Years ago, nothing was wasted and there was money to be made from old stuff. The rag and bone merchants of yesteryear were the freecycle websites of today. Recycling is one of the three Rs of a sustainable lifestyle. It's probably one that you've heard a lot about lately and the idea is quite simple- make new stuff from the old stuff!
Recycling is great for the environment because it uses valuable resources over again, reducing the amount of raw materials being taken from the earth and preventing more useless rubbish ending up in landfills or the ocean.
Less energy is used to make something from a recycled material. Take an aluminium or tin can for example. The energy used to mine the ore and process it is saved and the carbon footprint of transportation is reduced. Recycling cuts out the mining and processing; the recycled can is just melted down and made into something new. Recycling just one can saves enough energy to power a TV for 3 hours; recycling paper saves 70% of the energy needed to make virgin paper.
Just rinse out that bottle and drop into a recycling box instead of tossing it in the trash makes a huge difference, especially when we all do it together. Up to 60% of stuff in the rubbish bin could have been recycled, so you know you can make a massive difference.
Click here for a quick guide to recycling stuff