Why Buy Recycled Products
Creating a strong market for recycled products is key to completing the recycling process or "closing the loop." Consumers close the loop when they purchase products made from recycled materials. Governments can promote buying recycled products through their own purchasing programs and guidelines. Products made from recycled materials are equal in quality and sometimes lower in price compared to other products made from virgin materials.  When you buy products with post-consumer content, be it 20%, 30% or 100%, it encourages companies to use recyclable materials in their products and decreases the amount of recyclable materials in landfills.

Learn more at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Recycling Coalition

Identifying Recycled-Content Products
Product labels can be confusing to consumers interested in buying recycled because of the different recycling terminology used. The following definitions might help clarify any uncertainty regarding manufacturers' claims. For more detailed guidance, view a summary of the Federal Trade Commission's brochure Sorting Out Green Advertising Claims.

• Recycled-content products are made from materials that would otherwise have been discarded. Items in this category are made totally or partially from material destined for disposal or recovered from industrial activities-like aluminum soda cans or newspaper. Recycled-content products also can be items that are rebuilt or remanufactured from used products such as toner cartridges or computers.
• Postconsumer content refers to material from products that were used by consumers or businesses and would otherwise be discarded as waste. If a product is labeled "recycled content," the rest of the product material might have come from excess or damaged items generated during normal manufacturing processes-not collected through a local recycling program.
• Recyclable products can be collected and remanufactured into new products after they've been used. These products do not necessarily contain recycled materials and only benefit the environment if people recycle them after use. Check with your local recycling program to determine which items are recyclable in your community.

Learn more at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Re-Using Waste: Good for the Environment, your Pocketbook, and Others
Even recycling takes up energy and resources. By re-using something as much as we can means that goods are only recycled when they can be used no longer. At home, if you re-use scrap clothes for cloths, and use lemons, vinegar and baking soda for cleaning rather than buying highly manufactured cleaning products, watch the supermarket bill fall over the year. Re-using also includes buying second-hand, which is almost always cheaper than buying new and works just as well. Committing to re-using waste can help others, such as donations to charities or giving items away through Freecycle or Craigslist ('Free' under 'For Sale').

Learn more at the New American Dream

Reuse Your Shopping Bag
Plastic bags don ’t biodegrade, they photodegrade—breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways and entering the food web. Hundreds of thousands of marine animals die every year from eating discarded plastic bags mistaken for food.  Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide, over 1 million per minute, and most of that ends up as litter. Take reusable bags to the grocery store whenever possible. In addition to Alcoa Make an Impact reusable shopping bags, check out our Conscious Consumer Marketplace for suggestions on where to get some eco-friendly bags. After using them, try remembering to take them out to your car or back into your backpack so the next time you’re headed to the store, you can reuse them.

Learn more at the New American Dream

Buying Differently
The program, www.ibuydifferent.org is part of Be, Live, Buy Different—Make a Difference, a national campaign from World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Center for a New American Dream (New Dream). The goal is to help young people learn how they can make a difference by buying differently. For example, did you know that if just one out of every ten middle and high school students each bought just one recycled notebook this year, they would save over 60,000 trees, conserve 25.5 million gallons of water, and stop 5,250,000 pounds of global warming gases from being released? Find out how you can shop smarter at the Conscious Consumer marketplace.

Also try the Alternative Gift Registry

Learn more at I Buy Different

Green Your Spring Clean

• Recycle Your Clutter -
  Try to reuse materials in creative ways to organize your house. If you can't find a use for your garage clutter - donate or recycle as much as you can.
  
• Make Your Own Cleaning Supplies -
  You can clean up most messes with just a few items from your pantry: baking soda, white vinegar, liquid soap and borax can be combined in ways to tackle most household messes.
  
• Cut the Waste - Use old newspapers to clean mirrors and glass (no streaks!) and rags instead of paper towels. You'll reduce your waste and the money you'd spend on cleaning supplies!
  
  Learn more at Planet Green