Reusing is Better Than Recycling

Recycling is one of the first steps most people take when they begin to "green" their lifestyle. Recycling is great for the environment and saves tons of trash from making it to landfills, but even better than recycling is reusing.

When we reuse things that are going to be tossed away or recycled, we keep them out of landfills, and we save the energy that's needed to transport and process our recyclables. The amounts of energy that can be saved are vast, because all recycling involves industrial chemicals, processing and transportation. All the energy wasted on making a new glass jar from an old one can be saved, simply by repurposing the jar where it already exists.

There are many approaches to reusing, instead of recycling or trashing items. Disposable products very often have a reusable counterpart that can be purchased or made. Choose cloths instead of throwaway dusters and paper towels. Choose handkerchiefs over tissues. Choose to carry cloth shopping bags over the plastic or paper ones in the store.

Also, things like packaging or containers are usually tossed mindlessly into the recycling bin. Look again at these items to see how they can serve a further purpose in your life. Soda bottles can hold bouquets for neighbors or friends, shoe boxes are great for organizing, and take out containers make great mini-greenhouses for seed starting. Milk jugs and cartons can be made into trays for plants, used in the garden to protect tender sprouts, and make wonderful molds for candle or soap-making. When buying food and other items, choose those brands that use the least amount of packaging, and look at the packaging with an eye toward how it could be reused.

Even some things that look like they are definitely one-use items, like newspapers and magazines don't always have to be recycled. Many times, they can be reused right where they are, saving energy and resources. Newspapers make good weed blankets/ mulch in the garden. They can be shredded and used for padding when packing boxes. They are the perfect thing to use when cleaning windows to get the glass bright and shiny. Magazines can very often be used in crafts before being recycled. The pages can be folded and woven into boxes and bowls, and they can be cut up and made into beads or games for children.

I hope I've convinced you to start to think beyond the recycling box, and look for new uses for the items you might be putting to the curb each week. This article is the beginning of a series that will examine many uses for a given item. If you would like me to address the uses for a particular object that you seem to have in your recycling stream, let me know in the comments, and I'll add it to the list of reuse articles that I am planning.