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Upcycling Ideas for Earth Day to Show Love for the Environment

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Everyone is more conscious about recycling, or as we now say “going green”. In fact, some people now engage in a DIY activity called “upcycling” - reusing and re-purposing common (and often broken) household items without just shipping them off to a recycling center. You can make useful items out of these materials we would normally throw away. Let us take a look at these various DIY craft projects we can easily complete with a bit of effort and ingenuity.

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For those who like to knit or crochet, making purses out of those plastic grocery bags that you have stashed in a cabinet somewhere can be a fun craft project. You can also upcycle plastic bags to make coasters and wallets. Use your imagination and see what ideas you can come up to use the plastic bags. Click on the link below for directions on how to make this item and other useful ways to upcycle those plastic grocery bags - http://www.myrecycledbags.com/2007/05/18/recycled-plastic-grocery-tote-bag/

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The next upcycling idea involves 2-liter bottles. If you are like most people, you acquire a lot of 2-liter bottles and don’t know what to do with the empty ones. Instead of just disposing of them or putting them out for the recycling truck, how about making a bird house out of them? This project will also help recycle those CD’s that are of no use to you anymore. Use the link for instructions on making your own bird house. Not only does this project help save the environment, it gives birds a place to live and provides you and your family hours of watchable enjoyment.

Other ideas for upcycling 2-liter bottles would include the creation of decorative pumpkins, bird feeders, planters, vases, lamp shades, etc. There are so many different craft projects that can be made out of all this plastic that you will no longer be throwing them away. For instructions on how to make your own 2-liter bottle bird house, click on the link. http://www.favecrafts.com/Green-Crafting/Plastic-Bottle-Birdhouse

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If you don’t have any 2-liter bottles but have a horde of 20-oz water bottles, you can have the kids help in making a lot of different jewelry, home décor, and banks from bottles and caps. Most kids enjoy making crafts, and DIY projects where you can recycle and upcycle can help teach them that you don’t have to throw everything away. Use the link for more fun and ideas - http://www.favecrafts.com/Green-Crafting/14-Easy-to-Make-Water-Bottle-Crafts

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Even as major news organizations move online, we still seem to generate lots of newsprint. What to do with all of that paper, besides send it to the recycling center? Some ideas include creating your own Christmas ornaments, bridal bouquet, or a small woven basket. Directions on how to weave the basket above can be found at http://www.craftstylish.com/item/47658/the-times-they-are-a-changing-how-to-make-a-basket-from-a-newspaper/page/all

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Many other fun things can be made out of newspaper as well. If you are into knitting or crocheting, you can make yarn to create mats or whatever else you choose. Directions for spinning your own yarn from newspaper can be found here: http://greenupgrader.com/2138/handspun-recycled-newspaper-yarn/

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Instead of spending lots of money for business cards, how about making some DIY cards from that newspaper you just got done reading? For more ideas on how to upcycle old unwanted newspapers, click the following link: http://pinterest.com/theprovince/newspaper-crafts/

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Glass jars are frequently tossed into the trash or sent to the recycling center on a regular basis. Glass jars can be used to hold household items such as buttons, cotton balls, pens, etc. They also can hold flowers, or with a little paint or material of your choice, you can upcycle it into a vase. Whether it’s painted on, etched, and cut, or wrapped it in paper, yarn, or cloth, glass jars can be used for any number of DIY craft projects. 

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Kids can fill up a glass container with colored sand and have a decorative piece to put on display in your home. Since glass comes in all shapes and sizes, you can choose exactly the container that best fits your décor and style. For more ideas use the link. http://savedbylovecreations.com/2012/06/50-recycled-glass-bottle-projects-to-make.html

In general, upcycling your unwanted items can be fun for the whole family, since these easy craft projects encourage and foster creativity. By moving beyond recycling (which is great) to “reusing,” learning to upcycle also teaches the next generation that we shouldn’t waste more than we actually use or need to use.

Have any upcycling projects that you’d like to share with us? 

