Is it better to recycle an object, or reuse it?

I reuse as much as possible. I notice others do too because the boxes *I* get are reused.

If they pile up too much they do get recycled. I'm getting ready to take a lot of cardboard to the recycler right now. I'd do it today, but my Prius is full of a microwave combo hood that I bought yesterday and needs to be installed. Bag of screws is missing so I have to go back to the store today.

 

*ALWAYS* better to reuse than recycle. Even if the product gets thrown in the landfill after the second use.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(darelldd @ Jul 22 2007, 02:04 PM) [snapback]483254[/snapback]</div>

How about: *ALWAYS* better to reuse than recycle. Especially if the product gets recycled after the second, or later use.

 

cardboard I use in the winter to start fires in the fireplace; it makes great kindling. So, whatever boxes I get during the warm months, I'll cut up. I also have to remove plastic tape and labels if possible. Some boxes are good enough to use to put stuff in so I keep those separate. I don't put much cardboard in to the recycling bin.

Junk mail goes to the shredder immediately. I don't throw it out unopened.

For bottles and cans, it depends on how much energy is needed to clean them and remove the labels. Usually, soaking the bottle in a rubbermaid container filled with cold tap water overnight is enough, and, since that doesn't take much energy, it's easy to do.

 

Reduce, reuse, recycle.
In that order.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hyo silver @ Jul 22 2007, 03:23 PM) [snapback]483288[/snapback]</div>

Well, sure. But that's cheating. The questino was recycle or reuse - since this is an object that already exists.

I agree with the order, of course!

 

Use it up, Wear it out.
Make it Do or Do Without

 

Reuse. We always try to reuse, mostly cause we're too cheap to buy a cardboard box when there are so many of them floating around!

What really, really irks me is that the photo lab I use prints their name really huge across the cardboard box. Which means if I need to mail a package to a customer, even though I have a perfectly good box that is exactly the size of their prints - I can't use that box, since the lab posts all prices on the web for anyone to see!

So I end up recycling those boxes and using priority mail boxes instead. It's a real PITA when I have an odd size print to mail (10"x20" or so) and it's very difficult to find such a box.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(pyccku @ Jul 22 2007, 05:37 PM) [snapback]483326[/snapback]</div>

It seems that buying some sheets of white stickers to cover the name would be the wise move. Maybe make up a label for YOUR service that covers it?

 

Unfortunately, they'd have to be really, really big stickers. Their logo is aboug a foot long and 9" tall, in dark blue letters.

Lots of photographers have asked them to either leave the huge logo off the box OR only have prices available on the web to people who have an account. They haven't done either one, so anybody who cares to know the prices can find out with about 2 mouse clicks.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(pyccku @ Jul 22 2007, 07:37 PM) [snapback]483326[/snapback]</div>

Is there a way to turn them inside out? Undo the flaps at both ends and open the long seam and just turn them inside out and retape them with packaging tape?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(pyccku @ Jul 22 2007, 10:11 PM) [snapback]483372[/snapback]</div>

I have had some success with that issue by using a box cutter. If you're careful, you can slice just under the label sticker and peel it off as well as the thin layer just below it. It doesn't always work but it works a lot of the time.

 

I like the box-cutter idea. I'm not too good with sharp objects, so I'll have my husband try that the next time I get a box from them.

Other labs have figured out how to make their prices only accessible to pros - but not my lab. I don't really want to switch labs because they have great customer service and are super-fast.

 

Definitely reuse. And if you don't have a use for something, have a yard sale. It's unbelievable what some people will buy at yard sales, but the adage really applies: One man's trash is another man's treasure.

I had a yard sale, and someone bought a 2'x3'x6" box stuffed full of assorted rubber bands. Someone else haggled me down from $1 to $0.25 for the UGLIEST-ever ceramic coin bank. As they were debating the value I was just silently praying that they would take it off my hands. I was ready to pay them to take it.

And cardboard boxes are the easiest. Just flatten them and save them in the attic for when you need them because that time always comes around.

Broken electronics can be a pain sometimes, but I have a friend who makes art from old electronics, so even that gets reused.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hyo silver @ Jul 22 2007, 05:23 PM) [snapback]483288[/snapback]</div>

Me thinks the same way. And with the reduction part of this equation, you get less debt, less clutter and less cleaning.