“It’s the most wonderful tiiiiime…” – wait, wait, wait!  Wrong song, but right sentiment if you’ve got that little bit of a pyro bug in you to blow some things up this 4th of July, or Independence Day, if you want to get technical.

Seriously though, Independence Day is a massive celebration of all things American from hot dogs and Coke-a-Cola to plain old blowing things up.  If you had your own fireworks display in addition to watching the city or town display you might be wondering “What should I do with all of the used fireworks?”

Are Fireworks Recyclable?

First, a little background information on fireworks:  Most fireworks are a lethal combination of various highly reactive and dangerous chemicals.  Once ignited, these chemicals burn and react with each other to form the incredible light and fire show in your driveway.  While pretty in your driveway, they’re not exactly pretty on paper.

A common ingredient in many large fireworks (read: city fireworks not driveway fireworks), potassium perchlorate, is reported to be one of the worst for both your health and the environment!  A study by the Journal, Environmental Science and Technology have linked the chemical to thyroid damage and high levels of contamination in bodies of water shortly after large fireworks shows.

Unfortunately, due to the nature of fireworks being highly dangerous chemical concoctions, you really can’t recycle them.  Until someone invents the next “green” firework display, we’ll be left just trying to minimize our use and carefully disposing of them where possible.

So what does this all mean for you shooting off a couple bottle rockets or lighting some sparklers in the backyard?  Try these:

1. Always use fireworks in one specific area so that clean-up is isolated to one spot and not scattered randomly around the property (preferably in one spot on a driveway, street, or other hard smooth surface)
2. Upon clean-up, make sure all fireworks are completely extinguished and no longer even warm
3. Use a broom to sweep all remains into a single pile to be disposed
4. Don’t let everything sit out over night as this allows the chemical dust and ash to blow away and scatter throughout your neighborhood
5. Collect the debris into a paper grocery bag or garbage bag and contact your local city council or city hall to find out if they have any special methods for disposing of the used fireworks

For the hardcore greenits, here’s some “pure plays” for going green this holiday:

1.  Enjoy a personal fireworks show at a friend or family member’s home, one show is less pollution than two

2.  Just attend your local town or city fireworks display instead of having your own show

3.  If you insist on your own show, how about having it online at this cool fireworks generator

Have fun, be safe, and don’t freak out too much over your Independence Day pollution as ultimately, according to Chemical & Engineering News, “most experts think the level of pollution from shooting off fireworks outdoors a couple of times per year is actually pretty small.”

We all see the constant stream of news, commercials, and websites claiming new ways we can and should green our lives (hey, you’re on one of those sites right now!), but it can get difficult to discern from that, or rather, sift out of all of it, a few tips you plan to implement immediately to improve your personal envirohuman impact.

Here, I have compiled for you a list of five areas of your life for you to examine and begin making improvements to reduce pollution.  Ready?

1. Transform your transportation: If you can (and have not changed already) consider getting to school, work, shopping, and play by means other than your own personal vehicle.  So explore the opportunities of using public transportation, biking, or walking. If these options do not fit the bill all of the time, consider implementing them some of the time, so maybe you can walk to the store but public transportation may not be available to you, so you might end up driving to work. Also, the option of carpooling is available in most areas, so try a website such as e-rideshare or a slew of others.  Also, make sure your tires are fully inflated and do not accelerate and break suddenly.  With gas prices as high as over $4.00, if you are tired of filling the tank on your older car (or for many, SUV!), consider buying a hybrid or other more fuel-efficient car — it will pay you dividends for the less gas you use and reduced carbon footprint!
2. Change your household cleaners: I’m going to direct you to our rapidly increasing list of product reviews for specific products’ information, but concentrate on finding truly greener products, ones that list the ingredients on the label, and if you have the time, investigate the safety of those ingredients, an area where usually, Wikipedia can help.  Concentrate on finding one quality “green” dishsoap, laundry detergent, and all-purpose cleaner, looking for natural, petroleum-free, plant-based, biodegradable products, especially, and you will be well on your way.
3. Greener thinking by greener reading: Begin frequenting a green website that can offer you daily news and tips related to your new, green lifestyle to offer you encouragement and continued ideas for little ways to live a more environmentally-friendly life.  What does this do for you?  While websites like Grist and Tree Hugger are great, and rather all-encompassing, for some, it can feel almost like too much advice and tips.  You can count on EnviroHumanImpact to provide you with something everyday that puts you in a greener mood, including tips, our different series of posts, like Greener Under Twenty, can give you realistic, simple life changes, usually for less than $20 in fewer than twenty minutes.  EHI provides, “just enough,” rather than more environmental information than you can possibly read in one sitting — and we will not overflow your RSS feed everyday — typically one or two per day from us at EHI.  You can join our RSS feed for a daily dose of information and advice.  Plus, reading a green-focused website will keep you on track toward a more sustainable lifestyle!
4. This one is easy!  Save some energy, money, and the world from significant amounts of pollution by switching over to compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs), which now can be recycled at Home Depot!
5. Speaking of recycling, if you are not recycling, then you should be.  Find ways at work and home to recycle paper, metals, plastic products, and organic matter!  It is highly energy- and environment-intensive to extract raw materials from the earth, and it is in most cases better to recycle your garbage.

