My Amazing Field Trip to EcoCycle

I *heart* EcoCycle.

I went there, or more specifically, to their Center for Hard to Recycle Materials, yesterday, and it was like a green person's heaven. You drive up to a little window, and a friendly person asks you what you've brought to their little mecca. You tell, they charge you a recycling fee if one applies, and then you drive around to the little bins and drop off your stuff.

I know, it doesn't sound cool, but let me assure you that it's amazing. I did have to pay a fee; I was recycling a laptop and a wireless hub. It cost me all of $6.00 to keep these things out of the landfills and get them back into refurbishing centers. No leaching lead and heavy metals into the Earth, and I know some of the components will end up in other things. But that's not the cool part. Oh no. There are about 16 stations. You can drop off all of your annoying grocery bags. You can shred confidential documents. All paper is accepted. They have a compost acceptance station. They even take waste vegetable oil that they convert to biodiesel. They take clothes, shoes, styrofoam. They took my ink jet cartridges. They accept old sinks and toilets. They take scrap metal. I was in heaven. A recycling mecca.

I just wish I didn't have to drive 50 miles to get there. But it's still worth the visit if you have a car crammed to the gills with recyclables.

And they offer tours. I know where I'm taking Gabs for a learning excursion as soon as she's big enough...