Dear Recycle Lady,
What is No Mow May? I understand it has to do with increasing the bee population.
We Need Bees
Dear We Need Bees,
No Mow May very definitely is about helping bees and other pollinators. By not mowing your lawn in the month of May, and allowing lawn flowers to bloom, food becomes available for hungry bees when they emerge from hibernation. Permitting dandelions, white clovers, buttercups, and other nectar rich plants, to grow in your lawn helps to increase the bee population.
The No Mow May initiative was first popularized by Plantlife, a British organization concerned about the loss of pollinators due to climate change, habitat loss and pesticide use. According to Plantlife’s research, approximately 80% of participating lawns in previous No Mow May campaigns supported around 400 bees a day. Additionally, 20% of the lawns supported up to 4,000 bees a day, giving a real boost to the bee populations. The No Mow May movement was spread in the U.S. by a group called Bee City USA. Appleton, Wisconsin was the first U.S. city to adopt No Mow May and other cities and states joined them last year. May isn’t over yet and Bee City USA recommends helping the bees by mowing your yard less often or by mowing an edge around it to make not mowing your yard intentional rather than neglected.
Dear Recycle Lady,
With all the rain we have been having, sometimes my morning newspaper gets sopping wet. Is it still recyclable?
Don’t like Wet Papers
Dear Don’t like Wet Papers,
Wet newspapers can be recycled if they are dried out first. Just be sure they are clean and haven’t been in any muddy puddles. Water is not a contaminant in the recycling process of paper, but food, and especially oils, are contaminants. Before recycling any food-soiled newspapers remove all soiled parts. When recycled newspapers are remade into new paper, they are mixed with water and turned into a slurry. As everyone knows from grade school science, water and oil don’t mix. Incidentally, the plastic sleeves your newspapers sometime come inis recyclable in bins at both Kroger and Walmart.
Dear Recycle Lady,
When cleaning out drawers this week I found lots of old greeting cards that I must do something with. Some of the cards are glossy and others are made of heavy paper. They are all very colorful. Can they be recycled?
Cleaning Out Drawers
Dear Cleaning Out Drawers,
Good question. Everyone probably has old Christmas, Birthday or Valentine cards tucked away somewhere and greeting cards can definitely be recycled. Cards that are mostly white go in the office paper bin, and glossy or slick cards go in the magazine bin. Be sure to remove any glitter, foil or ribbon that is on the cards before recycling. Have you considered reusing your greeting cards? They can be cut in gift tags for future use or used to make new greeting cards. The cards that are heavy paper stock can be made into pretty boxes for gifts. If the envelopes are lined with foil, they can be used as background paper for your new cards. Used greeting cards can also be donated to schools for younger students to use for craft projects or to make gifts.
Interesting facts: Thanks to 60 years of advocacy work, humpback whales are no longer listed as an endangered species in Australia. Their numbers have grown from a low of 1,500 to an estimated 40,000 today. (FTO.com). This illustrates what can be accomplish by concerned individuals and groups working toward a goal and gives hope for other endangered species.
Have questions about recycling, or interesting information about recycling? Send questions or requests to recyclelady@greenbrier-swa.com. Dear Recycle Lady is sponsored jointly by the Greenbrier Recycling Center and Greenworks Recycling.