The recycling industry is growing at a faster rate as more communities realize that so many items can be created by recycling a variety of materials. While you can reuse single-use containers and recycle other items at home, this can also be done on a community-wide level. Learning more about how to use recycled items can help you create a more eco-friendly community.

Start With Outdoor Entertaining

You can begin promoting the use of recycled materials by encouraging your neighbors and local business owners to change the way they shop for patio and deck furniture. Help the people in your community by connecting them with recycled plastic outdoor furniture manufacturers when they need new outdoor seating and tables. This can be especially helpful if you reach out to bars and restaurants that feature outdoor services. They can get the same quality and range of styles in their outdoor furnishings with patio furniture made from recycled materials. This will help them protect the local environment while fulfilling their needs for furnishings. Even if you can only convince a couple of families in your community to buy recycled furnishings, that can help start a trend that encourages more people in your community to give this option a try.

Make Tote Bags More Accessible

You can now buy tote bags that are manufactured using recycled plastic and other materials. When shoppers use tote bags, they're also reducing or eliminating their use of plastic shopping bags. In this way, you'll double the impact on the environment by doing more to limit your community's reliance on single-use plastic bags. You can start by encouraging the stores in your business to sell tote bags and make them conveniently available at point of sale locations. If you're involved in any local charities, suggest tote bags as prizes for any nonprofit events they're hosting. Giving away tote bags as gifts will help you spread awareness for your cause as you put more recycled products in the hands of people in your community.

Use Eco-Friendly Disposable Items

There are plenty of single-use items that are made from recyclable materials, and you can encourage their use in your community. Talk to business owners and residents in your neighborhood about switching to polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) straws. PHA is an entirely biosynthetic substance that produces zero toxic waste. As such, straws made from this material are 100% biodegradable. You can also promote the use of eco-friendly disposable items by encouraging people in your community to switch to trash bags made from recycled plastic. This reduces the need to manufacture new trash bags that will only end up in landfills.

Promote Recycled Clothing

Even clothing is being produced with the use of recycled plastic. From footwear to T-shirts, there are plenty of options for wearing clothes made from recycled materials. Encourage your city to order uniforms for civil service workers that are manufactured from recycled plastic. You can start an awareness drive that will help businesses in your community use recycled clothing to create unique uniforms for their employees. You can promote the greater use of recycled clothing by asking local retailers to stock these items. You'll find that people are more willing to buy clothing made from recyclables when they're more easily available.

Encourage City Planners to Use More Recycled Plastic

You can help your city become more eco-friendly if you look for companies that manufacture park benches, light poles, and utility posts from recycled plastic. If you can present these options to your city planners, they may be willing to reconsider their use of traditional materials in favor of using recycled materials. Items made from recycled materials are just as durable, beautiful, and strong as any similar item, and the city may save money by switching to recyclables for the products they need. This may even encourage them to look for more ways to include recyclables in the construction of the city's roads, equipment, and buildings.

There's no limit to the ways in which your community can use recycled materials as long as your city leaders are open to creating a more eco-friendly environment. You can help your city change by getting others involved and by using your imagination to find more uses for recycled items. Use social media and other online resources to show city planners that using recyclables is both possible and economically feasible.

Written by Lizzie Howard

About the Author

Lizzie Howard is a Colorado native who after graduating from the University of Colorado spends her time as a freelance writer. When Lizzie isn’t writing, she enjoys going on hikes, baking for her friends and family, and spending time with her beloved yellow lab, Sparky.

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