Do Your Part to Reduce Waste, Recycle and Reuse

Reduce

• Freecycle: It's free and easy. Offer items you no longer want (any condition). The selected recipient comes to pick them up. Click here to join the Frederick Freecycle group.
• Donate items to a charity of your choice or to an animal shelter. See details in the Donate section below.
• Appliances: Donate to Peace and Plenty in Frederick. They refurbish and resell them.
• Bags: Boycott plastic grocery/shopping bags. Buy canvas or nylon reusable bags and keep and use them when you go shopping. Giant sells them for $0.99, and they will give you back $0.05 per bag for ANY bag (reusable or even plastic).
• Cleaning: Use sponges instead of paper towels whenever possible. Disinfect sponges by microwaving them damp for 1 minute or by running them through the next dishwasher cycle. Paper towels can be composted.
• Compost: Buy a composting box for your back yard. Make it a fun learning activity for the whole family. See how here. Read more on the EPA's website, at howtocompost.org and on the Natural Resources Conservation Services' site. Other links:
  • General information, not for in-vessel specifics
  • Specifics of an in-vessel type system including turnaround time and input/output volume
  • Another variation on composting - also being called "in-vessel". Click on Composting.
  • C and N specifics, geared towards small operations such as home composting
  • Iindustrial sized in-vessel
• Mail: Reduce the amount of mail you receive:
  • Get rid of unwanted catalogs you receive in the mail.
  • Opt out of all those credit offers.
  • Opt for e-bills via online banking or directly from your service providers. Many companies charge you more to receive a paper bill.
  • Sign a petition to stop junk mail.
  • Find out more ways here.
• Packaging: Say no to excessive packaging. Call the toll-free numbers on packages that are wasteful. Tell company representatives you will stop buying their product until it is packaged in minimal and recyclable material.
• Trash: If you live in Brunswick, Burkittsville, Emmitsburg, Frederick, Middletown, Mount Airy, Myersville, New Market, Rosemont, Thurmont, Walkersville or Woodsboro, urge your municipality to implement pay as you throw and curbside compost pick-up, and to make recycling mandatory (the county currently has no legislative authority to do so). Find contact info here.

Reuse

• Freecycle.org: Get items from others in the area — FREE! Click here to join the Frederick Freecycle group.
• Have a swap party.
• Donate items to a charity of your choice or to an animal shelter. See details in the Donate section below.
• Appliances: Buy used and reconditioned appliances at Peace and Plenty in Frederick.
• Baby goods: Swap baby goods at SwapBabyGoods.
• Books: Trade books at FrugalReader.
• Construction and demolition
• Electronics: Give your unwanted electronics to e-End, a local company committed to environmental sustainability through a comprehensive program of reuse, remanufacturing, redeployment and recycling.
• Fashion: Swap clothes, accessories, cosmetics, shoes and lots more at SwapStyle.
• Film canisters: Use empty film canisters or frozen juice containers to hold small items such as nails, bolts and screws.
• Food packaging: Some fresh vegetables are packaged in containers (many in nice colors!) that can be reused around the home or office to hold paper clips, rubber bands, and other small items. Try using small ones to help organize a drawer too. Wash and use containers from potato salad, lunch meat, whipped cream, etc. for food leftovers over and over. They can be cleaned on the top dishwasher rack or by hand.

• Hangers: Return wire clothes hangers to a local cleaners.
• Paper: Reuse paper that has been printed on only one side whenever possible.
• Prescription medicine bottles: Ask your pharmacist and vet about returning empty pill bottles for reuse.
• Rubber bands: Reuse the rubber bands used to contain asparagus, or the ties from the grocery store.

• Washable cups or travel mugs instead of disposables; a lot of restaurants and convenient stores will be glad to fill or refill your own mug.

• Bicycles (or other durable goods like washers, dryers, etc.) — why not repair them rather than replace them when they break?
• Use cloth gift bags and stop ripping the paper off gifts! If you remove the wrapping paper carefully, you can use it again, and there’s nothing wrong with doing just that! And don’t forget to use canvas or cloth bags when shopping so you don’t need to make the choice between “paper or plastic.”
• Use washable table napkins instead of paper napkins — cloth napkins are usually much larger and more absorbent than paper products, and they can dress up your dinner table too!
• Buy washable cotton diapers (look for them at yard sales or charitable outlets). Check the yellow pages to see if there is a diaper service in your area. If you select those with velcro wraps, reusable diapers are just as convenient and may even be cheaper than disposable diapers.
• More ideas here and here.

Recycle

If curbside recycling does not reach you, find one of several recycling centers throughout the county. Click here to find out more about Frederick County's recycling program, including FAQs.

Perform a search on this site to find out what can be recycled and where to recycle.

• Top 10 reasons to recycle.
• If your workplace does not recycle, they should! Talk to them about it. Bring home used printer paper and recycle it at home.
• Encourage your school to recycle.
• Waste Management & Healthcare by Kathy Gerwig, Kaiser Permanente (PDF)
• Construction and demolition
• Electronics: e-End, a local company committed to environmental sustainability through a comprehensive program of reuse, remanufacturing, redeployment and recycling.
  • Cell phones:
    • Find a drop-off location at earth911.com or Call2Recycle.
    • Get cash: cellforcash.com, greenphones.com
  • Computer equipment:
    • Goodwill's FREE Computer Recycling Program: (there's one in Gaithersburg)
    • Staples (cost is $10 for recycling) gives store credit for used equipment.
  • Digital cameras: Kodak purchases outdated but still functional cameras of any brand when you buy a new one from them. Fill out the form, find out the value, get a prepaid label to ship it. Send with receipt for new camera and you will get a check.
  • iPod: Bring to Apple for recycling and get 10% off a new one.
  • MP3 players/iPods, PDAs: Fill out a questionnaire and get a coupon for the trade-in amount to use at Staples. You'll get a prepaid UPS label to ship the item(s).
  • TVs:
    • Best Buy hauls away and recycles for you if you buy a new TV for home delivery at the store.
    • Office Depot has Tech Recycling Boxes for $5, $10 and $15 to allow you to recycle whatever fits in the box.
    • Sony has drop-off locations
• Gadgets: Sell or recycle them at Gazelle.com.
• Tires: via Frederick county
• Tennis shoes: Nike's Reuse-a-Shoe program allows them to be used again in playgrounds and Nike products.