Spring Into Action

June 22, 2010

Each American discards about 4 pounds of trash per day, which translates to approximately 1,500 pounds per year. Overcrowded landfills are an obvious by-product of human consumption, yet individually very little thought is given to the after-life of our garbage. All of that might change, as the great test of our generation will be to develop better strategies to fully utilize our limited natural resources.

Without thinking, I usually throw away most things I no longer want. Occasionally I’ll have some donations, but more often my trash has reached the end of its usable life. Or so I thought. I am learning that new recycling strategies could generate multiple lives for our discarded materials.

Shoes for example, are not destined for landfills. Nike has a fascinating program where they take back old shoes, process them, and create new products like outdoor tracks. The idea is wonderful on many levels. First of all, the shoes don’t end up in a landfill, which saves the financial and environmental cost of disposal. Raw materials are not wasted in the creation of this recreational space. And most exciting, the product makes sense. If the soles of Nike shoes were designed to reduce joint damage, then a track made of the same material would presumably provide the same benefit.

This really makes me wonder… if discarded shoes can become recreational centers, how valuable is our trash?

In a world where recycled paper can become an even higher quality, finer paper product, I expect that we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg of an emerging recycling industry. I wonder, what new recycling businesses will crop up to convert discarded items into products or commodities of value? And what post-consumer recycled products can replace scarce raw materials? Perhaps the most interesting question of all though, is what can’t be recycled??