Complimenting Recycling With Reusing

Recycling isn’t the most environmentally friendly game in town, but it’s a good start. If you really want to make your contribution to the environment go a lot further, you can simply get in the habit of reusing items instead of throwing them in the bins after a single use.

There are many ways to reuse products, often limited only by your own imagination and certain health concerns. For instance, it is never safe to reuse a pesticide container to hold drinking water for you or your pets. Other than that, reusing containers or sharing them with other people who can use them (as in the case of cooperative groceries) is a far more environmentally friendly option.

Of course, one can always turn old materials into very different items. For instance, DIY jewelery makers routinely find new ways to infuse old objects with new art and up-cycle them into much higher value commodities.