Image courtesy of moonlightbulb.

unconsumption: It’s wine o’clock somewhere — which means it’s time to share another wine-related repurposing find. Today, it’s wine corks used as floor covering.  This photo, via MSN, shows the cork-floor handiwork of Dan Phillips, of Huntsville, Texas-based Phoenix Commotion (mentioned previously on Unconsumption here), which constructs affordable homes from recycled, salvaged, and/or found materials. More posts in Unconsumption’s wine o’clock series can be found here. (Thanks, Chip, for the tip!)  It’s an entire floor made out of repurposed wine corks. Upcycling at its classiest. You should also click through the links in the original article to see even more way to construct homes and home improvement projects using recycled and/or found materials.

unconsumption:

It’s wine o’clock somewhere — which means it’s time to share another wine-related repurposing find.

Today, it’s wine corks used as floor covering. 

This photo, via MSN, shows the cork-floor handiwork of Dan Phillips, of Huntsville, Texas-based Phoenix Commotion (mentioned previously on Unconsumption here), which constructs affordable homes from recycled, salvaged, and/or found materials.

More posts in Unconsumption’s wine o’clock series can be found here.

(Thanks, Chip, for the tip!) 

It’s an entire floor made out of repurposed wine corks. Upcycling at its classiest. You should also click through the links in the original article to see even more way to construct homes and home improvement projects using recycled and/or found materials.

10 Things in Your Home You Didn't Know You Could Recycle»

smarterdotcom:

Many of us try our best to make sure we recycle, stacking up the usual recyclable  goods such as paper, plastic and glass daily. Unfortunately, millions of recyclable items still go to waste every year. Before throwing out something that doesn’t really feel like “trash,” check with local programs to see if you can recycle it instead. Who knows, you may be able to donate it, rather than let it go to waste in a landfill. 

Check out these tips for recycling items often deemed un-recyclable. 

Have a Green 2013 with These Eco-friendly Resolutions

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It’s the beginning of a new year, and for many, this is the time to make New Year’s Resolutions in hopes of making a few changes in our lives. Common resolutions include losing a bit of weight, saving more money, using money more efficiently, and more. So, if you decided to change a few things about yourself in 2013, why not make a few of your resolutions green? Not only will they be good for you, but for Mother Earth will appreciate them as well. Here are a few resolutions to get you started helping the environment, starting with the Big Three:

  • Reduce (No more paper towels). Rather than using paper towels that create lots of waste, choose reusable microfiber rags for a green option. Not only do they clean effectively, they can be washed and reused multiple times. If you still feel the need to use paper towels, choose the ones made from recycled materials and only use exactly what you need.
  • Re-Use. Find new purposes for items before throwing them out and adding to landfill piles.  Try to come up with one new way to use an item before throwing it out. If you’re extra-crafty, you can try to “upcycle” your old stuff and do some redecorating on the cheap.
  • Recycle. Instead of throwing items like aluminum, glass and newspaper away, make the green effort to recycle them. Recycling has major benefits like reducing the amount of waste sent to landfills, saving energy, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and helping to sustain the environment (just to name a few).

From there, we can move in a host of new directions for living a more green lifestyle.

