Perhaps you are wondering why you should repurpose items rather than recycling them or throwing them in the trash? Or better yet, why you should aim for a zero waste lifestyle?
Recycling is great, but it is not a solution to the problem of how to deal with how much trash is produced. Plastics, for example, are found everywhere and are contained in the majority of products you use on a daily basis. Plastic can only be recycled 2 or 3 times before it loses quality and is no longer usable. It also has an almost infinite lifespan in a landfill.
Glass and metals are both found in nature and also have an almost infinite life span. However, they can be recycled an infinite number of times. They do not lose quality or have a decline in molecular structure caused by the melting and reshaping conducted in recycling, unlike plastics.
Now that you understand a little of the process of recycling, let's get into why you should reuse items instead.
Recycling items adds to their carbon footprint. Meaning, it requires additional gasoline and electricity required to recycle items. There is an easy answer to this problem though. Most items can be reused for their original purpose, or repurposed. Repurposing items comes in two forms: upcycling and downcycling. Upcycling is when you take the full or the majority of the item and use it for a different purpose. Downcycling is when you break a product down into different parts and use those parts for a different purpose.
So, reusing and repurposing items are both important ways to reduce your negative impact on the environment. You can find upcycling ideas under the How-To tab.
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