By Norm Eisenmann/Chelmsford Recycling Committee
Do you support recycling? I don’t mean do you toss a few items into your recycling bin when you get the urge to be nice to the environment, but do you really support recycling? If you want to help manufacturers ‘see the light’ and produce more products made from recycled material you need to look for products made from recycled material when you go shopping.
Take a trip through your local office supply store and you will be amazed at the items that are made from recycled material. When an item states that it is made from recycled material, many times there are two numbers on the packaging. For example on napkins it may state 100 percent recycled and 60 percent post consumer. That means that the product is NOT made from a tree that was cut down last week. It means that 40 percent was from the ‘cuttings’ on the factory floor and 60 percent from what we put into our bins few months ago. Okay, maybe not your bin, but someone’s bin. The higher the post consumer content the more your recycling helped to make the product.
If you walk down the aisle in another local store you will find storage boxes made from recycled material as well adding machine tapes, plastic trash bags, vertical organizers for your desk, and 3-ring binders made from milk bottles.
With a little imagination you can also find pens made from recycled material, as well as pencils, scissors, kitchen bags, and many more products.
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