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To Reuse or Recyle?

To Reuse or Recyle?

By Caitlyn Ng

As landfills grow and overtake land space that could have been used for so much more; the world is slowly starting to realise that the culture of excessive waste is not working for us and we may regret the consumerist decisions we make. Of course, besides reducing consumption and buying less disposable items; one could also consider reusing or recycling.

Whilst consumption reduction is a well-known, self-explanatory concept, reusing and recycling isn’t always so clear cut. Reusing can actually be divided into two different types, conventional and new-life. The former is where one uses an item again for the same function, after it has already been used, like the delivery of milk in certain countries in refillable glass bottles.

The latter is where one uses an item for a different function, after it has already been used, such as old glass bottles being reused for decorative purposes such as fashioning a chandelier out of them. Recycling, on the other hand, is a long and sometimes very costly process to convert waste materials (glass, paper and plastic, to name a few) into new products.

Let's take a look at the four commonly found materials that can both be reused or recycled, and the costs involved in selecting the best method(s) for them.

Paper

Paper can be reused in ways that you'd never expect, some of which are creative and some of which are standard. Let's take a very simple method of reusing paper for an example: printing on the back of scrap A4 paper.

This is a no-brainer but many people fail to do so; printing daily paperwork such as coupons, directions, meeting minutes and to-do lists onto these used sheets will not only save the trees but cut down on your costs. If you were to purchase a pack of the A4 paper used for printing, it would set you back between RM9.50 to RM14.50 depending on the brand and the amount contained.

On the other hand, if you were to choose to recycle the papers instead because you don't mind forking out that amount of money just to get fresh clean sheets of paper every time, then you can head to one of the recycling centres who turns "your trash into cash". A centre (like the Ikano Recycling Centre) will usually pay about RM0.21 for a kilogram of magazines, newspapers and whatnot.

For one to even reach the amount of money saved by reusing scrap paper (say RM9.50), one would need to bring at least a whopping 45 kilograms to the centre for recycling!

It's also important to remember that recycling takes up energy at the recycling plant to turn into reusable paper so what is best is actually to reuse your paper as much as possible and THEN recycle. This maximises the use you get from the paper first and then from the recycling process. Save trees; make recycling energy worthwhile and save money! Sounds like a good deal to us!

Our verdict: Do both! (Save the environment and your cash)

Plastics

The one important factor about plastics is that a majority of them in the market should not be reused too many times to hold drinks or edible foodstuff. This is due to numerous research findings which have proven that repeated usage can result in the leakage of toxic chemicals, specifically BPA (Bisphenol A).

If ingested in quantities large enough, it can wreck havoc on the person's health, such as increasing the risk of succumbing to different kinds of cancer. However, in terms of creative reuse, there are heaps of ways that you can put to good use for all the plastic lying around! An idea would be to make simple plastic plant pots to hang outside your kitchen window; saves you RM16 if you were to buy one from Ikea.

You can also find ways to minimise the need to purchase items in plastic bottles by reusing old ones. Toiletries like body wash and conditioner come in paper packs for refilling old containers, so opt to buy these instead of throwing out old bottles over and over.

Similarly, for food and drink; buy durable and safe food and drink containers which you can reuse over and over. Bringing a water tumbler from home saves you the trouble of having to buy water each time you go out.

Recycling plastic is a lot less profitable compared to the other waste materials though, with the Ikano Recycling Centre only paying out RM0.12 per kilogram of plastic. It will take you approximately 133 kilograms of plastic in order to reach the amount that you would save if you chose to reuse instead!

Our verdict: Reuse when possible, otherwise recycle.

Glass

Here's an interesting material on the list as it makes up a large component of household and industrial waste. It comes in the form of bottles, broken glassware, light bulbs and other items. Since glass is such a safe material for reuse purposes, you can do so for both conventional and new-life ways.

Glass bottles can be decorated as creatively as you want and then used to hold herbs and dried foodstuff for cooking later on, or even to decorate the kitchen area. Alternatively, you can reuse those glass bottles via the same artsy methods as plastic, but this time you can have more options such as jar candles. If you were to buy a candle in a glass jar from Ikea, RM3.90 is the cheapest price for a small 6cm one.

According to the Glass Packaging Institute of USA, glass is "100% recyclable and can be recycled endlessly without loss in quality or purity - something no other food and beverage packaging option can claim". However, in Malaysia it's a whole different scenario altogether. Owing to the high costs and complicated processes involved in creating uncontaminated end products, the glass recycling industry is highly underdeveloped.

After searching around on the internet, there is a centre called iCYCLE Malaysia which has a unique system. Instead of paying for the discarded glass, people can exchange them for Earth Points (EP) which can be accumulated and then exchanged for goodies such as shopping vouchers or gadgets.

Our verdict: Reuse for the many creative things you can make; recycle if useless for those valuable EPs.

Metal

Metal items that are improperly discarded can be quite an eyesore as it tends to rust when exposed to the natural elements. Not only does it look decrepit, the rust may slowly trickle down to bodies of water. The lifeforms in rivers, ponds and lakes will be affected badly and if the rust gets into the drinking water supplies, it it may cause stomach upsets in the long-run.

Reusing involves a simple process of festooning them with as much as you want and then placing garden/kitchen/garage tools or office supplies in them for a more organised lifestyle (old Milo and powdered milk tins are a great size for this). A 13 cm tall steel tin bought from Ikea for the same purposes will set you back RM25.90 which is quite a pretty price to pay for something so simple.

Now if you'd like to start recycling all those discarded metal materials, get on with it and head straight to the Ikano Recycling Centre! They are paying out RM0.21 per kilogram of metal scrap. For aluminium cans, that will reap you quite a bit of dough if you have a hefty amount brought in, RM2.50 per kilogram. Therefore, it would take you about 10 kilograms of those aluminium cans if you were to want to reach the amount you would have if reusing was chosen instead.

Our verdict: Metal can be quite a difficult material to reuse unless you have the necessary paint or lacquer needed to prevent other metals from rusting. Recycle where necessary to get back some extra pocket money.

Recycling is more energy intensive than people realise but it’s a better option than constantly felling trees and piling up on landfills. However, if you are going to recycle, be sure to get the most out of the item before heading to the recycling plant. Reuse as much as you can, albeit safely first. This makes the recycling process worthwhile.

* Caitlyn Ng is an Investigative Journalist of SaveMoney.my, an online consumer advice portal which aims to help Malaysians save money through smart (and most of the time painless) savings in their daily banking, technology, and lifestyle spending habits.