I come across it everyday: people who have, for whatever reason, not jumped on the sustainability boat. They’re going down with the (rapidly sinking) over-consumption, worry-not-about-waste boat. Maybe they have not been reading it in the newspapers and magazines as the movement has re-cemented itself like it has not done since “recycling” became a mainstream concept.

But I see people all of the time who don’t turn off lights when they are not in use (sure, we all forget, but I’m talking about those who always seem to leave them on), don’t recycle when there is a recycling bin right next to the trashcan, and who generally do not take an interest in improving their envirohuman impact.

How do I recycle my CFL Light Bulb?

My compact fluorescent bulbs are still going strong over two years into their use, so I have not tried out the new recycling program at Home Depot, nor have I gone to look.  However, it seems as simple as dropping them off in a bin, perhaps with some sort of box around each one for protection of each bulb, and voila! Home Depot takes care of the rest.

And by doing so, you’re keeping toxic mercury out of our waste stream and recycling it back to the production stream, nevermind the metal, glass, and other materials found in a CFL.

We first discussed the merits of using compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs in, “Greener Under Twenty: Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs.”  At the time of that article’s publication, we had this to say about the subject of mercury in CFLs:

Busting yet another move with the compostable products commentary, has anyone seen corn-based biodegradable plastics? I have seen some plastic items made of corn product, and it feels just like normal, petroleum-based plastic.

In fact, I have acquired some corn-based drinking straws. They’re all labeled, “compostable,” but while I don’t doubt the fact that they break down, I gotta know how quickly they decompose.

So, first, I wanted to know what they’re really made out of so that I might be able to guess at this.

It biodegrades! These cups break down in the landfill! These plates won’t look like plates in a thousand years. That Styrofoam you used to use will still be around for hundreds if not thousands of years!

Well that’s just great. So we’re growing trees, bamboo, and potatoes, to make paper plates and cups, bamboo plates, bowls, and clamshell containers, and starch disposable flatware, respectively. Oh, and they biodegrade, users will be very happy to tell you.

Congratulations.

What seems to be the reason people in the middle class all seem to ubiquitously have particle board, metal, wire, plastic, and otherwise cheap material shelving is that it is so affordable. Wal-Mart, Target, Ikea, and others make it all too easy to find shelves that fit any situation in one’s home and to fit just about any space.

For this reason, also, it all too often finds itself in the garbage. People move much more often than they once did. And now, it’s so cheap to throw away that $20 shelving unit and buy new, why am I cramming it into the already crammed UHAUL truck?

Why, indeed.

Here’s another item I saved from the forgotten shelves for my own daily use: shoes! Actually, I have two pairs of shoes I bought at thrift stores, both of which looked like they could have just as easily been sitting in the box at Macy’s. Both brands, actually, are carried by Macy’s and other department stores.

One pair I bought are brown leather Steve Madden casual glocks. When I bought them about a year and a half ago, they were on the shelf among many other used shoes, all priced the same at $3. I picked them up only because they stood out as looking exceptionally, “new.” Indeed, the shoes looked to not have ever have even been worn out of the store. In perfect condition, they have worn nicely and I still wear them (as in, today!).

More recently, I came across a pair of Kenneth Cole clogs. I paid $5 for these, but they literally still had the stickers from the store on them and looked as if no one had ever had them on their feet. The insides are brand new, and clearly they’ve never hit the pavement (until yesterday’s trial run, by yours truly).

We all see the all-too familiar recycling symbol on recycling receptacles in buildings, larger blue bins on the street, and many have makeshift, unlabeled recycling cans at home.

But what happens to recyclables once they are picked up to be taken to the recycling center? We dutifully carry our items a little farther to make sure they do not end up with the normal garbage. We sort and empty and in return, we ask that the items are actually reused. Ever doubt that that happens to everything or even a majority of the items you send off for recycling?

What do I do with my old electronics? I know the feeling. You have something new but the older version, the one you replaced, still works. Let’s say you replaced your ink jet printer with a laser jet printer all-in-one, printer, copier, scanner, and fax. But your old printer still works and you have no idea if you should keep it, “just in case,” throw it away, or give it away.

Chances are, keeping it is not the best option. Most items like that are kept until one realizes he has kept way too many “just in case” items and purges them in one fell swoop. When your new one eventually stops working, you are most likely going to go out and purchase a new one and not dig out the dusty ink jet printer from the basement which now has bugs in it (literally) and where did its power cord and software go?