How would you deal with those unwanted things that can be recycled, please?
By williamjisir
@williamjisir (22819)
China
November 6, 2007 11:48pm CST
Hello my dearest friends,
I had worked for a few days in my spare time to sort out all of those old books, useless papers and magazines that are no longer needed in use, which were kept in my office of my apartment on campus.
They had been there in my office for many years and I don't use them any more because our textbooks keep updated to keep up with the times and new situation.
It was whole bunch of them when they were collected and packed and piled in the corner waiting to be sold somewhere.
Just last night(November 6th, 2007), I asked my young colleague as well as friend to help me move and carry them to the place where old books are collected and bought, which is close to my school.
The old books, magazines and papers were about 67 kilograms, so heavy, but they were sold at a very good price. I got about 88 RMB for it. (One dollar is equal to about 7.6 RMB now or so.) So it is still a good sum of extra money. lol.
Now I feel my apartment easier to get organized with those unwanted stuff gone. I still have more to do to make my apartment look nice and organized and welcoming.
I feel so happy that the old books can be recycled and reused to make new paper for its new use.
I love to collect things that can be recycled and reused to help save more raw materials on the earth as they are gradually worn out.
I am happy that I am environmentally-minded to the source of the nature without getting it spoiled.
So what about you, my dearest friends?
What do you do with the unwanted, yet still can be recycled and reused?
I would be greatly appreciated to have your viewpoints about this.
Thanks very much in advance for sharing your ideas, my dear friends.
Love from
Williamjisir
12 people like this
29 responses
@theprogamer (10534)
• United States
7 Nov 07
Well I do what I can with normal recycling. With old magazines and such I'll try to see if they are recyclable, usually they are. Things like old VCR tape sleeves I've tried too. Anything to reduce the amount of trash. Books on the other hand, I usually keep those along with some favorite magazines.
As for other things, I do find reuses. I've even suggested some here on mylot in other peoples threads. Like how to take care of old cds without sleeves/cases. Just use a shoebox, a self made paper sleeve, a half a vcr tape sleeve. Reuse is all about being imaginative and creative. Its pretty good.
5 people like this
@williamjisir (22819)
• China
7 Nov 07
Hello my dear friend, theprogramer. I feel so happy to have so fast a response from you about how you deal with those recycleable things. Your nice advice to mylotters is appreciated. Thank you very much. Please enjoy yourself.
4 people like this
@mimpi1911 (25464)
• India
7 Nov 07
Dear William,
You did accomplish something, that was quite a job!! I have a plan to clean up with my store before the festival. The old clothes and the newspapers I give to our maid who makes packets and bags out of those. Nowadays these are in great demand and the other stuffs I sell. William, I feel kind of attached to my old collectibles and possessions, find it hard to detach with. Still I have to due to space limitation. That's how life is - bring in the new and change with the changes around.
Thank you.
4 people like this
@williamjisir (22819)
• China
7 Nov 07
Hello mimpi. Thanks for your nice comment. Yes, each time when I tried to do the job, I could not finish it because of being lazy, but this time I made a big decision to get it done and so I did. I am so happy to have finally dealt with them.
It is true indeed that there is always something that we want to keep without letting them go. To this part of stuff, I mean, if they are still of some value or some valuable memory, it is still a good idea to keep them.
Thank you very much for your response, dear mimpi friend. Have a good day.
3 people like this
@mimpi1911 (25464)
• India
7 Nov 07
Yes, things having valuable memories are hard to let go, I do have troubling time. I wish I could keep all those paper greetings card from my near and dear ones - they are precious!!
3 people like this
@williamjisir (22819)
• China
7 Nov 07
That's true indeed. Precious things always remind us of our beloved and friends.
2 people like this
@ssh123 (31073)
• India
7 Nov 07
It makes really interesting reading. Those who live in an apartment find it difficult to manage between two things: wanted and unwanted stuff and how to dispose off, if there are no buyers for the scrap. The space is limited in an apartment and one should carryout clearing work once a week. If there are more than two children, you will have more problems.
I live in a independent house and I have two rooms earmarked for junk materials. I want these to be disposed off, my my wife feels it is useful sometime later. Because of this conflicting views, the junk yard is getting more and more materials.
