teacher who was pretty crafty
Speaker 1: with a leftover wallpaper, and she recycled that leftover wallpaper,
Speaker 1: uh into books that we could draw our little stories in.
Speaker 1: She would fold the wallpaper over, so some paper in
Speaker 1: the middle of it while story book nice and Molly,
Speaker 1: I'm guessing if you made storybooks, you could easily make
Speaker 1: a thing. If you weren't planning to write a series
Speaker 1: of short stories in wallpaper, I'm sure that you could
Speaker 1: turn it into maybe greeting cards or um. There are
Speaker 1: some I think the craft Zine magazine blog has a
Speaker 1: has a whole list of you know, things that you
Speaker 1: can you can do with with paper like this, such
Speaker 1: as sewing it up and making cute little business card holders.
Speaker 1: And Martha Stewart also has a whole list of ideas
Speaker 1: for for things that you can do with leftover wallpaper scraps,
Speaker 1: like just small snippets you might have that can work
Speaker 1: as light, fix your coverings and backing for pictures, and
Speaker 1: all sorts of creative ideas, because right now wallpaper comes
Speaker 1: in so many neat patterns and textures it's kind of
Speaker 1: a shame to to just toss it all. Um, use
Speaker 1: it to aline your drawers. Yeah, drawerliner exactly. Yeah, wallpaper,
Speaker 1: it's a wealth of opportunity. Yeah. And another thing, another
Speaker 1: common thing that we use to decorate which might seem
Speaker 1: kind of just easy to just toss away, sort of
Speaker 1: like the wallpaper scraps, are old Christmas lights. Man, I
Speaker 1: have a pretty impressive collection of old, unused Christmas lights
Speaker 1: that I don't really want to throw away either because
Speaker 1: well I don't really know why. It seems wrong too,
Speaker 1: and you kind of think you'll use them again, even
Speaker 1: though most of them are burnt out. Like, I don't
Speaker 1: think I have a working strand of Christmas lights, even
Speaker 1: though I have an awful lot of Christmas lights, and
Speaker 1: you know you also don't want to have to go
Speaker 1: through the trouble of detangling those Christmas and ust me,
Speaker 1: that's the most annoying part of it. Um, Holiday l
Speaker 1: e ed dot com and Christmas lights dot com I
Speaker 1: believe will accept your strands of unwanted Christmas lights and
Speaker 1: recycle them for you. Yeah. The Christmas miracles, Christmas racle
Speaker 1: um and uh. Speaking of light bulbs, Molly. With the
Speaker 1: whole green movement going on, one of the first tips
Speaker 1: that people always tell you is to switch out your
Speaker 1: old light bulbs for compact fluorescent light bulbs, right because
Speaker 1: it lasts longer, better for the environment. That's great. But
Speaker 1: when they burn out, if they ever do exactly they
Speaker 1: ever do America workers, do you just toss them? What
Speaker 1: do you do? Know? You can actually take them to
Speaker 1: home Depot and they will recycle them for you as well.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Some other hardware stores might do this too.
Speaker 1: I'm not just trying to single out Home dam Depot
Speaker 1: so she is, Um, but I know that that they
Speaker 1: will recycle those kinds of green light bulbs to make
Speaker 1: your life even greener. That's pretty green. Okay, So here's
Speaker 1: the scenario. For you christim. Let's say you had gotten
Speaker 1: all your Christmas lights out, strung them up and had
Speaker 1: a wonderful Christmas party and you serve some refreshments as
Speaker 1: we girls are want to do, perhaps a lot of
Speaker 1: wine champagne, had a good time. I want to go
Speaker 1: to that party. Come on over at Christmas at my house. Um. Anyway,
Speaker 1: say you have that party, and of course you're gonna
Speaker 1: recycle all those wine bottles, that's a given. But did
Speaker 1: you know that if you keep all those corks, not
Speaker 1: just as mementos of a good time, you can send
Speaker 1: them back to a company and they'll recycle them for you. Fascinating, Molle,
Speaker 1: it is. Let me tell you they have the company.
Speaker 1: If you send your corks to recork America, they take
Speaker 1: all of them, and uh they make all sorts of things.
