Products Made With Recycled Material
The importance of recycling has been drilled into our psyche, making nearly everyone conscious of how harmful waste is to the environment. We've come a long way from elementary school paper drives because new uses for old materials are being developed daily. Today, efforts include the recycling of many different materials, resulting in the production of a wide range of consumer items containing a variety of recycled materials.
Other People Are Reading
-
Recycled Paper
-
Many of the paper products we buy contain recycled paper; in fact, some paper towels contain as much as 100-percent recycled paper. According to Recycling Today Magazine, 61 percent of all the newsprint used by major newspapers in California is printed on recycled paper. One of the largest contributors to solid waste is copy paper, but many brands of copy paper, are now made from recycled paper. Some greeting card companies market certain lines of cards printed on recycled paper.
-
Recycled plastic
-
Plastic items like water bottles are commonly recycled today; according to Earth911, 80 percent of Americans have access to a plastic recycling program. Recycled plastic is commonly used in toys, outdoor furniture, trash containers and even clothing and shoes. A variety of building materials such as composite decking is made from recycled plastic.
Recycled aluminum
-
Because it is less expensive to make aluminum from recycled aluminum than it is to get aluminum from ore, and because recycled aluminum is no different in quality than new, recycling aluminum is big business. Used in not only aluminum cans and aluminum foil, recycled aluminum also shows up in industrial products, consumer electronics, building supplies, packaging and even fishing boats.
Recycled glass
-
Recycled glass is commonly found in decorative items such as vases but can also be found in drinking glasses and dinnerware, as well as floor and wall tile. The reflective beads used in traffic paint are made of recycled glass. Crushed glass is used for water filtration in water treatment plants and replaces silica sand in pool and spa filters. Glass chunks go into counter tops and terrazzo flooring.
Steel Recycling
-
The clunker that went to the crusher will eventually wind up transformed into a wide variety of recycled items, but the steel from old cars makes up the majority of the recycling material. Recycled steel is used in such various products as those massive steel beams used in skyscrapers and small cans that fill pantry shelves. And recycled steel from those cars can be used in the manufacturing of new automobiles.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit "Recycling Photo" is Copyrighted by Flickr user: Neubie (David Neubert) under the Creative Commons Attribution license.
