Create Markets: Choose to Buy Recycled Products

Some have said: If you’re not buying recycled, you’re not really recycling. Buying items made with recycled materials helps close the loop and create new markets for these goods. Here are some easy ways to do this:

1) Recycled Paper
Kinko's at Eastern Market sells 30% post-consumer waste (PCW) printer/copy paper. Greenline Paper sells 100% recycled/100% PCW wire-bound notebooks, copy paper, envelopes, file folders, and a wide variety of school supplies, including Eco-Writer pencils made from 100% recycled newsprint.

2) Recycled Plastic
Preserve toothbrushes, razors, plates, etc. made from recycled #5 plastics.

3) Recycled Cork: natural cork is an organically sustainable practice that provide 100,000 jobs in the Mediterranean; synthetic/plastic and screw caps are not.

• SOLE shoes organized by ReCork.
• Wine cork tiles from Yemm & Hart.
  
• Cork cheese boards from Corkologie.
• Cork flooring, furniture, and many other things at Jelinek Cork Group. I'm not sure how much of their stuff is actually recycled.
  

4) Recycled Glass
Uncommon Goods has glasses made from wine bottles.

5) Sustainable, non-petroleum materials

• Bamboo computer mouse and keyboard: bamboo instead of plastic.
• To-Go Ware: bamboo silverware.
  
• Burt's Bees: Lip balm and other items made from vegetable oils and beeswax, rather than petroleum, which is not a renewable resource and can be toxic.
  
• Jelinek Cork Group: Cork.
  
• Agave fibers (sisal), Coconut fibers (coir), flax, hemp, kapok, tampico used in pillows, bedding, and clothing.