Sedona Recycles Inc.

News and Events

Business recycling is within reach

Meghan Kincheloe, Sedona Recycles
Sedona Red Rock News
July 21, 2010

Those of us who recycle at home know how easy it is, once we get the hang of it. And the weekly trip to Sedona Recycles can be a welcome time when we run into neighbors and old friends while doing something we feel good about.

But what about businesses?

Business recycling might not always seem as easy, but it is certainly possible, as evidenced by the hundreds of businesses recycling throughout Sedona and the Verde Valley. While businesses do typically have more material to recycle, this shouldn't be a deterrent. In fact, it's even more important for businesses to recycle simply because they do produce so much waste!

Think about a business, any business. Pretty much every item on the shelves or in the kitchen arrived in a box. The cardboard alone produced by businesses is staggering! Next, think about all the paperwork - the supply of receipts, tags, bills, records, and catalogs is constant. If we're thinking about a restaurant, resort, or other business serving food or beverages, we also have to consider all the plastic bottles, tubs, cups, plates, and utensils; not to mention the aluminum and steel cans. And to top it all off, almost all businesses will eventually have broken electronics, dead batteries, and empty printer cartridges to dispose of.

All these items add up fast - and fill up garbage dumpsters even faster. Recycling isn't just the right thing to do; it can save businesses a lot of money by reducing the frequency of trash service and the size of the dumpster you need. These savings easily offset the cost of sending an employee down the street to recycle all that valuable material, free of charge. Business recycling doesn't just help you save resources and money; it's good business. More and more, the public expects businesses to recycle and support the ideals that they, as customers, support. Plus, when you recycle at Sedona Recycles, you get the added bonus of supporting a local nonprofit!

Every day we see numerous businesses visit Sedona Recycles with truckloads full of cardboard, bags of plastic and cans, and boxes full of paper. We commend these businesses for doing the right thing. Business recycling is simple and important, and there are plenty of excellent examples right here in the Verde Valley to inspire any type of business to take the plunge.

Many restaurants and cafes have taken part in recycling, and there are resorts, hotels, and timeshares that have made the effort, too. Even local fire stations, schools, governments, and nonprofits take the time to recycle. Retail stores and grocery stores all do their part, as well.

Some of the largest employers in the Verde Valley have comprehensive recycling programs. If these huge businesses can successfully start a recycling program, then any business can do it.

So now that I've (hopefully) convinced your business to start recycling, you may wonder where to start. It can be easier to take baby steps and recycle one material at a time so you and your staff aren't overwhelmed. Some businesses, however, prefer to start a recycling program all at once, so savings can be seen immediately.

What should your business recycle?

Cardboard - This includes corrugated boxes, brown paper bags, toilet paper and paper towel rolls, and paperboard, commonly used for items like cereal boxes and soda boxes, and as backing for most items at the office supply store.
Paper - All types of paper are recyclable, including, office paper, receipts, magazines and catalogs, junk mail, and packing paper. Please keep your shredded paper in a plastic bag.
Plastics #1-#7 - Essentially all rigid plastics are acceptable, including bottles, cups, plates, utensils, buckets, tubs, pots, food containers, etc. Please, no styrofoam or plastic bags.
Aluminum and Steel Cans - These include both beverage cans and other metal containers such as paint cans, aerosol cans, and steel/tin food cans.
Clear and Colored Glass Bottles and Jars - Glass is infinitely recyclable, so be sure to include all those soda, wine, and beer bottles in your recycling regimen.

Once your program gets going, consider recycling your old electronics, empty ink cartridges, dead batteries, outdated phone books, old rags and uniforms, and extra packing materials, as well. Once you open your mind to recycling, the possibilities are seemingly endless. At least 65% of the waste stream in America is comprised of recyclables, so don't let all that valuable material go to waste.

Whether your business decides to recycle everything it possibly can, or just the bulkiest items in your trash dumpster, you can make a huge difference. Individuals and businesses should lead by example, and we all have the chance to make Sedona a better place. Do your part and we can work together to support local businesses, build our local economy, and keep plenty of room in our landfill for the stuff that actually belongs there.

The staff at Sedona Recycles is here to help you and your business set up a successful recycling program. If you have any questions or want more information about what or how to recycle, please contact us at (928) 204-1185 or at info@sedonarecycles.org.

