Most standard recycling bins that you'll find on campus will take any plastic bottles, any paper products, aluminum cans, and even glass. Recycling these products instead of sending them to landfills makes a big difference. For example, the recycling of tin cans saves 74% of the energy used to produce them. Paper is one the largest products recycled and just one ton of recycled paper saves enough energy to power the average American home for six months! But did you know you could also recycle old electronics, batteries and light bulbs?
You may not be able to throw electronics and batteries into your recycle bin on the curb, but they have very valuable and even harmful components that should be recycled properly. Rechargeable batteries usually contain nickel-cadmium, lithium ion, or nickel-metal-hydride, all of which should be recycled to reclaim valuable compounds and keep toxins out of the environment.
If you're lucky you can get through college with just one laptop, and maybe a few visits to the VCC. If your unlucky (like me) you'll go through three laptops and a few hard drive replacements. While my busted laptops seemed useless at the time, they were actually still full of valuable resources. Nearly 100% of a computer is capable of being recycled, so don't make the same mistake as me (like not having an insured laptop) and throw away something you can recycle. It's easy to recycle once you know what you can recycle and where.
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