Most of us know it’s a good idea to recycle to help reduce waste. But it can be a challenge to remember what items can be recycled. You might use some things every day and not realize they can be remade into raw materials to help create new products. Here are three things you can recycle that might surprise you.

Old carpeting
If you’re tearing out carpet in your home, you might not know what to do with it. Believe it or not, carpets can be recycled. Most will not be accepted in regional blue box programs, but if you call the manufacturer or a local recycling company, they can bring it to the depot for recycling. It will then be turned into a new carpet or other things like plastic auto parts or paneling. Carpets are often made from synthetics or fossil fuel-based materials, so it makes a difference to keep them out of the garbage.

Air fresheners
With various fragrances and all the plastic in these products, packaging and refill cartridges, you’d be forgiven for thinking you can’t recycle air fresheners. In fact, it’s true that many municipalities won’t take them. But a free program from TerraCycle lets you drop off or mail in your old fresheners and packaging from any brand for recycling.

Smoke-free products
You know you can return empty bottles and cans of alcohol for recycling – but it turns out you can also recycle items used for nicotine consumption. The Smoke-Free Recycling program allows for the recycling or safe disposal of vaping devices, pods, and certain heated tobacco devices. While vape pods are not currently recyclable, the program accepts these products so they can study methods to recycle them.

You simply collect your items in any old box, print a free shipping label, and send them off in the mail. There is even have a program for recycling cigarette butts, since those contain a plastic filter.

Find more information at unsmoke.ca

credit – newscanada