Reusing items a good alternative to recycling
By Ashley Pennington | Feb. 16, 2011Laura Ellermeyer’s editorial in Tuesday’s paper highlights an important topic: the cost of waste. Perhaps a more appropriate title and discussion could have been “Reduce and Reuse First; Recycling Still Uses Resources.” It is true there are costs associated with recycling — fiscal and environmental. That is why the best action one can take is trying to consume less. This helps reduce the amount of resources used to mine and create the products in the first place, as well as avoids the added resource use associated with the process of recycling.