greenliving
it uses less fuel to keep the tar at a pourable temperature. Switching from traditional hot asphalt technology also reduces emissions.
Transforming Aluminum
RECYCLING EVERYDAY REFUSE
What Happens after the Blue Bin is Emptied
by Avery Mack E
ach blue recycle bin filled with plastic, aluminum, glass, paper and cardboard helps the environment, because it reduces landfill, takes less energy to repurpose materials than to make new ones and gently reminds us that thoughtful consumption is health- ier for people and the planet. But what do all those recyclables turn into?
Repurposed Plastics Plastic milk jugs turn into colorful playthings at Green Toys, of Mill Valley, California. Repurposing one pound of recycled milk jugs instead of making new plastic saves enough energy to run a computer for a month. All packaging is made from recycled content and printed with soy ink, so it can go into the blue bin again.
GreenToys.com’s online counter shows the number of containers recycled—more than 10 million to date. Fila Golf’s
Principal Designer Nancy Robitaille says, “Recycled PET (polyethylene terephthalate), a
46 NA Triangle
core Fila cooling fabric,
www.natriangle.com
is used throughout our collection. Each fully recycled PET garment reuses about two-and-a-half 20-ounce plastic pop bottles.” Patagonia customers are encour- aged to return their old coat when buy- ing a new one. Coats in good condition are given to peo- ple in need; the PET fleece lin- ing from retired coats is sent to ReFleece, in Somerville, Mas- sachusetts, where it is cleaned and turned into recyclable protective cases for iPads, e-readers and cell phones. “We expect to make 10,000 cases
this year from 2,000 jackets,” says Jen- nifer Fellers, ReFleece’s CEO. “We use low heat to press the cases into shape.” Vancouver, Canada, which plans to be the greenest city in the world by 2020, includes recycled plastic from bags and water bottles in laying down warm asphalt mix for roads because
and Glass In 2012, Do
Something.org partnered with Alcoa to chal- lenge teens to recycle aluminum cans. For every 50 cans collected during a two-month period, they were awarded a chance to win a $5,000 scholarship. The sponsors note that recycling one can saves enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for 20 hours. The final total was 1,152,569 cans kept out of landfills. “Aluminum can be recycled an infinite number of times,” says Beth Schmitt, director of recycling pro- grams for Alcoa, which has centers nationwide and cash-back programs for community fundraisers. “We re- melt the collected cans, then roll out coils of new can sheets. This process can be repeated without any loss of strength—that’s why we call aluminum the ‘miracle metal.’ If every American recycled just one more can per week, we would remove 17 billion cans from landfills each year.” Wine bottles become designer drinking glasses at Rolf Glass, in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania. “Our de- signs give used bottles a second life,” says owner Rolf Poeting. Re- fresh Glass, of Phoenix, Arizona, salvages and preps the bottles. “Then, our glass cutting and diamond-wheel engrav- ing technology transforms
them into sophisticated Glacier Glass,” continues Poeting. “This seems to be a trend in many industries, to find ad- ditional uses for another company’s recycled products.”
Rewined, of Charleston, South Carolina, also exemplifies this prin- ciple. It uses wine bottles to hold their soy-based, cotton-wicked candles,
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