Buy Recycled

Recycling only works when we close the loop by using the materials recovered through recycling.  You can help reduce waste and promote recycling efforts by purchasing recycled products. 

  • Green Purchasing at Yale  Learn more about how you can help Yale meet its Sustainability Goals by making more environmentally friendly purchases and choices.  Includes information for purchasing equipment, office supplies, catering supplies and much more!
  • CT DEP: Buy Recycled Explains the different meanings of recycled content lables and provides resources on buying recycled products for home, work, and many other settings.
  • TerraCycle  This company makes affordable, eco-friendly products from a wide range of different non-recyclable waste materials.  Check out which materials they are collecting and the new products they are creating.

 

The following definitions from Earth911.com can help you understand product labels when looking for recycled products. 

Recycled Content – Products are made from materials that would otherwise have been discarded. That means these products are made totally or partially from material contained in the products you recycle, like aluminum soda cans or newspaper. Recycled-content products also can be items that are rebuilt or re-manufactured from used products such as toner cartridges or computers.

Post-Consumer – A term used to describe material that is being reused/recycled after it has been in the consumer’s hands (e.g., a newspaper going back to the paper mill to be recycled into new recycled content paper products). Material or product used by the consumer for its original purpose and then discarded.  

Pre-Consumer – A term used to describe material that is being reused/recycled before it ever goes to market (e.g. paper scraps off a paper mill floor going back into the next batch of paper). Waste material generated during the manufacturing process.