You’ve conquered the construction of your TV stand, unpacked the dishes and glassware, and looked around your new home with frustration. There are mangled cardboard boxes in the corner, styrofoam bits scattered everywhere like a winter wonderland, and a trash can overflowing with bubble wrap. How do you dispose of with all of this? Your green guilt just won’t allow you to throw it all in the dumpster.
The moving process naturally forces you to discard a few things, whether they be personal belongings, furniture, or packing materials. Rather than trashing it all, reuse what you can later. If this is not an option, then recycle these items, instead of resigning them to a landfill.
Let’s take a look at what you can do.
Household Items
- When packing up your clothes you probably stumbled across a pair of shoes, a shirt, or pants you haven’t worn in quite some time. Rather than keeping these items with hopes of wearing them later, consider donating them. Reusing items is good for the environment as it prevents them from ending up in a landfill.
- Additionally, if you upgraded to some new furniture or appliances around the house consider donating what you no longer need.
Cardboard
- Recycling cardboard is a no-brainer — it can easily be picked up by your recycling service.
Air Pillows
- These plastics are made from the same materials like milk jugs and plastic shopping bags, so they can be recycled just the same. Just sort them accordingly.
- You can also save your air pillows for reuse in the event that you need to wrap something for safekeeping or need to send a fragile package.
Bubble Wrap
- Stop popping those bubbles! Okay…just one more. Now go recycle that bubble wrap in the same manner as other plastics.
Polystyrene (Styrofoam)
- The short answer is, yes, this can be recycled. However, just like air pillows and bubble wrap, some community recycling services won’t accept styrofoam because it is an end product and cannot be recycled easily.
- Once you know what you can recycle or reuse, make sure you take out the trash! And make sure to keep these options in mind if you move or just go on an extensive online shopping spree. Happy Recycling!