Practical Recycling

By 1970, around the time of the first Earth Day, the term recycle began to be heard. All previous generations had practiced it in many ways without calling it that, but we were becoming a throw-away society that demanded convenience and were just beginning to get an idea of what that convenience was costing.

Now we know. The practice of using something over and over, either for the same purpose or creating a new purpose for the same item doesn't sound so quaint. Now it sounds smart. The energy crisis of the 1970's that prompted the thinking of ways to reuse items is undiminished.

Recycling at home takes so little effort that in a brief time, you won't feel like you're doing anything extra or out of the ordinary. When a can or bottle or ink cartridge is empty, one has to do something with it. It's just as easy to put that item in a recycle bin or any container set aside for the purpose, as it is to throw it in a trash can. It mainly amounts to thinking of doing that until the habit is ingrained and then one can't imagine not doing it.

Here are some of the common items that are easily recycled:

* Glass Glass is a wonderful product that can be recycled indefinitely as its structure does not deteriorate when reprocessed. Collected glass is usually sorted by color, contaminants are removed and then it is crushed and put into a melting furnace. The melted glass is blown into new bottles and jars for our use once more

* Paper Almost all kinds of paper can be recycled. Newsprint and white office paper, along with catalogs, magazines, phone books and such are routinely made into new, fresh paper by de-inking and mixing with some percentage of fresh wood pulp. Cardboard must be recycled seperately. Gift wrap and papers coated with plastic or aluminum (like juice boxes) and papers that are waxed are seldom recycled because the process is too expensive. It is good policy to simply not buy containers that can't be recycled. So many other kinds of paper make creative and unique gift wrap that you may find yourself glad to give up that expense. Wrapping a gift in colorful and appropriate newspaper sections like the comics or a fanciful holiday article with colorful artwork will impress the recipient with your resourcefulness. Cloth, craft paper or brown paper makes great gift wrap. Families can even do their own in-house paper re-use. When you print material at home, print on both sides of the paper or put it back in the copier tray to use the other side another time. When you receive junk mail, thank them kindly for giving you some extra paper for your printer and the back of their envelope for your grocery list. As you can see, the ideas for re-using and recycling paper are many.

* Aluminum Aluminum cans are 100 percent recyclable. The process emits only 5% of the CO2 that production of new, raw aluminum does. And consider that reusing those same soda cans for everything from airplanes to well, another soda can reduces the mining of new bauxite from which aluminum is made. Aluminum is shredded and ground into small pieces or crushed into bales. These are then melted to produce molten aluminum. By this stage, the recycled aluminum is indistinguishable from virgin aluminum.

* Tin Don't forget to pitch that green bean or dog food can into the special bin or bag along with the soda cans.

* Other Metals Metal scavenged from everything from automobiles to ships is used over and over. This process involves removing many non-recyclables to glean just the metal. It is becoming more common, and more necessary, all the time.

* Plastic Compared to glass or metal, plastic is more challenging to recycle. There are so many kinds of plastics that they carry a resin identification code and must be sorted. Lids are often made from non-recyclable plastic. Still, this challenge has been met by recyclers, although less plastic is recycled than paper or metals. Currently there is a dilema created by the fad of the water bottle. This new craze has created a near crisis in landfills. If the water bottles were recycled to the extent aluminum cans are, it wouldn't be so bad even though that recycling process is an air polluting one. Again, a thought to what products one chooses to consume is important.

* Timber Using wood re-claimed and recycled from another structure is an environmentally friendly act. The use of this wood reduces the demand for green timber. Using recycled timber as a construction product is important in a couple of ways. It raises industry and consumer awareness about deforestation. This serves to promote better practices by timber mills and logging companies. Flooring or ceilings made from wood rescued from old buildings is a resourceful practice that adds beauty to a home and a sense of satisfaction from having done something so earth friendly.

* Tires The practice of shredding and turning old tires into other things is a welcome one. Maybe one day the sight of road side mountains of black tires will be a thing of the past. Shredded tires can be added to asphalt, producing road surfaces that are more durable, create less traffic noise (wonderful!), and absorb rain and snow better than traditional asphalt. More and more playground surfaces are covered with rubber mulch which makes for a much softer landing! Before you purchase a new set of tires, ask the dealer if the old ones are taken to a recycler and do business with the company that does.

* Batteries This is a big category and yet one that's easily forgotten. There are batteries in so many other products besides our automobiles. There are camera batteries, tool batteries, laptop batteries, cell phone batteries, batteries in toys, hearing aids and watches. Batteries contain silver, mercury, lead, nickel cadmium, alkaline and other elements that should not go in to a landfill. Batteries produce problems and hazards by polluting lakes and streams as the metals vaporize into the air when burned. They contribute to heavy metals that potentially may leach from solid waste landfills. They expose the environment and water to lead and acid (strong, corrosive acids) and may cause burns or danger to eyes and skin. Products such as oil, paint and freon are also in special need of hazardous waste recycling. Most municipalities can be contacted to find out where and when they take hazardous products like these. Setting them aside until they can be disposed of properly is not a hard thing to do. Most communities of any size have recycling for all of the items discussed above.

Finally, in order to insure that communities continue, or begin, to make recycling available and easy, we must BUY products made from recycled materials. One would never insist on having your soda can made from virgin aluminum or your newspaper from all new wood products, so when given the opportunity to buy things made from either new resources or from recycled ones, the choice is easy.