Ingrid Burke

  America Recycles Day is next Thursday, Nov. 15, and this is a perfect time to think about your recycling and sustainability habits. Are you incorporating the “reduce, reuse, recycle” mantra in your daily life? You bet you are, just by reading this newspaper!

  If you toss this paper into a recycling bin when you’re done with it instead of a garbage can, you’re saving trees and landfill space. But by buying the paper in the first place, you’re also providing a market for recycled goods: All Feather Publishing Co. newspapers are printed on paper with 40 percent or more recycled content. This is essential, because without a way to keep recycled materials in the production chain, recycling doesn’t do any good.

  What else can you do with your newspaper once you’re done reading it? Crumple it up to wash windows or start fires in the woodstove. Lay it flat to protect surfaces during craft or hobby projects. Rip it into strips for pet bedding or a worm bin. Wrap a colorful page around a gift.

  The inks used by Feather Publishing are plant-based and non-toxic, so both color and black-and-white pages are safe for people and animals.

  Need more newspapers? Stop by the main Feather Publishing office at 287 Lawrence St. in Quincy to pick up newspaper bundles for $1. End rolls of blank newsprint are also available, ranging in price from $1 to $10. Newsprint is great for art projects; one of my favorites is making wrapping paper. Have kids or pets dips hands, feet and paws into paint and “stamp” their way across the newsprint.

  What’s your favorite creative way to use newspaper? Share your ideas via email to iburke@plumasnews.com.

  Feather Publishing encourages sustainability in other ways too. We collect the used-up batteries from reporters’ cameras and take them to the transfer station for safe disposal. We recycle the aluminum plates and film sheets used in the printing process. We set aside wooden shipping pallets for free pickup by the public (drive around back at the Quincy office). We recycle office paper and unused newspapers, as well as cardboard, plastic, glass and aluminum.

  Want to recycle more of your household waste too? Here’s what you can collect and take to the local transfer station:

  —Plastic: CRV beverage containers marked No. 1 through No. 7, transparent No. 1 (PETE) and No. 2 (HDPE), milk jugs, water bottles and detergent bottles. Colored bottles are OK.

  —Glass: beverage and food containers of all colors. No window glass, mirrors or drinking glasses.

  —Aluminum: beer and soda cans.

  —Paper: all kinds including mail, office paper, newsprint, magazines, phone books, etc. Remove staples and paper clips.

  —Cardboard: boxes should be flattened.

  —Tin or steel: cans, aluminum foil, empty aerosol cans, dry paint cans, lids from jars, etc. They should be cleaned with labels removed.

  Transfer stations also accept used motor oil and used oil filters, antifreeze, batteries and scrap metal. For more information, visit countyofplumas.com. Scroll over Departments, then D – Z, Public Works and Solid Waste. Click Recycling.

  For more information about America Recycles Day and recycling ideas and tips, visit americarecyclesday.org.