Recycling Information Sheet

1. There are actually 5 "R's" Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rot and Redesign.

2. Reduce: Your actions can reduce waste before it starts. Examples include purchasing items in refillable containers, bringing a cloth bag when shopping and avoiding disposable products (Ecology Center: Four R's for a Better Environment).

3. Reuse: You can extend the use of products and packaging by purchasing durable products, reusing food containers for storage and using the back sides of paper (Ecology Center).

4. Recycle: This involves collecting, separating, and remanufacturing materials. Recycling isn't complete until previously used materials are made into new products and then purchased as a recycled content product (Ecology Center)

5. Rot: Most of the organics generated at home can easily be recycled by composting. Composting organics reduces the volume of waste generated at home (Ecology Center).

6. Redesign: Redesigning is a concept where 'linear waste streams' (for example raw materials turned into landfill waste) are turned into 'closed material loops' (where resources are continuously recycled).

7. Closing material loops: Wood recycling of wooden shipping pallets: "Rainforest Action Network extimates that reclaiming even half the discarded pallets from the largest 50 U.S. metropolises could provide 2,500 inner-city-jobs and 765 million board-feet of annual lumber, equivalent to 152,000 acres of timberland" (Lovins, Lovins, Hawken, Natural Capitalism).

8. The United States throws away enough aluminum to replace it entire commercial air fleet every three months (Natural Capitalism).

9. The energy saved from recycling one aluminum drink can will run your TV or computer for 3 hours (Califormina Integrated Waste Management Board)

10. Zero Waste: Similar to closing material loops, the zero waste concept mimics natural cycles where 'waste' is cycled back a 'food' (examples: carbon and nitrogen cycles).

Links

• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Recycling Facts
• Natural Capitalism (Full downloadable text)
• GrassRoots Recycling Network Principles of Zero Waste
• Califormina Integrated Waste Management Board
• Ecology Center Fact Sheets including Composting