Plastics Make it Possible^® is happy to present Bin It, a fun and addictive new game for the iPhone and iPad that challenges you to recycle in a fun way! Make as many bottles in the bin as you can, and see how your recycling efforts pay off in the number of actual post-consumer products that can be created from the bottles you recycle.

Sounds simple enough, right? Well, think again. Try tossing a bottle into the recycling bin from across the kitchen with a monkey screaming overhead or down a fashion runway while bears take photos, their cameras flashing as distraction. Not challenging enough? What about from the three point line with a giant penguin as the referee? Throw in a fan trying to put your bottles off course to make it even more challenging. What are you waiting for? Bin It is now available for free download in the app store. So what are you waiting for? Download it now, let us know what you think, and share your high score in the comment section below!

And don’t forget, Bin It on the iPhone, iPad, and most importantly, in your everyday life!

You can also follow this How-to-Guide to recycling plastics or check out these tips to get your kids recycling!

So what happens to all those recycled plastics? Those plastic bottles, containers, bags and wraps can go on to lead a second life as carpeting, kitchen gadgets, handbags, fleece jackets, t-shirts, bracelets, backyard decks … or new bags, bottles and containers.

You can help. This America Recycles Day, join Plastics Make it Possible^® and resolve to recycle! Click here to make a pledge and see how others voted.

Check Earth911.com to learn what your area collects.

You can also follow this How-to-Guide to recycling plastics or check out these tips to get your kids recycling!

Woolly Pocket, a company based in Los Angeles, creates flexible, breathable gardening containers made with recycled plastics. Woolly pockets come in all shapes and sizes and can contain a variety of plants and vegetation that normally would grow in the ground or traditional planters. Woolly Pockets use little space, which makes them particularly suitable for creating gardens at schools and in urban settings.

Woolly Pocket recently launched a program that offers participating schools the foundation to create outdoor gardens – in other words, edible education.

Through a donation to the Woolly Schools Garden program, Plastics Make it Possible^® will provide 10 schools in need with the supplies to grow their own gardens!

1. Harriet Tubman Leadership Academy for Young Women (Portland, OR)
2. Paul Cuffe Elementary (Chicago, IL)
3. Belmont Charter School (Philadelphia, PA)
4. Dominion Trail Elementary (Ashburn, VA)
5. Fienberg Fisher K-8 Center (Miami Beach, FL)
6. Mark Twain Elementary (Richardson, TX)
7. Cogswell Elementary (El Monte, CA)
8. Crawford W. Long Middle School (Atlanta, GA)
9. Gompers Middle School (Los Angeles, CA)
10. Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy (San Francisco, CA)

Be sure to check back regularly for updates on the progress of these gardens.

For tips to get your kids recycling more of their everyday plastics, click here.

You can also follow this How-to-Guide to recycling plastics.

Not sure what to recycle? Plastics Make it Possible^® offers the following tips for recycling plastics:

More than Bottles? – Find out which plastic products are accepted for recycling in your community – recycling programs vary across the country. Most curbside programs collect plastic bottles (any container with a neck smaller than its base), and an increasing number also accept rigid plastic containers such as yogurt and butter tubs. So look around your home – you may be able to recycle bottles and containers for milk, soft drinks and other beverages … plus salad dressing, cooking oil, condiments, peanut butter, mayonnaise, and other foods in your kitchen … plus shampoo, conditioner, laundry detergent, fabric softeners, and household cleaners!

Visit Earth911.com for more information.

It’s a Wrap – Many grocery and retail chains offer bins to collect plastic bags and wraps for recycling. Bring back your bags from grocery, retail and dry cleaning stores, plastic bags that cover newspapers, and product wraps from items such as bread, paper towels, napkins, bathroom tissue and diapers.

Snip the Zip – Sealable plastic food storage and freezer bags can be recycled at the same stores that collect plastic bags. Remember to remove the sealing mechanism or zipper, and be sure bags are clean (no food remnants) and dry.

Close the Loop – Recycled plastics become second-generation products such as carpeting, fleece jackets and new bottles and bags (it takes only eight recycled plastic bottles to create a soft, new t-shirt). Look for innovative products made from recycled plastics at your favorite retailer.

Today, 94% of U.S. households have access to a recycling program that accepts at least one kind of plastic including water bottles, butter tubs, yogurt containers and shampoo bottles. LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW letting us know what items you recycle from your home for a chance to win some great products made with recycled material! The “Recycling Bin” giveaway contest is now closed.

Congratulations to America Recycles Day contest winner Jeremy Whistler!

For the official rules and regulations, click here. 

Follow this How-to-Guide to recycling plastics or check out these tips to get your kids recycling!

As an environmentally conscious consumer, it’s important to feel good about where you shop.  At Publix, we are committed to the responsible use of our environmental resources and to providing opportunities for our customers to do their part. Our continued success depends upon sustaining our environment, the people in our company and communities, and our business.