  • Stop using bottled water. No matter how they advertise it, plastic bottles are terrible for the environment. Millions of these receptacles sit in landfills, and the slowly rotting plastic pollutes our ground water. Instead, use reusable water bottles made from stainless steel or aluminum.
  • Conserve water. Make the decision to use less water. Whether you decide to take shorter showers, turn off the water when brushing teeth, or hand-wash your dishes, small steps can make a difference. Conserving water not only helps save water, but it helps save energy, as it takes a lot of energy to move water and treat it before it even reaches your home. This can also help you lower your electricity bill, since the less water you have to heat, the less electricity you use each billing cycle.
  • Say good-bye to plastic and paper bags. Next time you head to the grocery store, make it a point to bring your own reusable shopping bag made of cotton or mesh. When they ask “Paper or plastic,” feel good when you say “Neither!”
  • Educate yourself on the issues. While we all realize in general that it’s important to be green and friendly to your environment, you may be better persuaded if you read up on the issues. By making a resolution to educate yourself on the matters at hand, it may make a bigger impact on your beliefs and actions.
  • Wash clothes only in cold water. With today’s washers, most clothes can get the same level of “clean” from cold water as they do from hot water. Plus, according to Energy Star.gov, almost 90% of the energy consumed by a washing machine goes to heating water, so washing in cold will save energy.
  • Make your home more energy-efficient. Don’t get overwhelmed with this one. It can be done with small tasks such as replacing your lights with new-fangled CFL bulbs or LED lights, or installing a programmable thermostat. Click here for more DIY ideas on how to make your home more energy efficient.
  • Opt out of receiving unwanted catalogs/magazines. Think about the millions of catalogs that are pitched in the trash on a daily basis and then think about the waste it creates and the amount of trees used to make them. Stop the cycle by going to CatalogChoice.org where you can type in the company name of each catalog you want to discontinue and put a stop to the waste.
  • Choose a Green Energy plan with for your electricity needs. Finally, one of the easiest things that you can do to green your home to help the environment is to select an electricity plan that uses 100% renewable energy. Most major power companies offer such plans, so you can rest easy at night knowing that you’re using electricity that comes from renewable sources like wind, solar, and/or biomass.
Recycling Your Christmas Tree The gift wrapping paper is stuffed in the trash can, the Christmas cookies are just crumbs. There’s a fur-and-pine-needle-covered candy-cane stuck to the sofa and it’s time to put away the decorations. The holidays are soooo over! So, while you’re extricating the cat from the Christmas tree again, have you figured out how you are going to recycle your real tree? Well, here’s the fast five ex-Christmas tree recycling solutions. Because of landfill costs many US municipalities offer curbside pickup. Trees are taken to a collection area for shredding so they can decompose and be sold (or given away) as mulch in the spring. Be sure to check with your city or county waste disposal website for information. Take you tree in for recycling. While some cities or counties don’t offer to pick up Christmas trees, they will chip, shred and mulch them if you bring yours to their disposal site. In large cities, the waste disposal department sets up multiple tree-collection stations. Shred and mulch it for yourself. If you are fortunate enough to have a neighbor or a friend who owns a chipper/shredder, or have one for yourself, then shredding and mulching your own tree can be a great way to recycle your tree and enhance the gardening areas around your home. Erosion control/bank stabilizing & winter bird shelter: Christmas trees also have a life beyond the holidays in erosion control. Because they are fairly rigid natural structures, their branches catch leaves, loose soil, and other debris that help build up stream banks. In Galveston, TX, 1000 trees are wanted this year for use in rebuilding sand dunes. Birds will also use its tightly intertwining branches as shelter against wind and predators during the winter. Fireplace kindling. As anyone with a fireplace knows, pine is full of resins that make the wood burn very fast and hot so it’s a good starting material for use with oak or hickory logs. Store your Christmas tree out by your wood pile and pluck off a few twigs as needed to stock your kindling box. What about recycling artificial trees? So far, artificial trees can’t be recycled because they are made with a thin plastic strip bound between steel wires that are twisted together. Recycling them would require the wire to be untwisted. The plastic strips would also need to be identified as to what kind of plastic they are ( Type 1 PETE or Type 2 HDPE). Right now, the best thing to do is convert a few branches into holiday wreaths and throw out the remainder. (Photo by sdminor81)

Recycling Your Christmas Tree

The gift wrapping paper is stuffed in the trash can, the Christmas cookies are just crumbs. There’s a fur-and-pine-needle-covered candy-cane stuck to the sofa and it’s time to put away the decorations.

The holidays are soooo over!

So, while you’re extricating the cat from the Christmas tree again, have you figured out how you are going to recycle your real tree? Well, here’s the fast five ex-Christmas tree recycling solutions.