When we shifted from a rented independent house to our own place, I kept a lot of material for sale by conducting a garage sale. Many of the items fetched good amount for those materials which we never use and never used. Brand new items like tumbleter, cups and saucers, cutlery etc.
So I decided to get rid of the junk once in 3 months and conduct a sale of useful articles (which are not useful to me) once a year (garage sale).
Thanks for a nice topic.Good day.
4 people like this
@williamjisir (22819)
• China
7 Nov 07
Hello dear ssh. I am so happy to see you around today.
It is so relaxing for me to have dealt with those stuffs that actually I don't use but took up much of my room in my apartment.
I was just happy that I finally made up my mind to make me busy handling those stuffs from being lazy during these days when I am still having a rest at home. hehe.
I used to think that I might be able to use them, but I really didn't even have a look at them. So the decision was made to collect and sell them for good.
I am glad to know that you do the same thing to have them sold. Thanks so much for your response, dear friend. Enjoy yourself to the fullest.
4 people like this
@williamjisir (22819)
• China
30 Dec 07
Hello my dear ssh. As it is now close to the end of the year, I need to have some of my discussions solved. After having had so many responses to this topic of mine, I have figured it out that you deserve the best response and at the same time I thank you very much for your contribution to my discussions. I wish you a very Happy New Year, my dearest ssh123. Thanks again, dear friend.
1 person likes this
@lkbooi (16070)
• Malaysia
7 Nov 07
Congratulation my dear friend, firstly your office will now lookstidier and more spacious and you would definitely feel more comfy after disposing the old used stuffs in this meaningful way. Secondly you have got quite a much considerable sum of money as compared with the mylot earning. Thirdly you had done a good deed in environmental caring.
For me, the main items I send for recycling are those old newspapers and metallic cans of drinks. I do collect some of these from my sister living nearby. I then donate the whole lot to a nearby charity organization in every other month or so.
4 people like this
@williamjisir (22819)
• China
7 Nov 07
Hello lkbooi. Thanks for your response. What you have said is true indeed for me. I am glad that you take good care of our environment and natural resources and make some fixed-time donations to some organizations like charities. I appreciate your response, dear friend. Enjoy yourself.
3 people like this
@sheenmadness (1286)
• Philippines
7 Nov 07
hi william, i am still trying to get rid all of the unwanted and unnecessary stuff i have. Some of them i had disposed already like the old clothes and old shoes. I gave it to someone whom I think needed more than i am. Other plastics, styro foam, cartoons , old newpapers and magazines I had sold it already. I earn not that much but it is much better than to have all those stuff in here that only adds to the chaosness of our home.LOL! Little by little I'll get by with all those stuff.
3 people like this
@williamjisir (22819)
• China
7 Nov 07
Hello sheenmadness. It is always a good idea to have those unwanted properly handled. I am glad that we think alike on this point. Besides, we would have a more spacious place with the disposal of them and you would feel so good for the nice disposal. Thanks so much for your nice response, dear sheenmadness.
2 people like this
@GreenMoo (11834)
•
27 Mar 08
I think it's fabulous that you've been able to make some extra cash from your paper. If everyone were able to sell their unwanted things, they would be more likely to recycle it rather than just throw it in the landfill.
I reuse allot of my rubbish around the garden, though I try & plan my purchasing so that I ahve minimum rubbish to start with. All my paper and card is used firstly for my rabbits & then as sheet mulch in the garden which eventually composts, and I am also able to use plastic bottles, tins, plpastic tubs & pots, and cotton based cloth.
@williamjisir (22819)
• China
27 Mar 08
Hello dear GreenMoo. Yeah, I did get quite a sum of extra money for selling those things to the collector and she told me to sell it to her if I had more later on. So I also keep some plastic bottles and other stuff as well and will sell the stuff to her later. Thanks so much for your response. Have a good day.
@williamjisir (22819)
• China
31 Mar 08
I have a small room on the first floor for those storage, which makes it possible to have enough room for those bottles and cans as well. Thanks a lot, my dear friend.
@GreenMoo (11834)
•
28 Mar 08
I have often wondered about saving cans to sell myself ratehr than using the council recycling bins, but I guess you would need so many that space would be an issue. Maybe it is something I could think about for the future though. It sounds like you are in a very fortunate position finding someone who is willing to buy your bottles as well. Well done!
