November 15th is America Recycles Day! Established in 1997, this eco-friendly national holiday educates Americans on the importance of recycling and how to properly recycle products. One thing I personally did not realize until I was much older than I’d like to admit is that the phrase “reduce, reuse, recycle” is actually the order of importance of keeping products out of landfills. The best thing we can do is to reduce the amounts of plastics and other non-natural items we purchase and consume, but since things need to come in packaging, the second best thing we can do is reuse (or repurpose) those items. If all else fails, we should attempt to recycle those items when we are finished with them so they can go on to create other items.
At PWC, we appreciate our Animal Ambassadors and want to help them live their best lives. By creatively reusing everyday household items, we create enrichment activities to promote their natural behaviors and keep them engaged. Yesterday’s newspapers are our most commonly used items, either as lining for our critters’ enclosures, loosely stuffed in a box for our native snakes to hide in and explore, or as shreddable material for our pigeons. Toilet paper tubes are useful for hiding food so the raptors can mimic shredding their prey before they enjoy their meal. Cardboard boxes can be used for hides for the rat pack, to give our possum some privacy, or for the bottom of foraging boxes for our raven. Even larger cardboard boxes can be cut down to create toys and chewables for our rabbits (whose teeth never stop growing)! There are so many ways we can use your recyclable items in our everyday animal care.
The following everyday items can easily be put to use by our animal care team and volunteers to help our animals get the care they deserve:
Toilet paper and paper towel tubes
Empty tissue boxes
Yesterday’s newspaper
Egg cartons (styrofoam or paper)
Shoe boxes
Plastic jars, yogurt containers (with or without lids)
Cardboard boxes (any size, but please no used pizza boxes or boxes with chemicals spilt on them)
Books and magazines
Cereal boxes, cracker boxes, really any boxes as long as food hasn’t directly contacted the material
Soda/juice bottles (any plastic size is great)
If you don’t have any recyclables to donate or are already repurposing items around your house, please check out our Amazon and Chewy wishlists! If you have any questions, please email our Animal Enrichment Coordinator at jillian@piedmontwildlifecenter.org. Happy upcycling!
Article by Jillian Langston-Bennett
