BuzzFeed has put together a list of things that most people aren't aware they can recycle. Here they are:
- Crayons. Got a lot of crayons laying around? Great! Send them—wrappers and all—to Crazy Crayons in Colorado. According to them, over 12 million crayons are produced in the United States every day—equaling around 60 tons of crayons being brought into this word... each day. They've collected over 120,000 pounds of unwanted crayons since they opened in 1993.
- Corks. Yep, you can recycle your wine corks by dropping them off at a number of ReCork's locations. They've recycled over 75 million corks already!
- Bras. The Bra Recyclers will take your gently used bras to "to recycle, reuse or repurpose bras while providing substantial social benefits to women and girls escaping domestic violence, drug addiction, human trafficking and breast cancer survivors." Just wash it, fill out a form, and mail it off to give your bras a second use.
- Eyeglasses. Don't throw your old pairs away! There are actually useful, and there are a bunch of options to send your old glasses to:
- All of Apple's products. Apple will let you recycle any of your Apple devices through their trade-in program: phones, tablets, computers, apple watches, and so on!
- String Lights. You can send your old holiday lights to Holiday LEDs, who will take your garbage in exchange for a 15 percent off coupon to buy yourself some new lights in their store.
- Plastic Bags. Remove everything from inside of the bag and find a recycling location that will take them. Why should you bother? Well, plastic bags are one of the worst problems in marine pollution because birds, fish, and other underwater life often mistake them for food.
- Batteries. Check out Earth911's database that will allow you to type in a zip code and find out the closest place you can drop your batteries off at.
- CD-Roms. We all have some extra CD's gathering dust in the back of our closets, so if you're ready to part ways with yours, check out the CD Recycling Center of America.
- Yogurt containers. Rinse out your yogurt containers — or any plastic containers stamped with #5 — and mail them to Preserve, whose products are made from 100 percent recycled plastic.
- Packing Peanuts. While styrofoam packing peanuts aren't typically recyclable in the standard way, you can check here to find your local loose fill reuse location and drop them off to be used again.
- Greeting Cards. Yes, you can re-use greeting cards for crafts or gift tags, but you can also send the fronts of the cards only to St. Jude's Ranch for Children.