1 person likes this
@academic2 (7000)
• Uganda
24 Dec 07
I sort out what can be recyled,mainly plastic bottles, the rest like paper I just burn them off-the reason being they ocupy space and increase filth around the home. We dont have recycling facilities around our cities, only a few palstic bottles get recycled-so een the recycled items get burnt!
1 person likes this
@williamjisir (22819)
• China
24 Dec 07
Hello my dear academic. I am very happy to see you in my discussion very much. I am so sorry to hear that there is no one to help recycle the paper as it can be used to get recycled as well. I think that this can be a very good business as well if someone in your country start to collect and recycle paper. Thanks very much for your response, dear friend. Merry Christmas.
@recycledgoth (9894)
•
31 Mar 08
My partner and I are both keen to recycle as much as we can, and our local authority collect paper, glass, plastic and cans every fortnight. We normally have our recycling boxes in the porch so they are ready to put out on collection day. I have recently spent a long time reorganising the house and found that we had collected up far too much *stuff* including lots of magazines and papers so they have all gone to the recycling.
@williamjisir (22819)
• China
31 Mar 08
Hello dear recycleddgoth. It is so good to learn that you are very friendly to the environment and the resources of the earth to make your contribution as much as you could to the earth where we share. I thank you very much for your responding and your being friendly to the environment and such. Take care.
@Madona1 (2096)
• Gibraltar
17 May 08
Hello there, I like to clean the house and make sure everything is in order. So every month, I will get rid of something that we don’t want anymore. For books, mainly are belong to my daughter. I will give them to the neighbours or friends who have children. For our used and unwanted clothes, I will give them to the charity so that they can give to some one in need. For the shopping bags while we shop from the supermarket, we will use them as rubbish bin bags so that we can recycle and don’t have to buy the bin bags. If there is still something we don’t want like old furniture or bicycle etc., we will publish on the local notice board or sell them on the car boot sale. There is always a way to get rid of unwanted stuff in a recycle and reuse way as someone’s rubbish could be someone else’s treasure. LOL
@williamjisir (22819)
• China
17 May 08
It is well said that someone's rubbish could be someone else’s treasure. It is a good practice.This way we won't waste too much of the natural resources. Thank you very much ,my dear Madonal. Take care.
@faith210 (11224)
• Philippines
7 Nov 07
Hi williamjisir, my dear friend! Wow, there is wealth in garbage. We do reuse and recycle too. We have just donated all our old books to a local organization here in our country who sorted them out and distibute the books that can still be used in public schoolo libraries and those that are are really outdated were sold by them and donate it at the same time to public schools for the improvement of public school facilities. With all the empty plastic containers, glass bottles and tin cans, there is this local boy here who collects them in our neighborhood and we just give it to him. He sels them and according to him, the money he earns helps him a lot in his school expenses because he sends himself in school. With our other junks, my husband keeps them because he make sculptures and decorative items using the junk such as rusty nails, broken faucets, etc.. and those art works we sell them and some are being given away as gifts to friends. Take care and have a nice day my friend.
@williamjisir (22819)
• China
8 Nov 07
Hello faith. It is true indeed that we can find wealth in garbage if it can be recycled. hehe. Yes, some of the books that are still usable can be donated to some schools in rural areas like here we do.
I am so glad to know that you have made good use of the stuff in many different ways.
I am interested to know that you creative hubby loves sculpture. I think that he is quite of the artistic type and he must have made many nice of artistic items for both your friends and your own family. That is really a good idea to reuse them.
You are so nice and helpful to the poor boy to give him the stuff to make some money for his schooling fee.
Thanks so much for your response and I am happy to see you around once again after about more than one month, I think. Good day, dear faith friend.
1 person likes this
@williamjisir (22819)
• China
8 Nov 07
Hello dear faith. You are always remembered here by your mylot friends in this community.
I am glad to know that you are very proud of your husband for his never stopping amazing you with his works and that you are his number one fan, which I think is the secret that you love each other so much. Keep it up, my dear faith friend. Good night.