Speaker 1: They can manufacture the trails into flooring tiles, building insulation,
Speaker 1: shoe soles, fishing round handles, bulletin boards, play SMATs. So
Speaker 1: keep those corks, and I bet if you are a
Speaker 1: crafty gal like yourself, Molle, you can keep all those
Speaker 1: corks and make some fun craft items as well. Corker
Speaker 1: if you if you're wanting to do so I don't
Speaker 1: have the patients for crafts, but I would give you
Speaker 1: my corks, Like, yeah, you can make your own up
Speaker 1: like bulletin board out of corks. Yeah, donging it up
Speaker 1: in the office, if you have a tolerant sort of office. Now, Molly, uh,
Speaker 1: let's say I've gone to your fantastic holiday party and
Speaker 1: maybe I drank a few too many glasses of wine
Speaker 1: and champagne. Next day, I'm gonna wake up, probably go
Speaker 1: to my medicine cabinet, maybe take a little a little
Speaker 1: pain reliever. But before you do, check the expiration date. Okay,
Speaker 1: there's well, there's nothing worse than taking expired medicines than
Speaker 1: sting my opinion. Yeah. But speaking when I'm trying to
Speaker 1: get at Molly, okay, is that there is a relatively
Speaker 1: new programs that are popping up in let's see thirty
Speaker 1: seven out of fifty states so far that are letting
Speaker 1: people recycle medication. Really. Yeah, this sounds kind of strange
Speaker 1: because you think of you don't really think of taking
Speaker 1: used medicine. But according to a blog post on the
Speaker 1: House Stuff Works blog Science Stuff posted by our science
Speaker 1: editor Alison louder Milk, the US now has thirty seven
Speaker 1: states that have passed drug reclamation or recycling laws, according
Speaker 1: to the National Conference of State Legislatures, and they've got
Speaker 1: a website up that will that will give out all
Speaker 1: the guidelines for how you can UH recycle your medication.
Speaker 1: But in general, UM, your donated drugs must not be
Speaker 1: expired and they have to have a verifiable future expiration date.
Speaker 1: Controllable substances defined by the U s d e A
Speaker 1: are usually excluded and prohibited from recycling UH. State licensed
Speaker 1: pharmacist or pharmacy has to be part of the verification
Speaker 1: and distribution process, and each patient receiving one of these
Speaker 1: recycled drugs must have a valid prescription form in his
Speaker 1: or her own name. Some like that might be something
Speaker 1: if you particularly if you're moving, you know, and you're
Speaker 1: cleaning out the medicine chest and you have maybe some
Speaker 1: UH medications that haven't expired that you might want to
Speaker 1: try to pass along, because if you throw these meds away,
Speaker 1: they might end up in the groundwater supply. There's been
Speaker 1: all sorts of news stories about how discarded medications flush
Speaker 1: them down the toilet is really not good for the
Speaker 1: environment or good for our health. Stuff out there, so
Speaker 1: it could be worth looking into. So kristin yesterday to
Speaker 1: tall a little anecdote. I bought some new shoes, some
Speaker 1: new um walking shoes. Um, but did you know I
Speaker 1: can recycle the old ones? That's good because I have
Speaker 1: my my shoes that I run in are are disgusting
Speaker 1: and I need to well, I don't know that. Well
Speaker 1: did they grind them up? Because I wouldn't want someone
Speaker 1: else to wear them. I couldn't take them to a
Speaker 1: thrift store, That's what I'm saying. Well, if you feel
Speaker 1: you can take them to a thrift store. There are
Speaker 1: plenty of programs that will take your old tennis shoes
Speaker 1: and redistribute them to, you know, people who might be
Speaker 1: grateful to have any shoe at all. But the program
Speaker 1: I was most interested to find out about was one
Speaker 1: that's run by Nike called Riggs a shoe and they'll take, um,
Speaker 1: we're not athletics shoes from any brand, doesn't have to
Speaker 1: be a Nike, and they'll grind them up and make
Speaker 1: uh this material they call Nike Grind and then they
Speaker 1: partner with um sports surfacing companies. So it might be
Speaker 1: one day that you're playing on a basketball or a
Speaker 1: tennis court and all of a sudden, you look down
Speaker 1: like that's your shoe, Like your shoe made that basketball court.
Speaker 1: That sounds like a much better way for my shoes
Speaker 1: to go because they really smell, they're they're their way
Speaker 1: over use, and I think that they would work really
Speaker 1: well for Nike and thank you basketball court. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: so all sorts of fitness flooring. Uh you could. It's
Speaker 1: it seems very much like the circle of life, Like
Speaker 1: you wear out your shoes on a court, and then
Speaker 1: your shoes become the court. I like that mine. It's deep.
Speaker 1: It's very philosophical. Um. Another thing that we can recycle,
Speaker 1: um that can be put to good use or like
Speaker 1: this whole circle of of life, if you will, Molly
Speaker 1: that you're talking about cell phones. We know that we
Speaker 1: should recycle our cell phone batteries, but did you know
Speaker 1: you can actually recycle your physical cell phone, the entire phone,
Speaker 1: and they can go back to good use. Some of
Speaker 1: these programs will will take cell phones and then program
Speaker 1: them to dial automatically and they will give them out
Speaker 1: to women who are facing um domestic violence programs like
Speaker 1: at UM domestic violence shelters and things like that. So
Speaker 1: it's a pretty amazing second life for a cell phone.
