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America Recycles Day
Dan Simon
 On
November 15, recycling proponents around the country will be using
“America Recycles Day,” as an opportunity to counter the
tendencies of our “throw-away society.”
The goal of the day is to increase awareness of the environmental
benefits of using recycled products and the need to support recycling
programs. The effort is being managed through a national office with
events being coordinated primarily at the state level.
The day also celebrates the successes of the recycling movement, which
has grown from just one curbside-recycling program nationwide in 1982,
to more than 9,000 curbside programs and 12,000 recyclable drop-off
centers across the country as of 1998 according to information from
the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
Recycling progress can be measured by hard data. In 1999, 64 million
tons of material was kept out of landfills and incinerators thanks
to recycling and composting efforts. The United States currently recycles
about 28 percent of its waste, almost twice its success rate of 15
years ago.
The primary successes in the recycling movement have been paper (42
percent recycled), plastic soft drink bottles (40 percent), aluminum
beer and soft drink cans (55 percent), steel packaging (57 percent)
and major appliances (52 percent).
In addition to those successes, businesses that take used materials
and recycle them into useable products are becoming more and more
common. Such efforts offer the promise that the environmental mantra
of “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle,” is becoming more attainable.
One such company is Green Glass, which takes used glass bottles, cuts
them in half and then re-arranges the pieces so base becomes the top
of a goblet and the neck forms the stem and base.
The process involves smoothing and polishing the elements. The head
portion is heated and twisted (to close it off) so what was once the
mouth of the bottle becomes its base. The other half of the bottle
becomes a tumbler.
Unlike the do-it-yourself kits offered in the 1970s to do the same
thing, the Green Glass process also includes etching and frosting
to produce a much fancier goblet and tumbler. Goblet sets (four glasses
each) cost about $46.00, while tumbler sets (also four) cost $29.60.
The company also offers some other specialty items made from glass
bottles, including candle holders, vases and pendants.
Or, there’s a company by the name of “Little Earth Products”
whose motto is “Recycling Pop Culture.” The company mainly
finds creative ways of using old license plates, such as by converting
them into purses or photo albums.
 As
an added attraction, the company will accept your used license plate
and turn it into one of six custom products of your choice. According
to the mail order form (no web orders for custom goods) the company
will return the finished product without cleaning off the accumulated
“history” on the plate. It appears this policy is a result
of disappointed customers from back when Little Earth did clean the
plates first.
Prices vary for the custom products with a small photo album or road
journal costing about $39 plus shipping and handling (about six dollars)
up to the $89 for a “super cyclone” purse (six dollars
shipping and handling). This item requires two license plates, but
the company will provide the second from its stock if you only send
in one plate.
Yet another company, Machine Arts of Lancaster, Penn., combines old
t-shirts and functional minimalism design to create lamps. White cotton
t-shirt scraps are recycled into a translucent material with corn
husk fibers embedded in it. The material is shaped around compact
fluorescent lights and held in place by wood forms to provide simple,
but elegant lamps.
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