@faith210 (11224)
• Philippines
8 Nov 07
Hi williamjisir! It is really good to be back and it feels good to know that friends like you still welcome me in their circle of mylot friends. Thanks for the nice words and yes, I am very proud of my husband. He never stop amazing me with his works. haha.. I am his number one fan. Take care and have a beautiful day always. :)
1 person likes this
@Monkeyrose (2840)
• Canada
18 Dec 07
We are very lucky where we live because we have a very extensive recyling program. Our recycling is picked up once a week like our trash. Most of our stuff goes in there. Anything that I can sell, I'll sell to make a couple dollers. Anything that is reusable we donate to the SPCA thriftstore.
We also reuse thing. Any old worn clothing or cloth we use as rags. I had an old brush that was worn so I now use it on my cat.
@williamjisir (22819)
• China
22 Dec 07
Hello dear monkeyrose. It is good that you have a very extensive recycling program where you live. I am glad to know that you can always make the best of use of the stuff that can be reusable like using an old and worn brush on your cat and using some worn clothing as rags. You are a very good example for us in helping the environment. Merry Christmas, my dear friend.
@saiwailaozei (363)
•
18 Dec 07
i like reusing unwanted things.because i think that doing like that is very environmental and economic. if everyone in the wordd did it like so, i believe that it would be better on many aspects of this society and this world.
i usually reuse these things for more than two times in different ways, if they cannot be used any more in any ways.i'd like to sell them to the companies that recovers waste and old things.
but it seems there are not many such companies in china presently,so it's always a bit inconvenient to find a recovery company that is near home. i call for that more such companies for invironmental are established. it will really be good for poeple and for strengthening the people's environmental and frugal senses.
happy posting!
1 person likes this
@williamjisir (22819)
• China
22 Dec 07
Hello dear saiwailaozei. You have a very good sense of taking care of the environment where we are living. Yes, I have to agree with you on this point that it would be a better in many aspects of the society if everyone did the same in reusing the unwanted things without throwing them away easily. Thanks very much for your response, dear friend.
@naseefu (1607)
• India
17 May 08
It is good if we get some extra money for the unwanted books and that sort of things.We also doing the same in the case of newpaper.It will be more than magazines and books.
We can sell the unwanted plastics and iron and most things.Thanks 
@williamjisir (22819)
• China
17 May 08
Hello naseefu. It is true that newspapers are more expensive than books and magazines when they are sold. I think that it is because the newspapers are easy to be reproduced compared with books and magazines. Yes, it is the same with iron and plastics.
@wrld_n_harmony (695)
• United States
31 Mar 08
I haven't read all of the responses yet, but we have something called freecycle.org where we can post usable things and people who want them will come and take them. It's so nice to give away things that you don't want, and people are usually really happy with their free finds! Our condo complex has a bi-yearly garage sale, where anyone who wishes to participate can. We made over $100 last year by getting rid of unused stuff, and we're already gathering things for the coming year.
1 person likes this
@williamjisir (22819)
• China
31 Mar 08
Hello dear wrld. It is so nice of you to gather those usable things for the coming year. It is the same with my family. We usually keep them in the small room on the first floor and when there is enough, we would sell them for some small money. This way, we are actually being friendly to our environment without getting the usable stuff wasted and thrown. Thanks so much for your response. Take care.
@williamjisir (22819)
• China
10 Nov 07
Hello friend. If it were that cheap to mail books, I would like to send them to you by mail. hehe. Anyway I am glad to know that you love books very much and I guess that you might have plenty of books at home. Thanks for your response, dear friend.
@humbleme (1004)
• India
10 Nov 07
Hello williamjisir,Thanks for your post.The old newspapers,magazines,I sell it by weight just to get rid of the junk. As far old academic school college and University books are concerned as myself or nobody of our famaly need them anymore I have donated them all to junior students who need them knowing very well that if I need any of those
books ever for a quick reference search I will not get it back from them lol, however I am a fan of collecting absolutely rare items which are very difficult to find in any markets of the world and those original books and items
are huge in numbers but absolutely not junk for me but my
mom complains about those all the time even in phone when I am thousand miles away from home lol and to teach me a
lession still even today after eating the entire choclate
she hands me over the empty packet and asks me with a smilling face if I need that empty packet for my collection cause after 50 years from now that choclate company and their choclates might not exist anymore hence it will be considered rare, and not only that my mom has teached this trick to my girlfriend(my would be
wife)too and she has adopted this trick very well and use whenever she looses any battle with me lol,they think these items are the most preceous of my life and I can die for my collections, but what they might not know is actually I just only
like my collections,but my famaly girlfriend ,closefriends and who ever loves me are much more important and precious to me than any materials of the world, cause I love them
from the core of my heart.Thanks again.
