Surprising Things You CAN’T Recycle!

For it being January, Mother Nature’s been treating Gainesville pretty kindly with this mild weather in the 70’s. And while we’re not complaining, it’s pretty obvious that we could take a little more time to be appreciative of the mild hurricane season, the bright sunshine and the amount of great sports weather we’ve had during our “winter” months thus far.Recycling Bin with Cans and Plastic

 

We at Emmer love to give back in thanks, and one way to do this is to recycle. While there’s a huge effort here in our lovely city to follow the green road, you’d be surprised how many people throw away things that could easily be reused or chuck un-recyclable things in the green bins. So, while you can find tons of sources on things you can recycle, we’re going to fill you in on some things you cannot.

 

1)      Pizza Boxes: This may not be the biggest surprise for you, as it’s been going around for a while that the drippy cardboard can’t really be used again, but it’s the why that really matters here. Once recyclable products have been saturated with food stuffs, they become virtually useless and destined for the trash bin. This also includes products like juice boxes and aluminum foil, which is a big bummer.

2)      Wet Paper Products: The minute you accidentally spill your soda on the newspaper, it’s time to hit the trash. Once the fibers have changed from the absorption of the liquid, you’ve lost all recyclability. This list also includes paper towels and tissues- so no trying to recycle during cold and flu season!

3)      Bottle Caps: Yes, your water bottles can be recycled. However, only if you take off the lid of that bottle. That plastic has been used in a way where it’s now unusable and keeping it on the bottle adds more effort to the ones recycling. An exception? Dasani- they’ve made their entire bottles recyclable.

4)      Plastic Bags: This one even threw us for a loop! Believe it or not, those plastic bags you get from the grocery store, the clothing store, and pretty much every other store ARE NOT recyclable, primarily because they take too much time to sort and can be dangerous to rummage through. Instead, you can often take them to “bag depositories” or back to the store you got them from!

 

We got a lot of our information from this great article on EcoSalon, which can fill you in on some other surprising things you can’t recycle. While this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to recycling your stuff, don’t be afraid to ask questions. If you’re interested in learning more about the process, check out all the details our fair city has to tell at the City of Gainesville’s Recycling Page or, if you’re an out-of-towner, find out more about your own cities options through Earth911.com. Either way, happy green-ifying!

The 13th Annual Air Potato Round-Up!

Alachua County is known for the University of Florida, cultural diversity, a great local music scene… and air potatoes? Unfortunately, it’s true: we’re just one of the counties in Florida affected by this heavily invasive species of plant that can really get in the way of our beautiful, native breeds. So, like any good citizens of nature’s habitat, we have sought for ways to correct this intruding wrong, and one of those ways is coming up very soon.

13th Annual Air Potato Round-Up, Gainesville, FL

This year's Air Potato Roundup poster courtesy of Merald Clark!

 

That’s right! It’s time again for the Annual Air Potato Roundup! 

 

While this might sound silly to some, this event that takes place at the end of January is a huge deal. With live music, food, and raffles, people of all walks of life come out to help Mother Nature by picking up the air tubers and discarding them, preventing them from spreading elsewhere. While registration for this year’s event is over (the event is always a huge success!), we thought it might be a good idea to take a look at the air potato, as well as a couple other invasive plants, so that we know exactly what in our area is there, that shouldn’t be!

 

Air Potato- Dioscorea bulbifera

The air potato is a vine that multiplies through the falling and distribution of aerial tubers (thus, the name “air potato”). While this is part of the yam family, it is poisonous and should not be eaten. The plan can grow extremely fast, which often pushes out native plants and takes over full patches of land. Land that has been disrupted, such as from fires or construction, is often the most susceptible to being hit by the plant.

 

Water Hyacinth- Eichhornia crassipes
This water based plant came from Brazil, and was said to be brought to the U.S. during an exposition in 1884 in New Orleans. Since its introduction, it has covered over 100,000 acres of waterways in Florida, and is extremely damaging to native habitats. It covers waterways like a mat, clogs the waterways, makes it very difficult to do anything in the water (in terms of activities like sports), and forces out other life by limiting the amount of oxygen in the water.

 

Brazilian Pepper-tree- Schinus terebinthifolius
The pepper tree is an incredibly aggressive and widespread plant in Florida. It originally was brought over as an ornamental plant (it’s often used in Christmas decorations because of the red and green colorations), but has since infested over 700,000 acres of Florida lands. Its dense canopy shades out all other plants and strongly limits their reproductive and growth abilities.

 

If you want to find out more about how to get rid of these plants, what plants to use instead, or even how you can help with the Air Potato Roundup in your own yard, visit the Florida Invasive Plant Education Initiative in Parks and see how you can stop these plants from pestering our native breeds!