Then you get into grey areas, like plastics. Take milk jugs and soda bottles for example. Because plastic has such a low melting point, they cannot be melted down, and made sterile. So they have to be remade into something other than food containers, like park benches, and fleece sweaters. So a lot of energy was used all the way around, first to make the milk jug, then to recycle, transport, and remake it into something else, plus the transporting of that new plastic thing. On the other hand, it means that much less plastic going to landfills, and being dumped into our oceans. Either way, it’s probably a wash, concidering the pollution and fossil fuels that will be used to recycle it. Best thing? Try not to buy items in plastic, period. That does a lot to save the environment.

Paper…cost is more to recycle the stuff, than take it to landfills. Also not good for the environment the way the plants work that recycle the stuff. So, better to toss it away, or even better yet, start a worm bin, in your own house, and feed the paper (especially newspaper) to the worms. They will consume a great deal of it, and you get a lovely byproduct for your garden.

There’s almost always a way to think outside the box, and come up with something creative to do.

Also you need to think about this… technologies improve all the time. What was once not cost efficent, nor environmentally friendly may become quiet a good technology in the future.

Please do not decide because paper is not cost efficent, nor environmentally friendly to recycle that it will not at some point in your life become the best way to do things. Remain flexable, and open minded. Keep checking up on technologies yourself…what is true today, may not be true tomorrow.