Talk of the Town: It’s keen to go green!

As Kermit the Frog says, “It’s not easy being green.” And it’s not easy living green, either. If we don’t start taking care of this planet, it won’t matter who runs any country on the planet. One way of preventing a landscape full of landfills is to recycle.

Our friends at Real Simple magazine listed many ways to go green, and here are a few of them:

Aerosol cans. These can usually be recycled with other cans, as long as you pull off the plastic cap and empty the canister completely.

Backpacks. The American Birding Association accepts donated backpacks, which its scientists use while tracking neotropical birds (www.americanbirding.org).

Cell phones. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, fewer than 20 percent of cell phones are recycled each year, and most people don’t know where to recycle them. The Wireless Foundation refurbishes old phones to give to domestic-violence survivors (www.calltoprotect.org); for information on other cell-phone charities, log on to www.recyclewirelessphones.com. In some states, like California and New York, retailers must accept and recycle old cell phones at no charge.

Crayons. Send them to the National Crayon Recycle Program (www.crazycrayons.com), which melts down crayons and reforms them into new ones. Leave the wrappers on: “When you have black, blue, and purple crayons together without wrappers, it’s hard to tell them apart,” says the program’s founder, LuAnn Foty, a.k.a. the Crazy Crayon Lady.