A few weeks ago we were at the Nottingham Recycling Center — billed as the oldest consecutively operating center in the nation
— in the town of Nottingham, NH. We were taking our sorted cardboard and cans, glass and plastics, and placing them in bins to be properly recycled and eventually made into new products. While there we noted one woman, a Nottingham resident and employee of Portsmouth Regional Hospital, getting ready to throw away a sturdy, styrofoam box. We got her attention before she let go of the item. We asked: Can we have that?
Naturally this led to curious conversation. After a few minutes of sharing, this woman determined we were right: we would be one up on the Center by taking care of things ourselves. Specifically the center would have begun this process:
- Collect styrofoam boxes.
- Transport boxes to processor.
- Processor grinds boxes.
- Ground product used to make pellets.
- Pellets are sold and shipped to manufacturer.
- Manufacturer melts pellets in box molds.
- Boxes are shipped to distributor.
- Boxes are shipped to users.
- Boxes are put to use.
In case it isn’t obvious to you, all of those steps in the process require the consumption of natural resources. What with the trucking/transportation alone, we’re barely coming out ahead if at all. Recycling is great, but it pales in comparison to reuse. Here’s the resuse steps list:
- Collect styrofoam boxes.
- Boxes are cleaned.
- Boxes are put to use.
As you can see, most of the steps are gone. The positive impact goes deeper because most of the natural resource consumption is removed from the process. And this could be on-going, for us, anyway. The week following our meet at the Center a dozen or so boxes were dropped off at our office (about a quarter mile from the facility). We are extremely grateful. Not only does it lessen our number two expense (shipping is the biggie), it helps the environment far better than the normal recycling process.
We don’t like using foam boxes, but until a reasonably-priced alternative is available, we have little choice. The bugs are better than pesticides, but getting them to users alive and healthy is still a critical step. But if we are reusing foam boxes, the initial manufacturing process is a one-time shot without the constant cycle being repeated, our re-use of durable foam boxes suddenly becomes a very sound practice.
Due to shipping costs it’s less expensive to buy new and recycled boxes. Thus we cannot pay the shipping to get your boxes back. And doing so one-at-a-time isn’t wise anyway. But if you’re local, or have been saving them for a while, we do want them back. By the case, by the truck, we presently will accept what you’re willing to give (boxes, bubble wrap, ice packs). Give us a call. Sending our boxes back to us, if done wisely, is the best of all possible solutions presently available to us today. Want to help?