That’s why we make reductions wherever practical in our consumption of energy, fuel, water and materials by reducing energy consumption in our stores and building new more energy-efficient stores, minimizing water use where appropriate, reducing fuel use and emissions, evaluating the use and sale of alternative fuels wherever practical, and by reducing, reusing and recycling valuable materials.

In 2001, Publix created Get Into a Green Routine^®, a program designed to encourage environmentally responsible habits our employees can use at work and at home. As Florida’s largest employer, we believe encouraging our associates to be aware of their consumption habits at home (as well as establishing policies at work) can make a difference.

Through Get Into a Green Routine^® and other conservation projects like lighting and refrigeration improvements, we’ve saved over 1 billion kilowatt hours which equals a reduction of more than 600,000 tons of greenhouse gas (carbon dioxide) and enough kilowatt hours to power 65,000 homes for a year (assuming the typical home uses 1,350 kWh a month for a year).

In addition to energy and water savings, recycling is an important part of Publix’s commitment to the environment. Innovations in recycling encouraged us to look beyond traditional materials. So, in addition to plastic, cardboard and water savings, Publix is recycling food waste. And we‘re taking our efforts beyond the store, too, by partnering with vendors to ensure that much of the Publix Brand Product packaging is recyclable or made from recycled materials.

Publix’s companywide recycling rate is 45 percent, and we are actively working to raise it even higher. In 2009, we recycled 210,000 tons of cardboard, 7,000 tons of plastic, 2,200 tons of mixed paper and 1,600 tons of wax cardboard. This recycling helped save approximately 5.2 million trees, 16.8 million gallons of water and 1.8 million cubic yards of landfill space. It also resulted in energy savings equivalent to more than 600,000 barrels of oil.

Publix offers in-store recycling of paper and plastic bags at all of our retail locations. Not only can customers drop off any brand grocery paper bag or plastic shopping bag for recycling, they can recycle plastic sleeves from dry cleaning and newspapers.

To see Publix’s ideas at work, watch this video. Then click here for tips on how you can green your routine too!

As a graduate student in the early 70’s I needed to work to pay the bills, so I channeled my enthusiasm for the environment, along with a little business sense, into starting my own company – Resource Recycling. What started as a simple recycling company grew quickly into a recycling consulting and publishing firm. Today, Resource Recycling publishes magazines including Plastics Recycling Update, E-Scrap News, and Resource Recycling. In addition to our publications, Resource Recycling also sponsors conferences in a variety of fields including plastic recycling, electronic recycling and municipal waste recycling.

Our conferences are designed to educate consumers about recycling and help them eliminate confusion about which products are recyclable in their communities. Many materials are easily and readily recyclable, especially plastic, and global recycling markets exist for all forms of plastic. By arming themselves with the proper knowledge about what plastics can be recycled and how to properly recycle them, consumers can make an enormous difference in reducing the amount of waste they send to landfills.

I’ve found that consumers, governments and businesses are as interested in recycling today as they were at the time of the first Earth Day when I first started Resource Recycling. The benefits of recycling are enormous – recycling saves raw materials and energy, as well as reduces air, water and land pollution. For consumers who are interested in expanding recycling options in their communities, I recommend that they get active. Contact your local government, store managers, and business leaders to encourage the installation of plastic recycling bins in their facilities, if they aren’t already available.

Ultimately, consumers should look at their own households to make the most significant reduction in waste. By doing simple things, like using a reusable coffee cup, or starting a backyard compost for lawn clippings, consumers can do easy and practical things to reduce their own impact on the environment. Most importantly, instilling these values in your children and grandchildren will ensure that these good habits will carry on from generation to generation.

To learn more about Resource Recycling, please visit www.resource-recycling.com

Not many high-end furniture companies start with a skateboard, but Loll Designs isn’t your typical furniture manufacturer. Established by the founders of TrueRide, a skateboard park building and design company, Loll Designs was established when TrueRide founders wanted to create a sustainable alternative to landfilling their construction waste.

The result is sleek and modern all-weather outdoor furniture and accessories made of 100 percent recycled plastic, like milk jugs. In fact, for every pound of weight in a Loll chair there is an estimated eight recycled milk jugs which are fully recyclable at the end of their useful lives. Functional and stylish, our take on classic outdoor furniture like the Adirondack chair has earned them many followers. Loll Designs’ outdoor furniture has quickly gained attention and accolades from both the design and the green communities, proving that green design is anything from crunchy.

Loll Designs’ furniture is not just eco-friendly, but also easy to own and care for. Made of brightly-hued plastic, we use no paints or finishes on our furniture, requiring almost zero maintenance, and require only a little soap and water if they need to be cleaned.

