Don’t Break the Chain. Be a Link! Buy Recycled.

Thanks to you, recycling is working. The paper, plastic, metal, and glass that you’ve been recycling is now being made into all sorts of everyday products and packages. There’s just one thing left to do: Look for products made from recycled materials, and buy them!

Here are five reasons to buy items made with recycled content:

1. Save Natural Resources
By making products from recycled materials instead of virgin materials, we reduce the need to cut down trees, drill for oil, and dig for minerals.

2. Save Energy
It usually takes less energy to make recycled products. Recycled aluminum, for example, takes 95% less energy to make than new aluminum from bauxite ore.

3. Save Clean Air and Water
In most cases, making products from recycled materials creates less air pollution and water pollution than making products from virgin materials.

4. Save Landfill Space
When the materials that you recycle go into new products, they don’t go into landfills or incinerators, so scarce landfill space is conserved.

5. Save Money and Create Jobs
By increasing your recycling efforts, you may need only mini-can garbage service, which costs less than standard residential garbage service. By purchasing products made with recycled content, we encourage manufacturers to use recycled material.

When items are made from recycled materials, they usually say so right on the label. Compare labels to find the product or package with the highest percentage of “post-consumer” recycled content. Let store managers and manufacturers know that you prefer products made from recycled materials.

Here are some examples of products that may be made with recycled content:

Paperboard Boxes
Lightweight cardboard boxes such as cereal, cracker, and shoe boxes are often made from recycled paper. Read the label.

Bath & Facial Tissue
Toilet paper and facial tissue made from recycled paper meet consumer expectations and cost about the same as or less than their non-recycled counterparts.

Plastic Bottles & Jugs
Some household cleaners, dishwashing liquids, shampoos, and other products can be found in plastic bottles with 25% or higher post-consumer recycled content. Check the label.

Paper Towels
Paper towels with recycled content are competitive in price and performance. But don’t forget you can use a sponge or rag to do the same job!

Writing Paper & Envelopes
Top-quality recycled paper, envelopes, and greeting cards are increasingly easy to find. Some designer recycled stationery is meant to look rough and unfinished, but most recycled paper looks just like the paper made directly from trees. Check the label for post-consumer recycled content. (And don’t forget to ask for recycled paper if you order printing or copying.)

Other products made from recycled materials include: re-refined motor oil, fiberfill for sleeping bags, carpets, dog collars, shoes, pencils, recycling bins, building insulation, outdoor furniture, corrugated pipes, garden tiles, sweaters, cameras, cat litter, wallboard, tiles, and many more.

These four types of packaging can always be counted on to have a high percentage of post-consumer recycled content, even though many such packages are not yet labeled:

1. Aluminum Beverage Cans
About 50% of the aluminum in beverage cans comes from used cans that were recycled and melted to make new cans.

2. Glass Bottles & Jars
Nearly 25% of the glass in bottles and jars has been used before, recycled, and remanufactured.

3. “Tin” (Steel) Cans
So-called tin cans are actually made of steel, usually with a thin coating of tin. About 25% of the content is recycled steel, half of that being post-consumer.

4. Molded Pulp Containers
Gray or brown cardboard egg cartons, fruit trays, and flowerpots are made from recycled paper that is repulped and reshaped.

Oro Loma residents can recycle plastic containers, aluminum and steel cans, glass bottles, newspapers, mixed paper, corrugated cardboard, used motor oil and yard waste.

To find out more about Oro Loma’s recycling program, browse our recycling section or call (510) 276-4700.