  1. Because of landfill costs many US municipalities offer curbside pickup. Trees are taken to a collection area for shredding so they can decompose and be sold (or given away) as mulch in the spring. Be sure to check with your city or county waste disposal website for information.
  2. Take you tree in for recycling. While some cities or counties don’t offer to pick up Christmas trees, they will chip, shred and mulch them if you bring yours to their disposal site. In large cities, the waste disposal department sets up multiple tree-collection stations.
  3. Shred and mulch it for yourself. If you are fortunate enough to have a neighbor or a friend who owns a chipper/shredder, or have one for yourself, then shredding and mulching your own tree can be a great way to recycle your tree and enhance the gardening areas around your home.
  4. Erosion control/bank stabilizing & winter bird shelter: Christmas trees also have a life beyond the holidays in erosion control. Because they are fairly rigid natural structures, their branches catch leaves, loose soil, and other debris that help build up stream banks. In Galveston, TX, 1000 trees are wanted this year for use in rebuilding sand dunes. Birds will also use its tightly intertwining branches as shelter against wind and predators during the winter.
  5. Fireplace kindling. As anyone with a fireplace knows, pine is full of resins that make the wood burn very fast and hot so it’s a good starting material for use with oak or hickory logs. Store your Christmas tree out by your wood pile and pluck off a few twigs as needed to stock your kindling box.

What about recycling artificial trees? So far, artificial trees can’t be recycled because they are made with a thin plastic strip bound between steel wires that are twisted together. Recycling them would require the wire to be untwisted. The plastic strips would also need to be identified as to what kind of plastic they are ( Type 1 PETE or Type 2 HDPE). Right now, the best thing to do is convert a few branches into holiday wreaths and throw out the remainder.

(Photo by sdminor81)

Greening Your Holiday Gift Wrap Sharing gifts with family and friends during the holiday season is fun and joyous for most of us. Finding the perfect presents for everyone on your gift-giving list is usually followed by carefully selecting bright, colorful paper and bows to wrap those precious expressions of your love. For many of us today, we also want to show our concern for the environment by choosing green eco-friendly packaging and gift-wrap like gift-wrap that is made with recycled paper. That is a great start, but If you are wondering how to make your gifting more environmentally friendly we have a few suggestions. Wrapping For Reducing the Waste One way to reduce the pile of left over holiday gift wrap is to choose alternative wrapping materials that can easily be re-purposed after the holidays. You can also salvage large remnants from year to year. By ironing on the reverse side with a low setting, some gift wrap can be restored to a wrinkle free surface, trimmed and used next season. Check out these other fun suggestions. 1. Wrap gifts in kitchen towels, linen napkins, T-shirts or other fabric instead of paper gift wrap. If you are creative you can have lots of fun with this one. Wrap concert tickets in a T-shirts that features the performing artist or group. Use large kitchen towels around cutlery or small, counter-top appliances, bundle favorite cologne and toiletries in a soft, luxurious over-sized bath towel-you get the picture. You can even fill a creel with a nice assortment of fishing gear for the angler in the family. 2. Use the Sunday comics to envelop your literary selection for the avid reader or joke teller in the family. 3. Instead of wrapping your gift of jewelry, present those necklaces, rings and baubbles on a ribbon around the neck of an adorable teddy bear or inside a trinket box tied with a bow and suspended from a branch on the tree along with the other decorations. Recycling What is Left Most communities have recycling programs for Christmas trees, cardboard and paper. Foil and other metallic paper is normally not recyclable, but you should check with your local center to find out if they had alternative solutions. Talk to your green co-workers and find out what they do with their holiday left-overs. Brainstorm at the office and offer a free latte to the one that comes up with the most creative idea for recycling. Past creative thinkers have come up with some of the green, crafty, and surprising solutions like these: 1. Create intricate and beautiful origami figures as gifts or to display on your own mantle or side tables. 2. Use gift wrap to create beautiful green pieces of jewelry, note cards or placemats. There are numerous books, videos and online references to get you started. Three links are included here that will help inspire you to get your own creative juices flowing. Paper earrings: You can use more or fewer sheets of wrapping paper to adjust the shape and weight. Paper placemats: Consider recycling your excess cardboard for the backing instead of buying foam or cardstock. Making notecards: Get the kids involved with this project. 3. Trim and iron remnants of paper and donate them to daycare centers or nursing homes that have craft projects on an on-going basis. This facilities are normally excited to receive project supplies. Check with the activity director before you drop off any items. One solution for recycling the foil papers and cardboard at the same time is to make your own gift trays for New Year celebrations and treat sharing. Crinkle the foil by pressing into a ball and then gently unroll the piece to flatten. Cover a 9 X 13 rectangle (or any shape of your choosing) of cardboard with the remnant. Serve cookies or snacks on the finished tray to give your table a festive touch or use these trays for food gifts you are sharing with neighbors and family. One quirky and fun way to reuse corrugated cardboard is to tear pieces into shapes about the size of a standard post card. Add a witty note on one side and use the other to fill in the address of someone that could use some cheering up in an unconventional way. The post office has mailed these non-standard post cards in the past, but be sure to check with a clerk to see if additional postage for size or weight is needed before dropping them in the box. It is easy to make your gift giving greener with a little thought and ingenuity. Finding ways to reduce, recycle and reuse around the holidays is just one more way that you can say you care. Have fun with the holidays and then have fun recycling for the future.