Loll Designs’ commitment to sustainability doesn’t stop at our product design. Our main offices and manufacturing facility, a renovated manufacturing facility in Duluth, Minnesota, has been transformed into a green Mecca. Filled with natural light, the facility features passive solar heating, natural ventilation, and almost 100 percent waste diversion from its manufacturing processes. Loll also times its manufacturing to minimize energy use.

More than just a furniture company, Loll Designs is sustainable from top to toe. From our popular, sharp design perspective to the trees they plant for every order, Loll proves that you can be green with style. Check us out at http://www.lolldesigns.com.

MATT & NAT point out that this attractive polyurethane purse has a lining made from recycled plastic bottles. For more information, see www.endless.com:

According to MATT & NAT, this purse is lined with fabric made from recycled plastic bottles.  For a larger photo and more information, see  www.shopbop.com :

At Keep America Beautiful our main goals are to educate individuals, companies and government about the importance of litter prevention, waste reduction and recycling, and to support beautification and community greening projects. While we’re proud to host and celebrate annual environmental observances like The Great American Cleanup and America Recycles Day, we don’t view these as isolated events, but rather as an opportunity to raise awareness of the importance of practicing good habits every day of the year. We aim to encourage consumers, businesses and policy makers to think proactively about reducing their impact on the environment, and recycling is one of the easiest and most effective ways to do that.

Americans generate over 250 million tons of garbage per year. Most people don’t want to think about garbage, but at Keep America Beautiful it’s always on our minds. More specifically, we’re seeking ways that all Americans can reduce the amount of garbage we produce and reduce the amount we send to the landfill. By encouraging individuals to start with careful consideration at the store, and to end with proper disposal at the end of a product’s life, Keep America Beautiful works to remind consumers to consider the entire lifecycle of a product before bringing it to the cash register.

No matter what day it is, Keep America Beautiful continues to urge consumers to take control of their environmental impact and arm themselves with knowledge. The Web site Earth911.com is a great place to find out what and where you can recycle in your community, including many plastics. Education is the key to effecting meaningful change.

Want to get involved in your home town? Volunteer at an event? Learn more about reducing waste, preventing litter and building stronger communities? Visit the Keep America Beautiful website, or sign on to our Facebook page.  We hope that all Americans can take away lessons for life, and tools that they can use every day. By all means, celebrate America Recycles Day on November 15, join a cleanup, and plant a tree on Earth Day. But please commit to taking control of your waste 365 days a year!

It’s no secret Californians love to recycle – for example, in 2009, we recycled 17.2 billion empty beverage containers, more than 30 million waste tires, and 200 million pounds of used electronics.  However, there’s still room for improvement. With more than 9,950 public schools across California, additional students in private schools, and all the teachers, staff and administration employed by schools, it is safe to say that one out of six Californians is at school each day! With so many people, it’s inevitable that they will generate a large amount of solid waste, and there’s a huge opportunity to introduce our kids to good conservation and recycling habits early on that will carry on with them into adulthood.

That is why Keep California Beautiful has launched the California Schools Recycling Challenge, a friendly competition for K-12 school recycling programs to help promote waste reduction activities in schools across the state. Participating schools will report recycling and trash data to the California Schools Recycling Challenge. Based on this data, schools will then be ranked in multiple categories:  who collects the largest amount of recyclables per capita, who collects largest amount of total recyclables and who has the highest recycling rate. Participating schools and districts will be able to track their progress on the California Recycling Challenge Web site and winners are announced December 2010.  Awards totaling $5,000 will be distributed to the winning schools and districts to support their recycling initiatives.

The Recycling Challenge provides a tool for school district recycling coordinators, teachers, student green teams and waste management professionals to engage their school community in recycling and waste reduction in a fun and friendly way. Students love a competition, and challenging the classroom next door or joining forces to beat the cross district rival can help drive their desire to effect change and can help instill lifelong habits and attitudes towards environmental sustainability.

Schools can help communities reduce their waste, while saving money and teaching kids valuable lessons. Whether a school has an extensive waste reduction program or is just getting basic recycling collections off the ground, experience has shown that all schools have potential to further reduce the amount of resources they consume and dispose of. Many school districts have been successful in improving their economic and environmental performance through the implementation of waste reduction initiatives!

Keep California Beautiful is proud to be a part of this program, and we hope that the California Schools Recycling Challenge’s success will spur longer term programs in the future.  This program is funded through a grant from national nonprofit Keep America Beautiful (KAB), which is supporting and examining a number of recycling education and awareness pilot programs across the country that could become models for nationwide campaigns.   Promotional partners include CalRecycle, Collaborative for High Performance Schools, California Resource Recovery Association, Green Technology and Green Technology Smart Media.

For more information on what Keep California Beautiful is working on, visit: www.keepcalbeautiful.org