10/13/13

During Halloween, many of us choose to decorate a pumpkin with paints. If you choose to paint a pumpkin instead of carving it, avoid spray paints, glitter and indelible inks, which cannot be added safely to a compost pile and makes your pumpkin inedible. Instead, use water-based, nontoxic paints from the craft store; you can mix a little liquid dish soap with the paint to make it spread easily on the pumpkin. Before composting the pumpkin, rinse off the paint in the sink.

10/12/13

If you have a closet stored with an old computer, including a monitor, mouse, speakers, cords, printer and scanner, it doesn’t have to collect dust anymore. You can recycle your old computer free of charge. Dell’s Reconnect program accepts any brand of computer equipment in any condition and will recycle it for you. There are more than 2,000 drop-off locations across the United States. From there, your computer is analyzed to see if anything can be refurbished. For the most part, most systems are stripped for recyclable glass, metal and plastics. Learn more at dellreconnect.com.

10/11/13

Public libraries often have used book drives where they sell books donated from the community to raise money. If you choose to donate books, be sure to keep these basic rules in mind when giving: Don’t give puzzle, coloring or sudoku books that are used, filled in or already solved. Old high school or college textbooks are not desirable, even if you paid a significant amount for them. Self-published books, old magazines and any books about technology where the information inside is obsolete should be tossed into the paper recycling bin instead. And remember this: A book drive means books -- no old electronics, medicine, clothes or anything that does not make sense at a library.