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How to recycle your plastic bags
Most local grocery stores (HEB, Kroger, Randall’s, Walmart) have bins in the front of their stores where you can deposit your surplus plastic bags. Lowe's also has bins just inside their front door where you can recycle these bags, sometimes called film plastic. While most recycling services take plastic bottles and containers, they ask that you please, please, please, do not mix film plastic with your other plastic recyclables. This includes bins at the Metro lot, the school bins, and your curbside bins.
Film plastic includes grocery and store bags, bulk item wraps (paper towels, toilet paper, etc), dry cleaning bags, newspaper sleeves, and similar thin plastics. See the graphic below and visit plasticfilmrecycling.org.
Film plastic wraps around the sorting machinery and causes breakdowns and other problems. Even in the large plastic recycling bins at the Metro lot, this kind of plastic is not accepted. If you throw your trash bag in with all your other plastic containers, the sorting machinery cannot sort the plastics into their proper category since they are hidden inside the plastic bag. So don’t throw a large plastic bag full of recyclables into any bin! A better option is to dump the contents of your bags into the bins (at the Metro lot) and then take your bag home with you for another use. If it is torn or no longer usable, it can be recycled along with your other film plastic. If it is badly soiled or greasy, it should be discarded with your regular trash.
Only about 10% of film plastic is currently being recycled. Now think of this: in the US, enough film plastic is produced each year that the whole state of Texas could be shrink wrapped. That is almost 269,000 square miles.
Recycling is good---if you do it, but a better idea is to say “no” to the plastic bags and take your own reusable grocery or shopping bags with you when you are out. There are also smaller drawstring bags, made out of fine mesh available, which are great for loose produce, like apples and grapes. You can wash these mesh bags and use them over and over again.
Carry your reusable bags in the trunk or back of the car. If you forget to take them into the store with you, make yourself walk back out to the car in the 100 degree summer heat. You won’t make that mistake too many times before you remember them.
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KKG celebrates 4th of July by recycling
One service that Keep Kingwood Green offers to the community is what we call Event Recycling. At the July 4th celebration in Town Center Park, ten recycling bins were set up and monitored by the group. At the end of the day, all the contents were collected and sorted. Metal cans and plastic bottles were dropped in a recycling bin at a nearby school. Glass bottles were recycled at the City of Houston bins at the Metro Park and Ride lot. Area residents did a great job of only putting recyclable material in the bins and it is estimated that over 500 pounds of commodities were saved from going to the landfill. Recycling is so easy one can and one bottle at a time! A special thanks to our business partners who helped to sponsor the bins: Ken Beard of Local Print Solutions and Beth Simpson of Re/Max realtors we are proud of you for stepping up to make a difference!
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School recycling bin mess
Have you noticed the overstuffed paper collection containers in school parking lots or at the weekend recycling bins at the Metro Park & Ride lot? People are still not breaking down their cardboard boxes thus robbing other people of valuable bin space.
And sometimes they leave the lids open. And then it rains and potentially ruins the precious content!
Homeowners with curbside recycling bins have the same problem. Their recycling bins are contaminated by rain. And sometimes a half full soda can can do the same damage! Try and make sure your collected paper and cardboard stays dry and clean. Best would be to take them to a Paper Retriever bin at a local school, since those bins help raise funds for the school. Just make sure the lids are down.
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Medication Disposal Coming to Walgreens
Great News: Walgreens is launching a safe medication disposal program and will install kiosks in more than 500 Walgreens drugstores in 39 states and Washington, DC, primarily at locations open 24 hours. The program will make the disposal of medications — including opioids and other controlled substances — easier and more convenient while helping to reduce the misuse of medications and the rise in overdose deaths.
Keep Kingwood Green will announce the exact locations shortly.
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What to do with burned out light bulbs
Hopefully you are not buying the old incandescent light bulbs anymore - if you do, they cannot recycled - throw them in the trash. Energy saving light bulbs, like CFL need to be recycled.
Do you know how to properly recycle CFL light bulbs? Fluorescent light bulbs and tubes do contain mercury, which are dangerous to your health. They should always be properly recycled! Locally you can bring the spent light bulbs to Lowe's and Home Depot. If they accidentally break please follow safety precautions as described by the EPA.
LED light bulbs though they do contain some metal, are currently not accepted anywhere for recycling. At this time we need to dispose of them in the trash. Old incandescent light bulb, as well as newer, energy saving halogen light bulbs can be safely placed in the trash, since they do not contain dangerous metals or chemicals.
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CompuCycle & E-Waste Recycling
CompuCycle shared with KKG how much electronic waste they collected since resuming the monthly event at Kingwood Park & Rode Metro lot. In just five months they collected 96,064 pounds of electronics that otherwise might have ended up in the landfill! Great job Kingwood!
Next Saturday, August 6th from 9am to 3pm, look for their truck at our Park & Ride lot and take your old electronics to the monthly collection event. If you have a tv larger than 27", take it to Compucycle for free disposal or check with Goodwill or Best Buy to see if they will take it. For a complete list of what they accept go to their website or check out our site.
Remember: it's illegal to leave TVs and other electronics out for trash pickup or to hide them in a trash bag.
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How Can You Give Feedback or Ask Questions?
Visit our web site! Contact us via email. We also maintain a Facebook page. Like us or Follow us!
Call us 713-206-0558 and leave a message. One of our volunteers will get back to you as fast as possible.
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