How to Green Your Recycling

So You Wanna Do More

Not content with just getting by? Go hardcore.

1. Get creative with do-it-yourself projects that reuse everyday objects. Turn a bath tub into an armchair or a bicycle inner tube into a wallet.

2. Promote recycling at local businesses and schools.

3. If you're building or renovating a home, use reclaimed or recycled materials.

4. Promote Freecycle in your community if it does not already exist.

5. Make flea markets, thrift, and vintage stores part of your regular shopping routine.

6. Styrofoam peanuts, those non-biodegradable, everywhere-flying, petrol-based, little packaging devils can be brought back to most packaging stores for reuse as long as they’re clean and dry.

7. The concept of the Product Service System is gaining traction.

By the Numbers

Want the real deal? Here's where the rubber meets the road.

544,000: trees saved if every household in the United States replaced just one roll of virgin fiber paper towels (70 sheets) with 100% recycled ones.

20 million: tons of electronic waste thrown away each year. One ton of scrap from discarded computers contains more gold than can be produced from 17 tons of gold ore.

9 cubic yards: amount of landfill space saved by recycling one ton of cardboard.

$160 billion: the value of the global recycling industry that employs over 1.5 million people.

79 million tons: the amount of waste material diverted away from disposal in 2005 through recycling and composting… (EPA)

5%: the fraction of the energy it takes to recycle aluminum versus mining and refining new aluminum. (link)

315 kg: the amount of carbon dioxide not released into the atmosphere each time a metric ton of glass is used to create new glass products. (link)

98%: the percentage of glass bottles in Denmark that are refillable. 98% of those are returned by consumers for reuse. (link)

51.5%: the percentage of the paper consumed in the U.S. that was recovered for recycling in 2005. (link)

Getting Techie

Not content with the high level? Here's the nitty gritty.

1. What do those numbers on the bottom of my soda bottle mean, anyway? A key to the numerical system (resin identification code) can be found via Wikipedia. An alternate page can be found here.

2. William McDonough and Michael Braungart, authors of Cradle to Cradle, have recast the way we look at recycling, illustrating how most of what we do is actually “down-cycling,” or just delaying time at which, for example, a plastic bottle will come to a halt in a landfill (cradle to grave). These two innovators outline a system in which things are truly re-cycled in virtually endless loops. More here.

3. The Waste Hierarchy is a useful metric for ranking the methods of material management.

4. Recycling isn’t all green and gold. For common criticisms of recycling, see this Wikipedia page.

5. Reuse is the second cardinal rule of recycling, but make sure that what you’re doing is safe. Plastic waster, soda, and juice bottles and other plastic utensils aren’t made for multiple uses and can break down, releasing chemicals, especially in heat (like the dishwasher) and cold, (like the freezer).