Greening Your Holiday Gift Wrap

Sharing gifts with family and friends during the holiday season is fun and joyous for most of us. Finding the perfect presents for everyone on your gift-giving list is usually followed by carefully selecting bright, colorful paper and bows to wrap those precious expressions of your love. For many of us today, we also want to show our concern for the environment by choosing green eco-friendly packaging and gift-wrap like gift-wrap that is made with recycled paper. That is a great start, but If you are wondering how to make your gifting more environmentally friendly we have a few suggestions.

Wrapping For Reducing the Waste

One way to reduce the pile of left over holiday gift wrap is to choose alternative wrapping materials that can easily be re-purposed after the holidays. You can also salvage large remnants from year to year. By ironing on the reverse side with a low setting, some gift wrap can be restored to a wrinkle free surface, trimmed and used next season. Check out these other fun suggestions.

1. Wrap gifts in kitchen towels, linen napkins, T-shirts or other fabric instead of paper gift wrap. If you are creative you can have lots of fun with this one. Wrap concert tickets in a T-shirts that features the performing artist or group. Use large kitchen towels around cutlery or small, counter-top appliances, bundle favorite cologne and toiletries in a soft, luxurious over-sized bath towel-you get the picture. You can even fill a creel with a nice assortment of fishing gear for the angler in the family.

2. Use the Sunday comics to envelop your literary selection for the avid reader or joke teller in the family.

3. Instead of wrapping your gift of jewelry, present those necklaces, rings and baubbles on a ribbon around the neck of an adorable teddy bear or inside a trinket box tied with a bow and suspended from a branch on the tree along with the other decorations.

Recycling What is Left

Most communities have recycling programs for Christmas trees, cardboard and paper. Foil and other metallic paper is normally not recyclable, but you should check with your local center to find out if they had alternative solutions. Talk to your green co-workers and find out what they do with their holiday left-overs. Brainstorm at the office and offer a free latte to the one that comes up with the most creative idea for recycling. Past creative thinkers have come up with some of the green, crafty, and surprising solutions like these:

1. Create intricate and beautiful origami figures as gifts or to display on your own mantle or side tables.

2. Use gift wrap to create beautiful green pieces of jewelry, note cards or placemats. There are numerous books, videos and online references to get you started. Three links are included here that will help inspire you to get your own creative juices flowing.

Paper earrings: You can use more or fewer sheets of wrapping paper to adjust the shape and weight.

Paper placemats: Consider recycling your excess cardboard for the backing instead of buying foam or cardstock.

Making notecards: Get the kids involved with this project.

3. Trim and iron remnants of paper and donate them to daycare centers or nursing homes that have craft projects on an on-going basis. This facilities are normally excited to receive project supplies. Check with the activity director before you drop off any items.

