Clutter Clearing: Finding a Place to Recycle or Donate Your Stuff

Clutter clearing often involves finding things to be recycled - or donated to a good cause. But how do you find out where to recycle or donate?

Here's how to learn where you can recycle everything from bicycles to eyeglasses to mattresses.

1. Check with your city, county, etc.

Many localities now offer on-line information as to where items can be recycled (or donated) locally - beyond the basic plastic, cans and paper.

Here are some examples in the San Francisco Bay Area:
- San Mateo County's RecycleWorks
- San Francisco's sfenvironment
- The Marin Recycling Guide
- Alameda County's StopWaste.org

And here are a couple other examples:
- New York: NYCWastele$$
- Vancouver: Metro Vancouver Recycles


2. Search in one of the country-wide recycling databases.

In the United States, Earth911.com is the most comprehensive listing I've seen. There's an iPhone app, too! 1-800-Recycling is new (and still in beta), so it's worth keeping an eye on, even though it's less comprehensive today.

In the U.K., there's Recycle-More; the household page is especially useful. There's also Sort It for Scotland.


3. Read the "where to recycle" articles that get published regularly.

Here are some articles with good suggestions:
7 Things You Didn't Know You Could Recycle [via The Clutter Diet Blog]
21 Things You Didn't Know You Could Recycle
Items You Never Thought to Recycle
How to Recycle Practically Anything [via Lifehacker]
How to Recycle Anything


4. Google it.

Or Bing it, or whatever. Try searching with the word recycle plus the type of thing you want to recycle, plus your locality. (You might also try replacing recycle with donate.) Here's an example:



Related Newsletter Article:
10 Ways to Get Rid of Your Stuff