Skip out on spending tons of money on a designer wallet. Instead, use some of these ideas to make an upcycled wallet out of LEGOs, cassette tapes, candy wrappers, denim, or even a mountain bike tire. Check out this great post titled 10 Coolest Wallets Created from Recycled Objects shared from Environmental Graffiti.

Queen Creek, Arizona will soon offer curbside textile recycling.

The town, paired up with United Fibers, is conducting a four-month pilot program of textile recycling. Residents can recycle items such as clothes, towels, blankets, shoes, etc. by simply putting them in a special bag and placing them in their curbside recycling bins.

The textiles will be sorted and weighed by United Fibers and then turned into home insulation by Phoenix Fibers. Ramona Simpson, Queen Creek's trash and recycling administrator, comments on how great it is to see the end product made right there in Arizona.

The main goal is to get as many people to participate as possible. About 7,000 people have the opportunity to partake in the program and Queen Creek's trash and recycling department hopes to divert as many textiles from the trash as possible! For the full earth911 story, click here.

New York State's Plastic Bag Reduction, Reuse and Recycling Act
"Effective January 1, 2009, a new statewide law requires certain retail and grocery stores to set up a plastic carry out bag recycling program for their customers.

Stores with 10,000 square feet or more of retail space and chains which operate five or more stores with greater than 5,000 square feet of retail space, and which provide plastic carry out bags to customers, are required to comply with the law."

See what kind of plastic bags you can recycle at stores:
   Plastic retail bags with string ties and rigid plastic handles removed
   Plastic newspaper bags
   Plastic dry-cleaning bags
   Plastic produce bags with all food residue removed
   Plastic bread bags with all food residue removed
   Plastic cereal bags with all food residue removed
   Plastic frozen food bags with all food residue removed
   Plastic wrap from paper products (paper towels, etc)
   Plastic stretch/shrink wrap with all food residue removed
   Plastic zipper-type bags with plastic closing mechanism removed

Click here to see frequently asked questions about plastic bag recycling from the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation.

In the beginning of July, Apple decided to stop submitting its Mac computers to the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) certification process. EPEAT analyzes an electronic based on how recyclable its components are, which toxic materials are in the product, how long the product is expected to last and what types of packaging materials are used. Apple stated that their design and manufacturing process did not align with the EPEAT requirements.

As a leader in the electronics industry, Apple parting from EPEAT was a disappointment to many consumers. This sent an awful message stating "that design trumps responsibility for a company's impact on the planet and that green standards aren't important." Just a few days later, Apple admitted pulling away from EPEAT was a mistake and stated as of July 13th, all eligible Apple products are back on inline with EPEAT standards. It's amazing what can be done when people start talking. Check out both articles from treehugger here: Apple Walks Away from Green Certification and Thanks, Apple, for Admitting Your Mistake and Coming Back to EPEAT.

Ever wonder what happened to your printer cartridges when they are recycled? Earth911 has the answer! Leon Kaye took a tour of the Hewlett-Packard (HP) recycling facility and tells us what exactly goes on inside this normal looking building.

1. First, used cartridges are sent here in boxes and small envelopes, and are collected at the loading dock.
2. The cartridges are separated by model number. Ink is drained one at a time, and the foam previously containing the ink is sorted by color. 
3. Next, the plastic is shredded and sent to a factory outside Montreal, Canada. The recycled cartridge plastic is mixed with PET plastic to create new printer cartridges. 

"HP estimates that since the company started recycling its plastic cartridges, it has kept 511,000,000 objects out of landfills. Over 39,000,000 cartridges have been recycled."

Though it is not yet a closed loop system, costumers can continue to help by always properly disposing of their printer cartridges: bring them back to the store, mail them back to HP, whatever it takes to keep them out of the trash!

Solo cups celebrate Earth Day in Chicago with a float made of solo cups that will afterwards be recycled. Check out the album on TerraCycle's Facebook. 

“Eggshell is classified as a waste material by the food industry, but is in fact a highly sophisticated composite,” said Richard Worrall, director of the Food and Drink iNet. Scientists at the University of Leicester in the U.K. are conducting a research project to convert eggshells into bioplastics- that could in turn be used to make egg cartons and pharmaceuticals. 

"Green chemistry" scientists are leading the project, which has already received about £20,000 (about $31,600). The first step will be to finalize a pre-treatment process to sterilize the eggshells. The next step will be to figure out how to extract glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), which are a type of protein found in eggshells that are used in many biomedical applications. They'll also be developing a a post-treatment process to convert the eggshells into a starchy plastic. 

Often food producers must pay a lot of money to dispose of eggshells in landfills. Now, not only will the shells be recycled, but people will also save a lot of money that was usually spent on landfill costs. Check out earth911 for the full story.