Small Green Project - Recycling

Living out in the country is great! But I do have to trade a few city conveniences for our homestead. One of those is curbside recycling. If you live in town, recycling requires little effort, but in the country it requires a bit of dedication. We recycle everything we can and have only a small kitchen garbage bag of trash a week. We recycle veggie food scraps, coffee grounds, a bit of paper and paperboard tubes in the compost pile. We recycle 1-7 plastics, all colors of glass, steel cans, paper, cardboard and paperboard by taking it to a recycling dropoff center outside Prairie Grove. I take the aluminum to Vaughn Battery and Recycling. The price per pound for aluminum varies but each trip to vaughn helps pay for the next case of beer! The bins you see here are our recycle bins. I have a small crate in the house where we collect the recycling, then once a week I move it out to the shop and sort into these bins. Then about once every 6 weeks I'll take a truck load to the recycling center. City curbside recycling is convenient, but they don't necessarily take all types of recyclable material. Most in our area only accept #1 and #2 plastics, however the drop off center outside prairie grove accepts all 7 plastic resin code types. If your local pickup doesn't include all plastics or has other restrictions look for a self-service drop-off point in your area. This will allow recycling of much more material than a curbside pickup, such as yogurt and "butter" tubs, ketchup, mustard, honey, and medicine bottles, cd jewel cases, and thousands of other products that would otherwise go into a landfill.

Here are some links if you are thinking of recycling too!

http://www.ides.com/resources/plastic-recycling-codes.asp  - List of plastic resin codes and products made from recycled plastics

http://www.bmswd.com/recyclin.htm - Boston Mountain Solid Waste District recycling centers

http://www.bcswd.com/drop-off.htm - Benton County Solid Waste District recycling centers

http://www.fcsolidwaste.com/recyclinglocations.html - Faulkner County Solid Wast District recycling center

http://www.adeq.state.ar.us/solwaste/branch_recycling/ - Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality recycling branch

http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/wycd/catbook/index.htm - EPA's consumers guide to reducing solid waste

Small Green Project - Solar powered pathway lights

Stumbling around in the dark can be dangerous. You never know where you might step. Having your walking paths lit can prevent a fall or at least you can see where you will hit the ground. Solar powered path lights are a simple way to illuminate any path around your house. They require no wiring so installation is as simple as putting a stake in the ground. The top of the light has a small solar panel that charges a rechargable AA battery. I've put in two sets of lights, one by the shop building and the other set in the rose beds along the front of the house. They are fairly inexpensive and can be purchased in large packs at Sam's club. You can get solar pathway lights at any hardware store, discount store and even harbor freight tools. The only maintenance involved is to occasionally clean the dirt that will accumulate on solar panels and to prune any bushes that will block the solar panels from sunlight.