Home and Garden Wisdom » Recycling

Proper Disposal Tips for Home Cleaning Supplies

John — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 16:05:14 +0000

Home cleaning supplies can quickly turn into hazardous waste material if they are disposed of improperly by being poured down the drain or thrown into the trash. Improperly disposed of household chemicals can contaminate the soil as well as the water supply and can ruin plumbing and septic systems.

Such products as bleaches, cleansers and detergents, whether stored in bottles, cans, spray cans or dispensers, can corrode pipes, cause illness or poisoning, catch on fire, or react with the air or other substances to cause explosions when not properly discarded.

Throwing discarded cleaning supplies into the garbage, pouring liquids down the kitchen drain or flushing them down the toilet, burning discarded supplies in the backyard, pouring discarded cleaning chemicals into a storm drain or sewer system, or dumping them onto a compost pile or burying discarded cleaners underground are all very unsafe ways to dispose of no longer wanted home cleaning supplies.

The best and safest method of disposing of unwanted, expired or no longer needed home or floor cleaning supplies in either liquid, spray can or powder form is to gather them into a cardboard box, keeping each cleaner in its original container and tightly sealed. Make sure that there are no holes in any of the containers that would cause them to leak or spill out.

Put this box out of the reach of children and pets, away from any source of heat, and contact your local city government office of sanitation to find out if there is a drop-off location that collects unwanted chemical cleaners for proper disposal. In some areas of the country, community colleges advertise quarterly round-ups of household chemical cleaners and are happy to accept your collected discards on an appointed day. In some regions of the country, the local sanitation department will direct consumers to a local landfill that does accept hazardous wastes such as old or used household cleaning supplies.

Knowing the risks of using cleaning supplies that contain chemicals, try to purchase biodegradable or non-toxic supplies after you have discarded old cleaning supplies containing harmful chemicals.

Do Something Useful With Fallen Leaves

John — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 07:12:13 +0000

If you’ve got a garden that has a lot of deciduous trees in it you will no doubt have to collect up all those leaves in the autumn and winter. You may wonder what are you going to do with all those leaves and may even just decide to take them to your local refuse site, but actually you could save yourself some money and save the environment from a couple of car journeys and use those leaves to do something useful.

If you’ve already got a lawn sweeper then you will know how useful they really are, the powered versions contain shredders which can be very useful for what I’m about to tell you, and that this how to make leaf mould. See www.lawnsweeperinfo.com for more information about all types of leaf collectors.

First of all you need somewhere to pile up your leaves and many times it is best to do this with a home-made solution. This is easy to do and just consists of four posts simply hammered to the ground with some galvanised mesh then wrapped around them. Next you need to take your leaves and put a layer that is a couple of inches deep into this pen that you’ve created. Then spread a thin layer of soil at the top and repeat the process again. Keep going until you have used up all of your leaves. Then you need to do is to cover the top of the leaf mould pile with a black plastic bag. Then you wait.

It is best to wait at least a year, because then you’ll have something usable if you’ve got a patience then the ultimate time is to wait three years then you have some really good compost to add to your soil. There is one point worth mentioning that this you should try to avoid putting holly leaves into your leave mould pile, the reason for this is that they take much longer than other leads to break down, it’s time to issue though then this worry you.

House Cleaning and the Value of Having a Checklist

John — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 01:44:03 +0000

When that time of the week, month or year comes that you have to push through with a major house cleaning project, it can be really intimidating to think about how much things need to get done to bring your house back to its once tidy and clean state. At times like this, you definitely need to have a house cleaning project checklist to help you have focus and accomplish many tasks fast, despite the number of chores you might have in line. If you create a checklist and follow it strictly however, you will realize that your life will actually become much easier.

If you do not live alone, it is important to include everyone in the project and have each person play a particular role. By getting everyone involved, it will make the cleaning process easier and faster, since the tasks will be divided accordingly, versus working as a one man team. Moreover, kids will enjoy this, especially if you can present them a checklist or outline to follow. By making it seem like some sort of game, even kids who hate doing chores may end up actually loving it. Moreover, once they see the fruits of their labor in the end and realize how better a place your home has become, everyone will appreciate having been part of the project.

Part of your checklist should include a particular day for junk segregation and the disposal of unnecessary items that clutter your home. You should set aside a day dedicated to filtering to-be-discarded stuffs. Search your home for broken, rusty appliances that are filling up precious space. If you also have old furniture that are doing more harm than good to your home by becoming eyesores, you better get rid of them too. Gather all these things outside your home and then call a junk removal company to haul them away for you.

Residents of Seattle can turn to Scrap-B-Gone Junk Removal Seattle to deal with such problems by dialling (206) 734-4735. If you want, you can visit them instead at 1122 East Pike Street #707, Seattle WA. They are some of the best people in the area who provide excellent assistance when it comes to junk removal.

Plastic Bin Purposes

John — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 02:37:25 +0000

In today’s age, people are being more conscious of the environment and hence more careful about how their actions will impact the environment. One of the biggest activities we could undertake on a regular basis, starting at home, is recycling.

In a typical household, we actually generate heaps of waste that are recyclable. Think about an ordinary week that you would have – newspapers, glass beer bottles, plastic bags, milk cartons, aluminum cans, etc. The list goes on. If you sat down and list out every item that you dispose regularly each week, you might get a bit of a shock.

This is where a plastic bin specially designed to store such waste can be useful. Split your regular waste from recyclable waste which can be harmful to the environment by purchasing a plastic recycling bin. Even think about getting more than one. Perhaps you can buy a large bin for the cans, bottles and bulky items; while using a small bin for loose paper in your office room.

Ok, admittedly there will be of course times when you won’t be throwing things away. You will have things that you want to keep. As such you’ll need to store them away in a tidy manner. There are also plastic bins for storage. But what if you don’t know how much stuff you have overall needing storage? Are you having troubles deciding between a 3 drawer plastic storage and a 5 drawer plastic storage? Even after culling through all the stuff around your house and creating an inventory of items for storage, you’re not sure which would be just sufficient to meet your requirements?

Well, you don’t have to know the exact necessary capacity before buying a plastic drawer. This is because they are available as modular pieces which can stack on top of each other like Lego blocks.

You can estimate the minimum number of drawers you need and simply start with purchasing just that. Later on when you need more storage capacity, just get another plastic drawer. You can then take that new drawer and put on top of your existing set. Only spend what you need and still be able to make use of any vertical space.