By the way, the #1 best way to save the environment is by not consuming so much in the first place, right? The less you buy and throw away, the better. The “3 R’s” begin with REDUCE, after all!

Also, make sure you check with your local municipal solid waste office to verify what you can and can’t recycle in your community. Some communities let you recycle everything – including the kitchen sink! Others offer more limited options. Recycle as much as you can, and pay attention to what you can’t so you can buy less of it and figure out creative ways to reuse it.

NOTE: Sponsors like BetterCleans.com enable us to bring you the expert content you need to lead the greener life you want. Our editorial opinions remain our own. Thanks!

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Recycling should be a no-brainer by now. But it can still be confusing. That’s why I partnered with JunkKing.com to highlight the nine most common recycling mistakes you probably make every week.

I’m not trying to make you feel bad – especially since I’ve made some of these mistakes myself.

But hopefully, this handy infographic will help you realize you could be recycling a lot more than you actually are.

JunkKing.com says – and I agree – that “One of the greatest ways to reduce our carbon footprints on an individual or household basis, and one of the easiest, is to recycle.”

We Americans create 254 million tons of waste every year, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. That amounts to around 4 pounds of waste per person PER DAY!!

If all the recyclable materials in that waste stream were properly disposed of, we’d keep about $7 billion worth of resources out of landfills.

Learning how to avoid mistakes can ensure that more waste is properly recycled for a better and cleaner planet.

Don’t Miss:

Top 10 Things You Can Recycle At Home

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Here’s my Top 10 “No Brainer” List of what you should be recycling today – and every day. I call them “no brainers” because they’re relatively easy to do in many communities, because it doesn’t cost you anything to do them, and because they have a big environmental impact.

1.  Newspapers and magazines (though to reduce how much you need to recycle, cancel subscriptions to magazines you don’t read, and read newspapers and magazines online when possible)

2. Junk mail, office paper, and catalogs (here’s how to reduce the amount of junk mail you get in the first place; reduce office paper waste by printing on both sides, circulating documents electronically rather than on hard copy, and using software to reduce excess paper use; here’s how to cut catalog overload)

3. Paper bags and packaging from the grocery store, hardware store, or department store (reduce paper packaging waste by using reusable shopping bags.)

4. Plastic bags (if your community recycling program won’t take them, most grocery stores that still use them now take them back. Avoid them in the first place by using reusable bags.)

5. Plastic milk jugs (choose paper cartons instead if those are easier to recycle where you live.)

6. Plastic juice and beverage bottles (choose glass or cans if those are easier to recycle where you live.)

7. Electronics, including computers, fax machines, and especially cell phones (Best Buy, Office Depot and Staples will recycle your electronics for you; most phone companies will take your old phone and recycle it.)

8. Aluminum cans (pretty much all aluminum cans can be recycled, including those that contained soda pop, alcoholic beverages, and energy drinks.)

9. Clothing (recycle your clothes by donating to charity, selling at thrift shops, giving to neighbors and friends, or repurposing them as rags and even pillow-stuffings; send your shoes to SolesforSouls.org)

10. Food (recycle food waste into compost, to use in fertilizing vegetable and flower beds, trees and bushes)

Want More Ideas?

Top Ten Ways to Control Catalog Overload

Recycling Your Computer Just Got Easier

How to Recycle CFLs

Can You Recycle Your Car?

America Recycles Day

What else do you recycle?

The post Top 10 “No-Brainer” Things You Should Recycle on America #RecyclesDay appeared first on Big Green Purse.

In addition, the books contain at least 30 percent recycled fiber.  All 100,000 copies of the deluxe edition will be printed on 100 percent recycled paper in a renewable-energy-powered factory.

The best news? Making Harry Potter sustainable spurred the development of 32 new ecological papers, six for The Deathly Hallows specifically. The initiative also encouraged 300 publishers to adopt new environmental policies that, hopefully, will endure beyond Harry’s last battle with Voldemort.

All told, publishing the English-language editions of this last Potter tome on earth-friendly paper have saved 197,685 trees — an area about 2.5 times the size of Central Park — and reduced greenhouse-gas emissions by 7.9 million kilograms, the Canadian environmental group Markets Initiative reports. Here’s how they explain the achievement in pictures:

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