Disposables for dummies: what to do in a world of waste

Meghan Kincheloe, Sedona Recycles
Sedona Red Rock News
June 16, 2010

Every day Americans use millions of single-use products. We use 60,000 plastic bags every five minutes; 1.14 million brown paper bags and 24 million plastic water bottles every hour; 100 million tin and steel cans every day; 25 billion Styrofoam cups, 99 billion aluminum cans, 2 billion batteries, and 90 million tons of paper products every year. And we do it all without thinking about our wasteful use of all these products. Do we really need all this stuff anyway?

Our lives – and homes – are filled with hundreds of items that were made to be discarded after only one use. What ever happened to products that would last a lifetime, or even a year? Why use, and continue to buy, disposable paper towels and napkins when we could just wash cloth towels and napkins that will last for many years? Not only will we save money and time at the store, we’ll save trees, energy, and water, and reduce pollution. Is the so-called convenience of these items really worth the cost?

The list of disposable items in our lives goes on and on. Nowadays, even items that aren’t “disposable” are certainly treated as such. We go through cell phones, printers, computers, and televisions faster than a pair of shoes. But living in a disposable society doesn’t mean we can’t make a dent in the endless detritus filling the aisles of stores and the bellies of landfills. Read on to see how you can reduce the disposables you use in the places they pop up most often.

Kitchen

How many products in your kitchen aren’t really necessary? Paper towels, paper napkins, disposable water bottles, plastic cups, plates, and utensils, individually wrapped cookies and cakes, single-serving yogurt cups or tubes, and the list goes on.

How many of these products do we really need anyway? Invest in a variety pack of Tupperware containers. Keep a set of reusable plastic dishes and plates for those breakable occasions. Buy some extra flatware at a thrift store. Even products designed for one use can be used multiple times. I buy freezer bags that are heavy duty and wash them in between uses. Unless they had raw meat or something really messy inside, they can be easily cleaned and reused over and over again.

Food and Drink

Another huge source of disposables in the kitchen comes in the form of food packaging. Most products are now available in a variety of sizes from single serving to family pack. It may seem tempting to buy the crackers in single serving packaging because they’re so easy to throw in a lunch box, but we all know that it doesn’t take that much more time to pour some crackers out of a box into a Tupperware.

I used to work as a teacher’s assistant in a kindergarten class, and I would accompany the students during their lunch break. Some students would come with a thermos full of soup and a few Tupperware containers with raisins, carrot sticks, and cookies. Other students would come with pre-packaged lunches straight of the shelf. It’s certainly a lot easier for a parent to throw a pre-packaged lunch in their child’s backpack, but every piece of packaging that surrounds that food will be thrown away. What a waste! Those other students take everything in their lunchbox back home to be washed and used again.

Start by taking baby steps. Purchase a couple of reusable water bottles and travel mugs and make a point of taking them with you. It doesn’t do any good if you don’t actually use them. I keep a water bottle at work, so I never worry about forgetting it, and a few more bottles at home for going on a hike or to the gym. If you’re worried you might forget your mug, just remind yourself that Americans toss 14.4 billion coffee cups every year, enough to circle the earth 55 times.

Cleaning

What ever happened to the old fashioned broom and mop? Nowadays we buy dry/wet mops with disposable cloths attached to the bottom that we use – say it with me now – just once. I know you all get the point by now, but do we really need all this disposable stuff? What’s wrong with a broom and a mop? They work just fine and I’m going to stick with them.

As for vacuums, this is one of the few products that has improved its waste quota. Bag-less vacuum cleaners have actually done away with a disposable product, the vacuum bag! This is the kind of progress we need: less wasteful, lower cost, more bang for your buck products.

Additional cleaning products like counter wipes and stick-on toilet cleaners seem unnecessary once you pull out the old spray bottle, rag, and toilet brush. These shiny, new products sound great, but at what cost? Sometimes convenience isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Approximately 80% of products in the US are used only once and then discarded. It doesn’t have to be this way.

The possibilities for reducing disposables are endless once you become aware of your use. Spend just one day thinking of all the items you use only once and throw away. How could you reduce that amount? When you’re at the grocery store, compare items and think about packaging. Ask yourself if it is unnecessary or excessive. You’ll soon develop an eye for minimally packaged – and often cheaper – products, and you’ll help save resources at the same time.

Plastic bag recycling: important and easy

Meghan Kincheloe, Sedona Recycles
Sedona Red Rock News
May 19, 2010

The most common question we get at Sedona Recycles is “where can I recycle my plastic bags?” Luckily, the answer to this question is any easy one. All local grocery stores accept bags for recycling, as well as some local drug and office supply stores.

