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Reduce, Reuse, Regift
Think about whether you really need a product, and how you will deal with its associated waste issues before you buy it.
Buy goods in bulk, or in re-usable containers. Buy refills or concentrates.
When you are shopping, use a non-plastic re-usable bag (and keep it in your car so it's always handy).
If a household item is broken, don't just throw it away. First, try to fix it yourself. If that doesn't work, try using it for a different purpose, or else give it to someone who needs it. "One man's trash is another man's treasure" is often true! Alternatively, place a free online advertisement to sell or swap it. Also consider online auction sites
Don't buy overpackaged goods.
Buy fresh, unprocessed products - preferably local to reduce transport.
Compost your kitchen scraps - it's easier than you think! Or get more adventurous and start a worm farm.
Here are some suggestions on what to do with specific items:
Energy efficient light bulbs (compact fluorescents) are great becuase they're so much better than normal light bulbs / globes. however, they contain a small amount of mercury, so they should not be broken and shouldn't be put in your bin to be taken to a landfill site. Instead, take them to your local helpful supermarket where they have containers - place them in there (without breaking them) and they will be collected and carefully recycled.
Reuse glass bottles as storage containers, or make your own jam / chutney / preserves - they make great gifts too! Alternatively, take them to a Glass Bank - many schools and most municipal refuse sites have them.
Old eye glasses can be donated - there are 17 official Lions Eyeglass Recycling Centres in the world (9 in the USA, and one each in Canada, France, Italy, Spain, South Africa and Australia. Find where you can donate.
Household batteries are classed as hazardous waste, so they shouldn't go in your normal bin as they will end up in landfill. Instead, your municipal waste depot or your apartment complex recycling bins may have a separate section for used batteries. Alternatively, some computer stores offer recycling.
Car batteries are also hazardous. Take them back to th eoutlet where you bought them, they should have recycling facilities for them.
Household items and clothes are appreciated by local charities. Alternatively have a jumble sale / car boot sale / yard sale.
Paper is easy to reuse and recycle. If paper has only beern printed on one side, you can print on the other. Paper printed on one side can be used for scratch pads or notepads (e.g. next to the phone). Just make sure ther's no confidential information on there. Vets and animal shelters / pounds often appreciate old newspapers. Schools can often use egg cartons, toilet roll holders, cardboard etc. Instead of paper lunch bags, use re-usable containers. And finally, most counties have kerbside paper pickup services - just put your paper out once a week. Tip: as you open your mail, stand over the paper recycling container, and put envelopes and junk mail straight in there
Organic Waste can be composted - see how easy it is to build a very basic composting heap.
Old Tyres can be re-used as the seat of a swing, a container for a sand pit or (stacked) as a compost heap. If you can't re-use them, take them your nearest tyre sales outlet who will recycle them. |
Recycling
First of all: What Can I Recycle?
Paper, cans, glass, plastics, oil, batteries, electrical and electronic goods (appliances, computers, phones, TVs etc.). Most municipal refuse depots have separate sections for the different types of waste. Or your apartment complex might have separate bins for different waste.
- Put your recyclables out as part of a kerbside / roadside scheme
- Take your recyclables to the nearest drop-off point (as a donation)
- Take your recyclables to a buy-back centre for cash
- Start your own collection point at school or community centre as a fund-raising activity
- Start a scheme at your workplace
- Collect materials and sell them for cash
- Start your own buy-back centre and pay cash
Using recyclables rather than virgin raw materials to make new products:
- could use less energy
- could result in less pollution
- saves natural resources
- saves scarce landfill space
- could create extra income and jobs
- could reduce littering
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Problems With Recycling
Sometimes, it is more expensive to recycle material then it is to create the same product from raw materials or other sources. Therefore, for some goods it doesn’t make sense to recycle from an economic point of view, even though it may be good from an environmental standpoint. Also, there are times when the costs and energy used to collect and transport recycled goods, outweigh the costs and energy saved in the production process.
Like everything else, we need to make sure that we investigate the complete costs and benefits involved. For example, cardboard packaging for food products is more easily recycled / degradable than plastic, so it seems like a good choice. However, cardboard is heavier to ship (so it uses more energy to transport it) and there may be more waste from spoilage with cardboard.
Although jobs are created in recycling, other jobs could be lost, for example in the logging and mining industries. In addition, certain materials (e.g. paper pulp) can only be recycled a few times before they degrade to such an extent that recycling is no longer possible.
Most of the difficulties in recycling arise from the fact that most products are not designed with recycling in mind. In a book “Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way we Make Things” by William McDonagh (an architect) and Michael Braungart (a chemist), they suggest that every product and its packaging should have a complete “closed loop” cycle mapped out for each component, in a way that every part will either bio-degrade and return to the natural ecosystem, or be recycled indefinitely. This is known as sustainable design. |
| Did You Know....... |
 that one litre of used oil can contaminate 1 million litres of water? | |
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