The Single Most Important Thing to Recycle

by Annie Berthold-Bond, Care2.com Producer, Green Living Channels



Guess which electronic piece of equipment you can run for three hours because of the energy savings of recycling just one aluminum can?



Answer:

A computer or a television set!



Aluminum is the most abundant metal on earth. It takes 95 percent less energy to make a new aluminum can from recycled aluminum cans.



The aluminum can you recycle today will be back as a new aluminum can in 60-90 days.



Project AWARE ~ Go Eco



Why Reuse Beats Recycling

Adapted from Choose to Reuse,by Nikki & David Goldbeck.

Reuse is often confused with recycling, but they are really quite different.(Even those engaged in reuse frequently refer to it as recycling.) Reuse in the broadest sense means any activity that lengthens the life of an item. Recycling, on the other hand, is the reprocessing of an item into a new raw material for use in a new product -- for example grinding the tire and incorporating it into a road-surfacing compound.Reuse is nothing new. What is new is the need to reuse.



Reuse is accomplished through many different methods: purchasing durable goods, buying and selling in the used marketplace, borrowing, renting, subscribing to business waste exchanges and making or receiving charitable transfers. It is also achieved by attending to maintenance and repair, as well as by designing in relation to reuse. This may mean developing products that are reusable, long-lived, capable of being remanufactured or creatively refashioning used items.



Why is reuse so important? Because at the same time that it confronts the challenges of waste reduction, reuse also sustains a comfortable quality of life and supports a productive economy. With few exceptions reuse accomplishes these goals more effectively than recycling, and it does so in the following ways:





Reuse keeps goods and materials out of the waste stream

Reuse advances source reduction

Reuse preserves the "embodied energy" that was originally used to manufacture an item

Reuse reduces the strain on valuable resources, such as fuel, forests and water supplies, and helps safeguard wildlife habitats

Reuse creates less air and water pollution than making a new item or recycling

Reuse results in less hazardous waste

Reuse saves money in purchases and disposal costs

Reuse generates new business and employment opportunities for both small entrepreneurs and large enterprises

Reuse creates an affordable supply of goods that are often of excellent quality.

Unique to reuse is that it also brings resources to individuals and organizations that might otherwise be unable to acquire them.



The best case for reuse is made by the more than 1000 examples of individual, business, government and charitable reuse that are included in Choose to Reuse.



Care2.com



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