So why doesn’t Sedona Recycles accept plastic bags? Bags are made of a very thin plastic that gets tangled in our equipment and attached to other recyclable materials, contaminating recyclables and causing a big headache for our staff. Plastic bags can also be picked up by the wind and blown out of our open air facility and into Carroll Canyon wash and surrounding neighborhoods. The last thing we want to do is litter, and we appreciate your cooperation in keeping plastic bags out of the recycling center. Thankfully, we are very blessed here in Sedona and the Verde Valley that grocery stores offer plastic bag recycling.

Nationwide, plastic bags are a huge menace. Americans use 60,000 plastic grocery bags every five seconds, but only 9% of these bags get recycled. Each of these bags is used an average of only 12 minutes before being thrown away! According to the EPA, Americans consume 380 billion plastic bags, sacks, and wraps in the US each year. These bags don’t always end up in landfills; plastic bags cause the deaths of more than 100,000 sea turtles and other marine animals per year. Worse still, plastic bags never biodegrade; they photodegrade - breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces that contaminate soils and waterways and make their way up the food chain.

So how do we deal with this glut of plastic bags? Use the Four Rs - refuse, reduce, reuse, and recycle!

Refuse The easiest and most effective step you can take is to refuse plastic bags altogether. Let your bagger know that you can carry your pack of gum without a bag or request that items not be double bagged. If we all refuse even just a fraction of the bags we typically receive, we can make a huge dent in these overwhelming bag statistics!

Reduce Buy items with less plastic packaging, such as bulk foods and meat from the meat and fish counter. Use cloth or other reusable bags that will prevent your need for plastic bags in the first place. My favorite bags roll up and fit right in my purse, so I never get caught without a reusable bag.

Reuse If you do get a plastic bag, be sure to use it again. I rinse and reuse all my plastic produce and zipper sandwich bags until they get holes in them. Plastic grocery bags that find their way home serve as garbage bags for the few remaining items I can’t recycle or compost. You can even take your plastic bags back to the store for a second use. Many stores offer a 5¢ refund per reused bag, so don’t be afraid to use those plastic bags more than once.

Recycle As a last resort, please recycle your plastic bags! Bag recycling is energy intensive, but it beats the alternative. Local grocery stores recycle bags with a variety of recycling companies, but most recyclers have similar guidelines. You can recycle any #2 or #4 film plastic (even if you can’t find the recycle symbol and plastic number), such as:

•        grocery bags
        •        bread bags
        •        dry cleaning bags
        •        newspaper bags
        •        department store bags
        •        plastic wrap packaging around items such as toilet paper, paper towels, and napkins
        •        air-filled packing bags (deflated)
        •        water softener salt bags (with handles removed)
        •        produce bags
        •        cereal bags
        •        shrink wrap
        •        mulch or soil bags
        •        frozen food bags
        •        zipper storage bags (with zipper/closure removed)

All bags should be clean and free of contaminants, and any rigid handles, zippers, or strings should be removed, as they are made of a different type of plastic. Do not recycle cling wrap (i.e. Saran wrap) or any compostable plastic bags. These items are also made of different types of plastic and can contaminate the whole load.

Local grocery stores encourage you to recycle your plastic bags and use reusable bags as a substitute. Most stores sell reusable bags for just 99¢ each, so there’s no good excuse to stick with disposables. If you shop at a store that offers a 5¢ bag rebate, a reusable bag will pay for itself in just twenty trips to the store. I know it’s hard to remember your bags sometimes, but after a few times forcing yourself to return to the car, you’ll remember. Trust me.

So what happens to the bags that you recycle? Stores load bags and other recyclables into empty trucks heading back to Phoenix, or the nearest supply hub for their store. In some cases, trucks are ordered purely for the purpose of shipping recyclables. Once the bags reach the warehouse, they are baled and shipped to film plastic recyclers. Recycled plastic bags and film are used to make products like patio furniture and composite decking, made of recycled wood and plastic. Trex, the largest bag and film plastic recycler in the US, recycles 300 million pounds of plastic every year. Trex receives 50% of plastic grocery bags available for recycling, approximately 1.5 billion plastic bags each year, and turns them into composite decking. One 16 ft. long, 2 in. x 6 in. board uses about 2,250 recycled plastic bags! Durable items like furniture and decking last for years, and worn out plastic patio furniture can be recycled again at the end of its life.

What’s the moral of the story? It’s not easy to avoid plastic bags in this day and age, but it is possible, and we should all do our part to reduce our use of bags and other disposable items. And in the meantime, be sure to recycle those bags at your favorite store.

Past News

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Sedona Recycles, Inc. 2280 Shelby Dr. Sedona, AZ 86336
(928) 204-1185 fax: (928) 204-1330 email