Home LifestyleHealth All About Recycling and Donating in Hoboken

All About Recycling and Donating in Hoboken

by Jennifer Tripucka
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What a fitting day to bring you some tips for Spring Cleaning {Think: Recycling and Donating} in Hoboken!

Ever heard of the “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” green motto? Some even add Refuse and Rethink upfront, and Repurpose and Rot (for composters) at the end. No matter how many “R” words we adopt, the idea behind it is to RECYCLE! Recycling is a way to prolong the life of the things we acquire by reusing them (or part of them), or by having someone else reuse them for as long as possible. Because an item’s intrinsic value often outlives our personal use, there’s no reason to waste it and the trash doesn’t have to be the immediate answer.

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While we don’t need much help with the acquiring part, we could probably all use some ideas for the getting-rid-of part. It is no mistake “throwing away” isn’t part of that above motto since more often than not, there are ways, creative or not, to get all the life out of a product before chucking it. And that, is the beauty of recycling: It always beats discarding!

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Recycling is often associated with green people, because in our highly single-use, everything-fast-consumed-and-fast-disposed-of society, who else can take the time to research ways to give a new life to our unwanted stuff? Well the good news is, much research has been done and processes were put in place. It is now mostly a matter of adopting new habits. So easy that before we know it, we’ll start unconsciously (yet consciously) rolling with them.

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Here is a little list of recycling ideas to get started:

– City residential recycling program. Hoboken makes it easy to recycle: By adopting the Single Stream Recycling system in 2011, all commingled recyclables (plastic, glass, aluminum, paper) can now directly be placed (clean/rinsed out) within the same container for pick-up twice a week. And no more time-consuming pre-sorting and bagging needed. Even less common items like metal, household furniture, appliances, electronics, garden and yard waste are taken care of. The Hoboken Recycling Drop-Off Center is home to a number of handle-with-care items (batteries, electronics, motor oil…) and a hotline is there to help with hazardous ones  (batteries, paint leftovers…). Check out the complete list for all details.

Hoboken Single Stream Recycling

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– Plastic bags collection bins in various stores. The reason plastic bags are not included in the above program is that they get stuck in the sorting equipment and damage it. Still, no reason to stuff them in our regular trash can since easy local recycling solutions exist: Manufacturer Hilex Poly created the Bag-2-Bag recycling program and picks up all sorts of plastic bags (store bags but also bread, water bottles, paper tissue, produce, dry cleaner types of plastic wraps and bags) via collecting bins located in store. The retailer chain A&P Fresh works with them while other chains like CVS and Shop Rite have their own plastic bag programs, collecting them directly in store via their own bins. Even if you switched to reusable cloth bags for your shopping needs, keep these handy solutions in mind for all that other plastic packaging wrapping (note that types of plastics accepted vary by program) and the regular plastic bags that still, somehow, find their way to our home.

Hoboken Plastic Bag "Bag-2-Bag" Collection Bins

 

– Associations, Thrift Stores, Consignment Store, Salvation Army. If you have belongings like clothing items, personal and home accessories to donate, consider the Salvation Army on Erie Street (actually in Jersey City, but borderline), the charity located at Our Lady of Grace Church, or thrift stores like St Mary’s Hospital on Garden street.  If you want to get a little money for your recycled belongings, check out consignment stores, like Midtown Authentic. There are associations taking and redistributing your donations like the Boys and Girls Clubs of Hudson County, and for children particularly, simply check with your school for possible programs of their own and additional ideas.

 

– Freecycle or Swap all your unwanted things… Based on the founding principle that it is not because an item becomes useless to us that it is for everybody else, Freecycle is all about turning someone’s trash into someone else’s treasure. There is a Freecycle Hoboken specific Group. You can join for free by signing up via Yahoo Groups. Other local Freecycle groups exist and are organized by counties, states, other cities… Each group has moderators and similar sets of rules: You can post “offered” items for donations and ask “wanted” items for pick up. Everything must be free. In the same vein, remember Craig’s List free section. And if you feel like your fare is just too good to give away but you’re ready to recycle it, then organize a swap party and exchange what you don’t like/doesn’t fit anymore for something else! Any excuse to meet up with friends is a good one. Plus it does not have to be limited to clothes.

Hoboken "Anything and Everything" Swap Party

 

With so many readily available resources covering such a wide range of items, it really is easy to just go with the green way and recycle things you’re done with. Less trash means less over-filled landfills, less oil burned to run factories to produce more new “stuffs” for us to buy, since existing ones stay in circulation longer. And that’s how recycling just became another easy way to get that green vibe going…

 

PS: there’s a fun Earth Day Happy Hour in Hoboken HERE today, make sure to check it out!

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Elodie is a former corporate brand marketer who recently brought her passion for healthy living to life by creating La Vie En Green. At www.lavieengreen.com, you’ll find educational topic-oriented content, major green news curation, and easy eco-conscious ways to adopt a safer, greener, healthier lifestyle that better cares for yourself, others, and the environment. Sign up for her newsletter about all things eco-friendly HERE!

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