Think Reuse First!
Before we even think of taking stuff to the recycling stations, and I am talking here primarily the likes of packaging, whether cardboard, plastic, glass, or what-have-you, we must consider if and how each and every item could be reused, either by ourselves or someone else.
It still takes a considerable about of energy, aside from the CO2 emissions from transporting the stuff from the recycling stations to the processing plants, to recycle paper and cardboard into new, or plastic (PET) bottles into, say, fiber for the making of polar fleeces, for example. Therefore we must think “reuse” before we think “recycle”.
So, therefore, to begin with before going to the recycle bin always think reuse and practical rework, and I am sure that, with a little bit of thought, many items need not end up even in the recycling bin.
Reuse and rework beats recycling any day in regards to environmental friendliness.
I am also certain that manufacturers could design packaging – for it is mostly packaging material that we are, as I said already, talking about here in this context of reusing before recycling – already with a reuse in mind and we, as customers and consumers, should and indeed must challenge them to do just that. It should be possible, of that I am sure, to design a second life into an article pf packaging from the very beginning. Pasta sauce, for instance, could come in properly reusable Mason Jars, as an example and other packaging too could be second life designed. It has worked in the past with, say Avon toiletries, where the containers were later reusable as mugs and tankards, and other items and also become highly collectable. Even boxes made from strong cardboard could have a second life design on them, even if this might mean that people have to do a little work to them even.
© Michael Smith (Veshengro), February 2008
Before Recycle Must Come Reuse
