Top 3 Ways to Recycle

Recycling is an important aspect of sustainable living and is so crucial to this way of life due to how effective it is at helping the environment. Recycling doesn’t just greatly limit the amount of waste product there is being pumped into landfill, it also limits the need for manufacturers to waste energy and resources in finding raw materials and processing them. 

Plenty of materials can be recycled and repurposed into new products, with the ones that see the most impact being cardboard, plastic, glass and metal. There are various different ways businesses within the recycling industry process these materials and treat them so that they’re suitable for reuse, but this article looks at the things individuals can do at home to save the planet and recycle more. 

Buy Recycled Products 

One of the best ways to engage with recycling is to actively seek out and buy products that have already been manufactured from recycled materials. Doing this will help you reduce the number of new products and materials entering the community, and by doing so you don’t even have to sacrifice on quality. 

One great tip for people working within an office is to buy recycled paper. Opting to go for this type of paper will help you save many trees and combat the deforestation that is happening all over the world. When using this paper it’s also critical that you print on both sides, as this will effectively half the amount of paper you use, making your activities more sustainable. Be sure to recycle your paper when you’re done, as each ton reused can save 17 trees and a massive 7,000 gallons of water. 

Invest in the Right Recycling Bins 

To help make you far better at recycling, it’s important that your household or office invests in getting the right kind of recycling bins, so that you can easily separate your materials and make more of your recyclable waste actually useable. 

When different materials are mixed together in the same bin, it means that more resources and energy is needed to separate them at a recycling plant in their recycling compactors. Furthermore, sometimes this sorting doesn’t always work out, resulting in contaminated materials that can’t be used, leaving workers with no other option than to throw them away. To solve this problem, simply sort your waste at home so that it’s already separated when it arrives at the recycling facility. 

Recycle Old Technology 

It’s estimated that within the US, two million tons of e-waste is thrown out each year. This means that there are millions and millions of old phones, laptops, televisions, and games consoles ending up in landfill on an annual basis. 

To combat this, the first thing to do is to try and hold onto your old tech as long as possible and to give it a longer product lifetime. However, with how fast technology moves, and how there’s an updated product seemingly every year, doing that might be tough. The next best thing is to then ensure that your old technology is recycled. There are some really useful parts within these devices that can benefit manufactures, such as the circuit boards within these devices and other materials.