Shared Reading: 25 Wasteful Things You Can Probably Get Along Without

Recyclebank is always rewards members for recycling, but they also try to educate readers on other ways to reduce waste. Recently, they released an article which gives you alternatives to one-time-use products.

Plastic wrap - Use a container with a lid.

I don't know about you, but I find I waste more plastic wrap just from having trouble ripping it. You can get cheap plastic containers that are dishwasher safe.

Prepackaged fruits and vegetables - Buy fresh local produce.

Even if you remove the environmental impact of the packaging, you'll also save money by doing the work yourself. A baked potato costs an average of $1 per pound but a pre-wrapped potato for the microwave is $1.50. Most potatoes weigh less than a pound and you can still cook it in the microwave without the plastic if that's what you want.

Electric can openers - Use your muscles.

Manual can openers are great because you can use them even during a power outage (see more information about emergency kits). Additionally, it's easier to clean a manual can opener if it dips into the food.

Check the full article, 25 Wasteful Things You Can Probably Get Along Without, to see other ways you can save the environment and money.

Greenopolis is a New Motivation to Recycle

Growing up in NY, I always had to pay a $0.05 deposit on soda to promote recycling. Once a month we would bring a large garbage bag of cans and bottles to the supermarket and put them in the machine to get our money back. Actually, if I'm being perfectly honest my mother paid but I kept the refund.

In PA, we just throw our bottles and cans in the recycling bin next to the trashcan. However, I think I might start bring them to the store again. I saw a new machine outside Shoprite yesterday and of course my curious nature led me to explore.

Greenopolis gives you points for recycling. Each bottle or can is worth 5 points. When you reach a minimum of 100 points, you can begin redeeming for prizes. The prizes range and they will actually differ based on your location because they are from local businesses. You can also save up your points because for around 500,000 points you can get a free HP computer. I think the local deals for around 100 points are a better deal. Lastly, you can donate your points to charity. For charity donations, each point is worth $0.01.

The coolest part is that the brand of bottle doesn't matter. I've deposited both regular brand soda bottles and store brand water bottles. The machine scans the barcode to determine what material you are recycling and then points left or right depending on which door you should drop the bottle/can through.

You can register online for a free account, but make sure you take a free reward card keychain from the machine and register it to make redeeming easier.  Otherwise, you will always have to save your receipt and enter the code online when you get home.  By scanning your card's barcode first, it  automatically adds the recycling to your account. This is also beneficial because the machine seems to always be out of paper for the receipt and no paper is better for the environment anyway.

Disclaimer: This post is not sponsored. I personally saw this machine and wanted to share it with all of you. If someone from Greenopolis would like to sponsor a future giveaway on Making Cents of It to promote recycling, please email Making Cents of It.

25 Free Points from Recyclebank

Recyclebank just posted on Facebook about a new deal. Recyclebank has teamed up with GE to offer you 25 free points and $200 mail-in rebate for exploring the benefits of Hybrid Water Heaters with GE.

10 Points Free on Recyclebank

With all the great coupons out right now from Hasbro, a lot of people are replacing their older games with new sets that have all the pieces. Recyclebank wants to help you recycle your old games and they will reward you 10 points for pledging to do it.

They will also give you a pre-paid return label if you want to mail back your broken games, making recycling easy. I personally recommend bringing your old games to the local elementary school. They can always use game pieces for either student projects or to replace missing pieces from the recess sets.

Free Points on Recyclebank

Recyclebank has redesigned there site and there are currently a few new offers to earn points. Of the new offers, I recommend "Saw Us on Television?" for a free 50 points.  Just click the earn points tab and scroll down to find it.

Free 20 Points on RecycleBank

RecycleBank's new sponsor, MillerCoors, is currently offering 20 free points when you take two quizzes about conservation.

Free 25 Points on RecycleBank

RecycleBank has a new quiz from P&G worth 25 points. You can take the quiz in the embedded box below or directly on RecycleBank's website. Either way you will get your 25 points immediately after you score a perfect four out of four. It will allow you to correct your answers multiple times, so everyone will get that perfect score.




Right now on RecycleBank, you can redeem your points for a $1 off any Coke product which can lead to some free soda next time there's a sale.

Free Codes at RecycleBank

RecycleBank is a great site that rewards you for recycling. Some communities have teamed up with the site to give you points every week when your recycling is picked up. When you sign up, just enter your zip code to see if your neighborhood is eligble. Even if your community does not participate, you can still earn rewards other ways. To see all RecycleBank related posts, just sort using the label "recyclebank"

Recently, a few of my fellow blogs have received personalized promotional codes from RecycleBank. I have contacted RecycleBank to see about getting us a personalized code but I would like to direct you to some of the other codes. You can use all of them so this is a good deal. Just head over to each blog's post regarding their individual code. Each code is for 15 points And expire on August 31, 2010.

Bargain Briana
For the Mommas

Money Saving Madness

Who Says Nothing is Free

UPDATE: As I've been finding more blogs with personalized codes, they haven't been working say that I "reached the promotional limit." I successfully entered four different codes this morning so they either changed the promotion or the limit if four codes. Good luck and let us know what works for you.

Earn 15 Points on RecycleBank

There is a new code out there for RecycleBank.  Head on over and enter TakeSmallSteps to earn 15 points.  You'll need to make sure the partner is Marcal.

For more information about RecycleBank, please see my original post.

Earn Upto 50 Points on RecycleBank

A while ago I mentioned a great website called RecycleBank which rewards you for recycling.  Today I discovered a new promotion that will earn you upto 50 points.

If you use Nature Made vitamins and pledge to recycle the bottles, you can earn 10 points per bottle (upto five bottles).

For more information about RecycleBank, please see my original post.

Join RecycleBank to Earn Rewards

Recyclebank is a great site that rewards you for recycling. Some communities have teamed up with the site to give you points every week when your recycling is picked up.  When you sign up, just enter your zip code to see if your neighborhood is eligble.  Even if your community does not participate, you can still earn rewards other ways.

Right now you will earn 100 points for signing up and an extra 15 points using the promo code RECYCLEYOURMAGS. If you make a pledge to join eBay's Green Team you'll earn an additional 50 points. That's 165 points today alone.

Prizes include some great deals. In the past they had $1 off 1 Coca Cola product. When your local store is having a 10/$10 sale that could equal FREE soda. Other prizes include gift cards, sweepstakes, movie tickets, and more. Hopefully they will restock the Coke coupons soon, but in the mean time you can start earning the points to redeem.

Ocassionally, I will find new promotions to earn points on RecycleBank.  Some promotions will be in the form of a promo code while others will be making a pledge or joining a mailing list.  Anytime I find something, I promise to post it here and tag it with the "recyclebank" label so you can find it.