http://www.care2.com/greenliving/why-reuse-beats-recycling.html
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.
More on Reduce, Recycle & Reuse (77 articles available)More from Annie B. Bond (3171 articles available)
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Choose to Reuse
An Encyclopedic Guide to Services, Businesses, Tools and Charitable Programs that Facilitate Reuse by Nikki & David Goldbeck.This revolutionary guide is the first to reveal the ingenious ways that the environment, charities, individuals and businesses profit from reuse. "Magnificent."Coop America Quarterly.450 pages. $10.95 +$4. S/H
Available from Ceres Press, PO Box 87 Woodstock, NY 12498. (888)804-8848 or www.HealthiestDiet.com buy now
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- Marieclaire O. says
- Feb 25, 2008 11:24 AM
I gave my computer away(which needed repair) for charitable reuse at InterConnection - it's a cool Non Profit in Seattle that refurbishes computers and trains the volunteers hardware skills. The computers are then provided to Non Profits all around the world particularly schools in developing countries! Volunteer even gets a refurbished computer after volunteering for 30 hours! This reuse reduces the depletion of resources as it extends the life of a computer to its max! Hopefully it will encourage less of a throw away mindset.
- Jane J. says
- Feb 23, 2008 2:28 PM
http://www.reuseitnetwork.org/
There is the new e-recycler in town, check them out.They dont have as many rules as freecycle has and are more grassroots, much more green tips. Most groups are much more eco-freindly.
Dont throw it away - ReUseIt!
- Jane J. says
- Feb 23, 2008 2:24 PM
http://www.reuseitnetwork.org/
There is the new e-recycler in town, check them out.They dont have as many rules as freecycle has and are more grassroots, much more green tips. Most groups are much more eco-freindly.
Dont throw it away - ReUseIt!
- Sally Rogerson says
- Dec 2, 2007 9:45 AM
Share appliances with local like-minded people in your area. Have successfully traded a day of my steam cleaner/wallpaper stripper with a garden rotovator, which I wouldn't dream of buying for the length of time I'd use it but which was extremely useful for a day. If there's no such group in your area, start one. We also "trade time". An hours painting and decorating for an hours gardening, etc. Makes for a good community spirit too!
- Steve Harper says
- Oct 9, 2007 11:15 PM
Reuse? How about super concentrates that eliminate the need of thousands of containers? Basic-H concentrate and water. 2 drops of this stuff in 16 ounces of your reusable spray bottle makes a great window cleaner. 1 teaspoon in another same size bottle makes a great all purpose cleaner. Thousands of containers saved with just on Basic-H pint. www.shaklee.net/steve Satisfaction guaranteed or money refunded! You can use this on sooooo many things!
- Sonja Gortzak says
- Sep 19, 2007 4:22 AM
I'm far from perfect but I keep doing my part and keep adding new habits as I learn more about it. So inspiring to read all your stories.
I always keep jam and pasta sauce jars and re-use them for all sorts of storage: Home made jams, dried herbs from my vegetable plot, loose teas, spices, sultana's and even last night's left overs. They might not all look the same so I try tying it all together (I like an organized looking kitchen) by using the same labels on all of them.
As for shopping bags and paper/plastic produce bags, I have proper shopping bags that will last me for years and I try to take my produce home without packaging if possible. I just put a price sticker on one of the apples, onions etc. and after checking out they go straight into the bag. Other bags are re-used for as long as possible by bringing them back with me into the shop.
And indeed, the health shops here in the Netherlands allow you to bring in your excess plastic bags for other customers to re-use.
I even go as far as having my bike repaired and fixed up time and again which, over the last two years, has cost me enough to have bought a new bike. But I don't want them to produce a new bike, requiring new resources, it's just silly.
- Aaron M. says
- Sep 17, 2007 8:26 AM
www.freecycle.org
It's another online reuse community with a world-wide following. My wife and I have successfully kept a great deal of items out of the waste stream and reduced our purchasing needs to boot.
- Jonathan Moore says
- Sep 13, 2007 3:45 PM
Stop & Shop and Walmart both recycle plastic shopping bags, easy way to keep them out of the incinerators and landfills.
- Elizabeth Irving says
- Sep 11, 2007 5:53 PM
Instead of throwing away those plastic bags for produce, either bring them back again to the store for a second use, or use them to wrap your leftovers.
- Tina Zzz says
- Sep 4, 2007 9:18 AM
Reuse reusable bottles instead of throwing away one-time-use bottles. I have a blog post for more information, as well as a campaign to reduce our consumption of bottled water in my school and in my community.
http://thisonesunrise.wordpress.com/2007/08/15/hello-world/
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