Jewel-Use Technology

Here's an answer not just for you, but for all those readers who write in with insanely specific recycling problems: If you've called your municipal recycling experts and Googled all over the place, consider that you've done your best and call it a day. First, CD cases (just one example) are small and light, which is a good indicator that they should be low on your eco-savior priority list. Second, plastics recycling is often just briefly down-cycling: No. 2 bottles get one or two more shots at life before they're thrown out. If you can't find a way to recycle something, and you've searched in vain for info about a Plastics Reclamation Club or such, there may be no market for whatever you're trying to revivify. You may have to give up.

However, I can hold out a ray of hope in Melissa's case, even though I know it means I'll keep getting questions about recycling tiny objects. There is a company in Missouri that recycles "techno-trash": GreenDisk. Actually, I can hold out two rays of hope. The second is something I stumbled across on the Internet: a band thanking everyone who helped it cut costs by sending in old CD cases. Somewhere out there, an indie group is cutting the eco-album edge, perhaps with such sleeper hits as "I'm High on the Density of Your Polyethylene" and "Your P-E-T Is No. 1 With Me." Keep an eye out, and perhaps add "donate" to your Google search terms.

Tunefully,
Umbra