Recycled:Reborn

Recycling every single thing we can needs to become as much a part of our daily lives as reality TV and typing your own name into Google. Why? Because recycling rubbish not only cuts down on greenhouse gas, it also means we can avoid mining for raw materials, chopping down trees and using up energy to make new stuff to replace it.

So when you throw something away, do it the right way. Give that empty Coke can a second chance. Save that lime green sofa from upholstery Death Row. Don’t slaughter things in their prime; recycle them and let your rubbish get reborn as something new and beautiful instead of trashing our environment.

• Know your symbols so you can recycle your things properly. And find out what you can recycle and where near you.
• Aluminium can be recycled forever, and the US throws away enough of it in a year to make more than 8000 747 jumbo jets. Recycling a can uses just 5% of the energy needed to make a new one, and you can even do it for charity or help plant fruit trees in Africa.
• There are lots of sites where you can recycle stuff rather than dumping it – try Freecycle, 2recycle or the Community Recycling Network. And if you spot something in the street that’s been thoughtlessly dumped, or you have a broken appliance to get rid of, get your local council to come and collect it.
• Your old PCs can be recycled by Computeraid who’ll wipe all the data (including your search history, if you’re wondering) and give them to schools and communities who need them. And you can do the same with your furniture and electricals, and mobile phones too.
• Even everyday humdrum items can be reborn into wonderful second lives, like milk jugs into toys and newspaper into houses.

More info from the Green Thing Wiki >>

Here’s a thing… Richie Sowa must surely take the crown as the world’s most inventive recycler. He spent 3 years creating his own desert island out of 25,000 plastic bottles. And yet surprisingly, he’s still single.

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