One solution for recycling the foil papers and cardboard at the same time is to make your own gift trays for New Year celebrations and treat sharing. Crinkle the foil by pressing into a ball and then gently unroll the piece to flatten. Cover a 9 X 13 rectangle (or any shape of your choosing) of cardboard with the remnant. Serve cookies or snacks on the finished tray to give your table a festive touch or use these trays for food gifts you are sharing with neighbors and family.

One quirky and fun way to reuse corrugated cardboard is to tear pieces into shapes about the size of a standard post card. Add a witty note on one side and use the other to fill in the address of someone that could use some cheering up in an unconventional way. The post office has mailed these non-standard post cards in the past, but be sure to check with a clerk to see if additional postage for size or weight is needed before dropping them in the box.

It is easy to make your gift giving greener with a little thought and ingenuity. Finding ways to reduce, recycle and reuse around the holidays is just one more way that you can say you care. Have fun with the holidays and then have fun recycling for the future.

The Negatives of Recycling? Recycling is nothing new, but it has gained prominence in recent years, as people have become more conscious about trying to help the environment. Furthermore, recycling is a good thing when done right; unfortunately, many people are not recycling correctly, while others have the wrong idea about what it really means to recycle. One of the key mission statements of the environmental movement remains the three-pronged phrase: “Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.” Thus, the first step to proper recycling reducing the quantity of items that need to be recycled, followed by finding ways to reuse certain items as opposed to tossing them in a trash can or recycling bin automatically. In short, if people make a conscious effort to reduce what they use and then reuse items whenever and however possible, then the amount of products we need to recycle will be greatly diminished. The idea of recycling has been around for a couple of generations now. There are nearly 12,000 recycling programs in the United States, and they’ve mostly arisen in the past 30-40 years. However, many people still wonder whether recycling is worth the effort. Are we really saving energy? With the growing size of old-school landfills, have people really embraced recycling? And most importantly, are all of our efforts to recycle really helping the environment, when in essence, shouldn’t we just learn to use less? Cons to recycling: It may take more energy to recycle a given product than it did to make it originally. Recycling is hard work for the consumer, don’t let anyone fool you into thinking recycling is an easy task. Before containers can be recycled, they must be washed clean and the labels need to be removed. This uses up more energy in the form of water used and heating the water for the washing. Also, it takes extra gas in the car to make recycling trips Some plastic bottles and materials (like wrappers, for example) cannot be recycled, and some people do not know the difference. Only clean plastic bottles are recyclable. Not only that, but some recycling centers will not recycled certain plastics such as Polyvinyl Chloride (3) or Polystyrene (6) as these are typically non-recyclable plastics. Not everyone knows that you cannot recycle electronics at the normal recycling centers because of certain heavy metals used in the manufacturing of certain electronic products and parts. Instead, the consumer will have to find special E-Cycling facility, which means more gas use and more recycling trips. It costs a substantial amount of energy and time to recycle paper products properly. The recycling industry requires more water and certain expensive chemicals to remove the ink from paper so that the product can then be recycled. Pros of Recycling: Many people are making a concerted effort to recycle, and these efforts do help the environment. Recycling means that a lot less waste is going into our landfill, and less recycling means less money spent on new products. Recycling decreases the amount of raw materials harvested from the environment needed to manufacture new products. When glass is recycled, it is reconstituted as sand, road building materials, decorator bricks and similar products. When plastic is recycled, it is made into items like carpets and plastic wood-like products such as decking materials, clothing materials, and fencing. It takes a lot less energy to recycle plastic then it does to make new plastic containers. Recycling is not the first thing that needs to be done to make a difference for our environment. The first thing that needs to be done is to reduce the need to buy so much of a given product. Everyone should then try to reuse items as much as possible to recycle, whether as the same product or in a different mode. Thinking of creative ways to reuse as much paper as possible in the home can be a rewarding challenge. Shredded paper can be used for packing and mailing fragile items. Newspapers and old magazines make for unique gift wrapping options. Reuse paper with writing only on one side when possible. Use paper as compost. Put only leftover paper into the recycling bin. You can also get your kids involved and try making crafts and other activities out of recyclable materials. Try to get rid of recycling as much as possible by purchasing groceries that don’t require lots of extraneous packaging. Buying in bulk is a good way cut down on packaging (and the food is typically fresher and tastes better). We all know that using reusable shopping bags helps cut down on waste plastic, but did you know you can also use reusable produce bags as another way to cut back on your plastic use? There are also reusable sandwich and snack bags currently on the market to help you cut back on packaging waste.

