Recycling 101 Class in Vancouver, WA

Plastic Bags ~ Nursery Pots ~Aerosol Cans ~ Cardboard Boxes ~Motor Oil ~ Yard Debris ~ Antifreeze

empty aerosol cans such as this one are
acceptable in the curbside program
in Clark County, WA

Would you like to learn more about recycling – What goes in the cart, what doesn’t and other places where things can be recycled? Please join us for a free recycling class 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., Wednesday, June 22, in the Cascade Park Library Community Room. The library is at 600 NE 136th Ave., next to the Firstenburg Community Center.

City-recognized neighborhood associations who send a representative to this class and publish an approved recycling article in their neighborhood newsletter can earn money for their neighborhood association treasury.

For more information or to pre-register, please call 360-619-4122, and provide your name, neighborhood association* and phone number. Your pre-registration will help insure we have enough materials for everyone.

*If you would like to just attend the class (not representing a neighborhood) you're welcome to do that. The class is open to the public.

Free Recycling Informational Class

Ever wondered why only certain items are collected for recycling or whether you really need to take the label off that can before recycling it? Well, the good news is, there will be 4 informational classes to answer all your burning questions about recycling.

Glass recycling is one of the many things you'll see
while on a tour of West Van Materials Recovery Facility

This is a free 2 hour training session, offered four times this year. Three morning sessions that include a tour of the newly updated processing facility will be offered Wednesday, March 23, Thursday, March 24, and Saturday, March 26, from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. at West Van Materials Recovery Center. An evening session will be offered Thursday, March 31, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the PUD Electric Center, 1200 Ft. Vancouver Way.

Space is limited for the daytime tours, so it is important to pre-register. Please call 619-4122 by March 21, and leave your name, address, phone number and the Neighborhood Association you are representing.

Household Hazardous Waste satellite collections

If you live in Clark County, there are many opportunities to properly dispose of any hazardous waste from your household. (herbicides, pesticides, toxic cleaning products, paint, etc.) You can take it to any one of the three transfer stations (West Van, CTR or Washougal.) Or, if none of those are convenient, you can view the list of 2011 HHW satellite collections and find the one that is closest to you.

I hope this helps you properly dispose of your HHW.  If you live outside of Clark County, I recommend doing a search for your area and HHW disposal. Most areas have at least one option for proper disposal.

Email me if you have any questions!

-The Reuser

Update: Sorry, I forgot to mention...the most important bit of all: If you'd like to start to eliminating the use of toxic materials in your home, there are tons of resources available for doing this. If you are using a cleaner, polish, etc and wonder whether there is a "greener" version of it, simply do an internet search. You might just be surprised what you learn.

Dear Reuser #1

I've always wanted this blog to be a forum for answering questions from the public. Awhile ago, I got a few questions, but unfortunately got so swamped with work, I've been a bit behind with blog posts. Here's the first of what I hope to be many questions.

Dear Reuser,
I have a dead lightbulb and am wondering if I should throw it away or recycle it?

If the lightbulb is CFL(spiral) it needs to go to household hazardous waste (all flourescents contain a small amount of mercury to work and this can be recovered and used again if taken to the correct place.) If it's just a normal, standard bulb, you can just place this in your normal garbage. The glass that is used in incandescent light bulbs cannot be recycled with container glass-it's a different consistency and composition and can cause structural integrity issues in recycled glass containers. Therefore, it's best to just throw these away (at least for now.)