It used to be that the bottle caps on top of plastic juice, milk and water bottles had to be removed and discarded before placing the bottle into the recycling bin. The reason? The plastic caps are a different type of resin (a No. 5 plastic), which is different than the more commonly recycled No. 1 and No. 2-marked plastic bottles. But today's modern recycling technology has made removing the cap obsolete. The bottles and caps are ground up and flaked; when the flakes are placed in water, the Nos. 1 and 2 plastic resins sink, and the No. 5 plastic floats, which makes separation a breeze.

Used office paper is recyclable paper no matter what, right? Wrong. When you use a paper shredder, you are shortening the length of the paper's fiber, which decreases its recyclability. So putting shredded paper into the recycling bin with full sheets of paper can decrease the viability of the entire load getting recycled. The best thing is to tear unimportant documents by hand into smaller pieces. Use a paper shredder only for truly confidential and personal information.

Your home coffee maker needs to be periodically cleaned, literally, from the inside out. The good news is that it's pretty simple. If you have hard water, mineral deposits can build up inside, but all you need is white vinegar to clean it out. Pour about 1 quart white vinegar where you normally put cold water to brew your pot of coffee. Wait two hours. The natural acids in the vinegar will break down the mineral deposits. Then brew as normal, allowing the white vinegar to run through the whole coffee maker. Finally, run a whole pot of fresh water through to remove any traces of vinegar.