1 person likes this
@williamjisir (22819)
• China
10 Nov 07
Hello my dear humbleme. I thank you very much for your response to this discussion. So you love to collect many rare things as your collections. It is the same with me. I have a lot of valuable stamps and I still have them in my stamp collection album. This I always keep without giving them away as I have spent a lot of money on the stamps and as time goes on, the old stamps get more valuable...
Thank you very much for your response, dear friend. Have a good day.
@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
8 Nov 07
We take our old books and stuff to Value Village which is a national chain thrift store in Canada, but sometimes they have too many of one item so we try the Salvation Army and if that does not work, since there are ho trade in stores in our area, we put it in a box and leave it next to the garbage pail just in case someone might want to pick it up.
We also have garage sales, where we also get rid of stuff and buy more stuff so that later we can get rid of that as well.
@williamjisir (22819)
• China
9 Nov 07
Hello dear friend. It is always nice for the books to have some proper places to go to. I am happy to know that you have garbage sales for them like we do here. Thank you very much for your response, dear friend.
@CraftyCorner (5600)
• United States
13 Nov 07
There needs to be more research into a thing called 'nanobacteria'. Nanobacteria is much smaller and more numerous than regular bacteria and some forms eat trash. You have to exploit the right kind, cuz the wrong kind can exploit you. They are just like bacteria.
@williamjisir (22819)
• China
13 Nov 07
Hello crafty corner. Thanks for your reasonable response. You are right that we need to exploit the right kind so that they won't exploit us. hehe. Thanks.
@kimthedane (945)
• Denmark
10 Nov 07
This is surprising news to me my dear Chinese friend. A Chinese with environmental conscience, lol. No offence pal, but according to the informations we get in Denmark, Russia, USA and China are the 3 main polluters of this world. So it is damn nice to hear from the horse's mouth, that something positive is actually happening in your country with this regard. Nice one pal, respect :)
What we are also led to believe in this country is that Denmark along with Germany and Sweden are the leading countries with regards to the environment and recycling. Whether this is true I do not know, as when I lived in the UK they claimed to be the cutting edge.
What I can say is that we have a pretty good recycling system, i.e. at the estate where I live along with the ordinary rubbish bins we have bins for collection of glas, paper and electronics. Besides this we have recycling stations placed all over the country, where you can take all the recyclables and they will take care of the rest.
We also have different organisations like Christian and humanitarian organisation who will gladly come to your home and collect what ever stuff you have that you do not use any more and that way make a little money from it. Or we have organisations who specialise in collection of clothing, cell phones oe bicycles and they will send them to foreign countries in need of these items. So whether we are cutting edge in this regards or not, recycling is sure high on our agenda.
@williamjisir (22819)
• China
10 Nov 07
Hello kim. It is always nice to hear from you. I am so happy to have your response as always. I am glad to know that you have a very good recycling system. Here in China, we have this as well and there are many garbage collectors everywhere in the country, who make a living by collecting things that can be recycled and sell them to make some money.
@chrislotz (8137)
• Canada
9 Dec 07
Here, in our country, Canada, we have recycle goods pick up. They come every week when they pick up the other garbage too, It is a government service and we don't pay for it, other than in our taxes. We have what is called a blue box. It is made out of plastic and is supplied to us by the city. We have to put our nonparishables into it and our parishable things into the normal garbage can. They come with two different trucks. One to pick up the recycleables and one to pick up the garbage.
We don't have a place to sell it, even if we wanted to. We only have a place to sell tin cans to but you would lots of it to get any money, because it is sold by weight and takes forever to get even one pound of pop cans. They are so light. So not very many people sell them here.
1 person likes this
@williamjisir (22819)
• China
10 Dec 07
I am very glad to know that your country has recycle goods pick up, which is of a great help to the environment and the natural resources that are being worn out. Canada has always been a friendly country to its environment and has set a very good example to the others. Thanks for your response, my dear friend. Good day.
