Monday, June 13, 2011

Complete the Cycle: Purchasing Recycled Items

By Molly Webster


Recycling the waste from your property and organization, such as paper, plastic, and aluminum, is an critical part of protecting our environment and creating a sustainable way of life. Nonetheless, recycling is only one part of the method.

In order for recycling to achieve its full potential in preserving the environment, it needs to be financially viable for manufacturers. Customers can support recycling at the grassroots level by purchasing and requesting products produced from recycled materials. An increased demand for recycled goods would encourage much more manufacturers to produce these items.

You'll find quite a few distinct varieties of recycled and eco-friendly goods to select from. The following represent a few of the most widespread terms you are going to encounter.

Recycled-content items These are any goods that contain anywhere from just a little portion of recycled materials to one hundred percent. The old materials are melted, pulverized, ground or crushed and then used to make new goods. An example could be sweaters which are actually made from recycled plastic bottles. This category would also contain any rebuilt or remanufactured items made from previously utilised items, like printer cartridges or computers. To locate recycled-content items try to find labels that indicate that the item is created from recycled supplies. The labels may say that they contain either pre-consumer or post- consumer content.

Pre-consumer content Pre-consumer content is material that has never made it to the end user. These are resources that are by-products of the manufacturing method and are then utilised for the production of an additional item. For instance a plastic bottle manufacturer may well use the scrap plastic trimmings in the creating of other bottles.

Post-consumer content Post-consumer content means that a product is made from materials that have served the purpose for which they had been produced and now are re-purposed for a different use. An example could be tires that are ground up and made into landscape cover/mulch. It is possible to discover goods with varying percentages of post-consumer content; the greater the percentage the larger quantity of material that was reprocessed.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), there are far more than 4,500 recycled-content goods available for purchase, with the number growing every year. You might be amazed at how several everyday items made from recycled supplies are offered. Here are just several you:

Carpeting Clothing Motor oil Paper towels, napkins, toilet tissue Building material for example nails and insulation Paint

Should you recycle on a regular basis, you're performing an important service to our planet. Placing recyclable material into the supply stream makes that material offered to manufactures to produced recycled goods. Buying items produced from recycled materials continues the cycle. It is one far more way to make a distinction.




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