Dear Recycle Lady,
I love to reuse empty peanut butter jars by using them to hold food gifts, such as cookies and candy. When filled with treats, the smaller jars can also be used for stocking stuffers. The jars that I use have a festive red lid, so Christmas and Valentine’s Day are good times to use these jars. But anytime is a good time to reuse. When someone gives me a food gift in a nice container, I put some of my home-baked food treats in the container and return it to the giver. Another way I reuse empty jars is to store reusable cloth masks after they are clean and dry, just in case I need them again. Happy Holidays, Recycle Lady and Everyone. Recycling Santa
Dear Recycling Santa,
Thanks for the excellent suggestions for reusing peanut butter jars. There must be other kinds of jars that are also good for reusing. Readers, I’d love to have some more suggestions to add to this list. Please email them to Recyclelady7@gmail.com. Recycling, reusing, reducing and repurposing items of any kind helps save our environment and reduces waste sent to the Greenbrier County Landfill. Last month, 3,675 TONS (7,350,000 pounds!) of trash were brought to the landfill. During this same month, 93.2 TONS (186,400 pounds!) of recycled items were shipped out by the Recycling Center. Although 93.2 tons sounds like a lot of recycling, it is only 2.5% of the total amount of trash generated. Thanks to all our dedicated recyclers, these 93.2 tons of recyclables are not part of the landfill.
Dear Recycle Lady,
With Christmas rapidly approaching my mailbox is full of requests for charitable donations. Many of the organizations include a pink, yellow, or blue return envelope. Are these envelopes recycled as magazines or office paper? Can’t Contribute to All of Them
Dear Can’t Contribute to All of Them,
Most colored envelopes are recycled with magazines. To be sure, look at the inside of the envelope. If it is the same color as the outside, the envelope will be recycled with magazines. If the inside of the envelope is white, the envelope will be recycled with office paper. As with all colored paper, you can determine which way to recycle the paper by making a small tear. If the torn strip shows that the paper is colored throughout, the paper is recycled with magazines. If the tear reveals white paper inside, it recycles with office paper. If the inside of the envelope is gold foil, the envelope will not recycle at all.
Dear Recycle Lady,
Most wrapping paper comes on a long roll. Can this roll be recycled with cardboard? Gift Wrapper
Dear Gift Wrapper,
Yes, the wrapping paper tube can be recycled with cardboard, as well as all those gift boxes you find under the tree after opening packages. If they are not reusable, the boxes can also be recycled with cardboard; just be sure they are clean, dry, and empty. Besides recycling, the empty wrapping paper tube can be reused to store used wrapping paper for safekeeping until its next use.
Big Kudos to Kellen, Mike and to When Pigs Fly, for hosting the eleventh annual Giving Back Day, Free Community Thanksgiving Dinner at the WV State Fair’s West Virginia Building, donated by the WV State Fair. Supported by local businesses, churches and individuals who donated food, cash, or volunteered to help prepare, cook, serve, deliver, and clean up, Kellen and Mike served over 900 dinners. Guests enjoyed a delicious sit-down Thanksgiving dinner, and several hundred dinners were delivered by volunteers. Not only was everyone busy preparing and serving the dinner, but they were also busy recycling cardboard boxes, steel cans, water bottles, and anything else that could be recycled. Special kudos to Barnwood Builders for their donation of all the compostable, environmentally friendly food containers. What a wonderful example of community support and involvement, of people helping people, as well as being eco-friendly and helping the environment! Here’s to an 11th Annual Giving Back Day next year on Thursday, November 26, 2026!
Have questions about recycling or interesting information about recycling? Send questions or requests to Recyclelady7@gmail.com. Dear Recycle Lady is sponsored jointly by the Greenbrier Recycling Center and Greenworks Recycling.
