MADISON – Spring cleaning offers a great opportunity to reduce waste, save money and make a positive impact on the environment.
As people are cleaning out the basement or garage, the Department of Natural Resources offers a number of helpful hints on their website to recycle old materials and keep waste out of our landfills:
• organize a swap with friends, family or coworkers to trade books, clothing, games and other household items;
• start a compost pile of yard materials that accumulate from spring yard cleanup;
• donate items in usable condition, such as clothing, appliances, books and home construction and renovation materials;
• create a designated “to recycle” pile where you can collect all recyclables, including retired electronics, old magazines, junk mail, cardboard boxes and other items;
• contact your local recycling program to see what large or bulky items you may be able to bring to a drop-off for recycling, such as Styrofoam packaging, appliances, large cardboard boxes, and yard debris; and
• check if your community or county is hosting a Clean Sweep (exit DNR) collection where you can bring unwanted household chemicals or leftover prescription drugs.
For more reuse and recycling ideas to use during spring cleaning, visit the DNR website and search “recycling for all seasons.”
Other tips from the DNR include:
• going through your child’s school supplies from this year and sort out what can be reused around the house or in the next school year, including notebooks, tape, crayons and colored pencils;
• organizing a swap with other families to trade books, clothing for growing children, age-appropriate games and school supplies; college students can donate unwanted furniture, appliances, household goods and clothing to local resale stores, and can also; return old textbooks to a university bookstore or sell them to an independent reseller to avoid sending them to a landfill.
