No Matter How You Slice It : American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA): paperrecycles.org The paper recycling mill called… they want your pizza boxes.  Ok, maybe you haven’t received the call personally (yet) but the U.S. box manufacturing industry wants Americans to know that their pizza boxes, including the grease and stuck-on cheese, are a valuable…

Let’s talk about plastic (part 2)… Dear Wicked Smart Recycler, I get that you can only recycle plastic bottles, jugs, jars and tubs here in Massachusetts. Unfortunately, my favorite coffee comes in a non-recyclable plastic pouch. It’s #PlasticFreeJuly and I don’t know what to do – help! Sincerely, Struggling Coffee Addict ​Dear Struggling Coffee Addict, First off, kudos…

Let’s talk about plastic… Dear Wicked Smart Recycler, I recently watched a special about plastic recycling and now my head is spinning. I found out that all of the plastic that I’ve been recycling is either ending up in the ocean or going to developing countries where it is being burned or dumped. When I…

A Day in the Life at a Recycling Facility Meet Moe. Okay, his real name is Ed but “Ed Says No” just didn’t have the same ring to it. You may recognize Ed (er, Moe) from the Recycle Smart social channels reminding you what wacky items shouldn’t go in your recycling bin. Ed is the plant manager…

Happy Earth Day, Recyclers! It’s the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, and boy, have we come a long way since the first one. Let’s take a quick trip back, shall we? The 1960s were a period of environmental awakening. With Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring highlighting the negative effects of pollution on public health, the spark to protect the…

Cooped up at Home? Tips to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle & Compost ​ 📷: @ecowithem Inspired by our friends at the City of Cambridge, the Recycle Smart Team wanted to share some tips for how to reduce waste while you are practicing social distancing. You may be getting less use out of your reusable coffee tumbler lately, but…

Breaking up with Single-Use Plastics We wouldn’t normally recommend breaking up on Valentine’s Day – but when we reflect on our love/hate relationship with single-use plastics – sometimes enough is enough. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) produced a Public Service Announcement in 2018 as part of their #CleanSeas campaign to reflect on this “challenging” relationship. In…

Happy 2020 Recyclers! This year the Recycle Smart team at MassDEP is resolved to helping Bay Staters feel confident about what belongs in the recycling bin (and what doesn’t). Furthermore, we want to set your mind at ease –  recycling is worth the effort. Back in March we sent out a newsletter titled “Is Recycling…

The Gift that Keeps on Giving: Holiday E-Commerce Recycling 101 Massachusetts residents can expect a blizzard of boxes this holiday season with the U.S. Postal Service estimating it will deliver a mind-boggling 910 million packages between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year.  There can be plenty of things to stress about during the holiday season, but considering what…

Thankful, Not Wasteful: Tips for Reducing your Holiday “Foodprint” With the holiday season fast approaching, we would be remiss if we didn’t talk about the topic on all of our minds…. food.Despite our love of Thanksgiving leftovers – it turns out we aren’t that good at gobbling up all of our food, especially at the…