The Negatives of Recycling?

Recycling is nothing new, but it has gained prominence in recent years, as people have become more conscious about trying to help the environment. Furthermore, recycling is a good thing when done right; unfortunately, many people are not recycling correctly, while others have the wrong idea about what it really means to recycle.

One of the key mission statements of the environmental movement remains the three-pronged phrase: “Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.” Thus, the first step to proper recycling reducing the quantity of items that need to be recycled, followed by finding ways to reuse certain items as opposed to tossing them in a trash can or recycling bin automatically. In short, if people make a conscious effort to reduce what they use and then reuse items whenever and however possible, then the amount of products we need to recycle will be greatly diminished.

The idea of recycling has been around for a couple of generations now. There are nearly 12,000 recycling programs in the United States, and they’ve mostly arisen in the past 30-40 years. However, many people still wonder whether recycling is worth the effort. Are we really saving energy? With the growing size of old-school landfills, have people really embraced recycling? And most importantly, are all of our efforts to recycle really helping the environment, when in essence, shouldn’t we just learn to use less?

Cons to recycling:

  • It may take more energy to recycle a given product than it did to make it originally.
  • Recycling is hard work for the consumer, don’t let anyone fool you into thinking recycling is an easy task. Before containers can be recycled, they must be washed clean and the labels need to be removed. This uses up more energy in the form of water used and heating the water for the washing. Also, it takes extra gas in the car to make recycling trips
  • Some plastic bottles and materials (like wrappers, for example) cannot be recycled, and some people do not know the difference. Only clean plastic bottles are recyclable. Not only that, but some recycling centers will not recycled certain plastics such as Polyvinyl Chloride (3) or Polystyrene (6) as these are typically non-recyclable plastics.
  • Not everyone knows that you cannot recycle electronics at the normal recycling centers because of certain heavy metals used in the manufacturing of certain electronic products and parts. Instead, the consumer will have to find special E-Cycling facility, which means more gas use and more recycling trips.
  • It costs a substantial amount of energy and time to recycle paper products properly. The recycling industry requires more water and certain expensive chemicals to remove the ink from paper so that the product can then be recycled.

Pros of Recycling:

Many people are making a concerted effort to recycle, and these efforts do help the environment. Recycling means that a lot less waste is going into our landfill, and less recycling means less money spent on new products.

Recycling decreases the amount of raw materials harvested from the environment needed to manufacture new products. When glass is recycled, it is reconstituted as sand, road building materials, decorator bricks and similar products. When plastic is recycled, it is made into items like carpets and plastic wood-like products such as decking materials, clothing materials, and fencing.

It takes a lot less energy to recycle plastic then it does to make new plastic containers.

Recycling is not the first thing that needs to be done to make a difference for our environment.

The first thing that needs to be done is to reduce the need to buy so much of a given product. Everyone should then try to reuse items as much as possible to recycle, whether as the same product or in a different mode.

Thinking of creative ways to reuse as much paper as possible in the home can be a rewarding challenge. Shredded paper can be used for packing and mailing fragile items. Newspapers and old magazines make for unique gift wrapping options. Reuse paper with writing only on one side when possible. Use paper as compost. Put only leftover paper into the recycling bin. You can also get your kids involved and try making crafts and other activities out of recyclable materials.

Try to get rid of recycling as much as possible by purchasing groceries that don’t require lots of extraneous packaging. Buying in bulk is a good way cut down on packaging (and the food is typically fresher and tastes better). We all know that using reusable shopping bags helps cut down on waste plastic, but did you know you can also use reusable produce bags as another way to cut back on your plastic use? There are also reusable sandwich and snack bags currently on the market to help you cut back on packaging waste.