Speaker 1: There's this other cool program Christen called cell Phones for Soldiers,
Speaker 1: and basically by collecting phones and selling them back, they're
Speaker 1: able to create to raise the money to buy prepaid
Speaker 1: calling cards for our brave men and women serving overseas.
Speaker 1: So that's pretty cool. Yeah, it's great. Well, only speaking
Speaker 1: of overseas and traveling, that reminds me of I think
Speaker 1: one of your top five favorite movies of all time,
Speaker 1: which is Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Part two. You know,
Speaker 1: I actually much to mind, just may haven't seen that
Speaker 1: one yet, but I do love I do love the
Speaker 1: first installments so much. And uh, that tell involves girls
Speaker 1: who are sort of the epitome of recycling, if you will,
Speaker 1: because they take one pair of pants and managed to
Speaker 1: make it work for all of them. But if those
Speaker 1: pants should ever fail to work their magic, which seems
Speaker 1: highly doubtful, they shood so they should send them to
Speaker 1: a company called Bonded Logic. Because what Bonded Logic does
Speaker 1: is they make installation for homes out of blue jeans,
Speaker 1: which I just think is the coolest thing ever. Uh.
Speaker 1: There have been like habitat for humanity houses built with these.
Speaker 1: And the whole reason that Kristen brought up my favorite film, sister,
Speaker 1: that traveling Pants is uh, the cotton people, the fine
Speaker 1: people who make cotton. There's a big promotional push you
Speaker 1: might have seen, like a big bin in the movie
Speaker 1: theater to drop your jeans there because the cotton people
Speaker 1: they have this website called Cotton from Blue to Green
Speaker 1: dot org and they run a lot of the denim
Speaker 1: drives that eventually, you know, they take all the denim
Speaker 1: and they send it off to the to the people
Speaker 1: who make it into installation. And it's yet another circle
Speaker 1: of life thing. Yeah, taking our discarded clothing and cell
Speaker 1: phones and all that and actually putting it to good use.
Speaker 1: Because when a lot of us think about recycling, we
Speaker 1: think about our cereal boxes and aluminum cans and newspapers
Speaker 1: and sort of sort of the boring stuff, if you will, Molly.
Speaker 1: But I like thinking of recycling like this, getting a
Speaker 1: little creative with it and finding out how to get
Speaker 1: rid of just see things like that are taking up
Speaker 1: all of that space beneath my bed and in drawers,
Speaker 1: and that I just don't want to throw away because
Speaker 1: I don't want to waste it um. And good thing
Speaker 1: to remember too is that while we have all of
Speaker 1: these specific items that can be donated, there are wonderful
Speaker 1: websites like freecycle, dot org, Craigslist and others that allow
Speaker 1: you to literally recycle anything that you want. Freecycle is
Speaker 1: such a great example because it's I mean, it's exactly
Speaker 1: what it sounds like. You're recycling things for free. You
Speaker 1: kind of do swaps with other people, like say, Molly,
Speaker 1: you want my paperback edition of Sisterhood of the Traveling
Speaker 1: Pants too, And I would like, you know, your new
Speaker 1: pair of shoes that you bought yesterday. So I think
Speaker 1: that we could probably make a trade. And there are
Speaker 1: other a cool things going on like local clothing swaps.
Speaker 1: I know there's one I think this coming weekend that
Speaker 1: I'm going to be going to um and bartering markets
Speaker 1: and of course my favorite the flea market, where you
Speaker 1: can really just find a second life for for anything
Speaker 1: that you almost anything within reason, a lot of things
Speaker 1: that you need to get rid of. I say, if
Speaker 1: you can get a use for those smelling gym shoes,
Speaker 1: if you can't find a used or something else, you're
Speaker 1: probably not thinking high enough. Yeah, So I think, Molly.
Speaker 1: We have tackled this recycling problem, and I have a
Speaker 1: lot of work to do when I go home tonight.
Speaker 1: I need to get cracking. You do need to save
Speaker 1: the plan at one room minute time. It's time to
Speaker 1: do my spring slash summer cleaning once and for all.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do it. You have empowered me to do so. Molly.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Wow, You're welcome. Well, guys, If you have
Speaker 1: any questions or comments for me and Molly, or any
Speaker 1: other surprising things that you can recycle that we did
Speaker 1: not mention that you would like us to share with
Speaker 1: our other listeners, please send us an email at moms
Speaker 1: stuff at how stuff works dot com. And if you'd
Speaker 1: like to learn more about how recycling works and how
Speaker 1: to green up your life, head on over and read
Speaker 1: some articles and all those things at how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics.
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