I wanna permanent writer of your project.
It's amazing when you realize how much can be recycled nowadays. Whether or not you fully buy into the current "green" movement you have to admit that scientists have found a way to make just about everything reusable.
We all know about cans, plastics and glass. Chances are we recycle those every day, whether it's separating them for the city to recycle or taking them to the centers ourselves. What is really impressive, though, is how much of the things that we throw away can be easily recycled. I have a friend who is a contractor who told me about something called shingle grinding. I know, I know, I had never heard of it either, but when I learned what it was about it just seemed so obvious.
Shingle grinding is the act of grinding up used asphalt shingles so that they can be used in road and sidewalk building materials. Apparently there are companies that specialize in this process who will come to your business and pick up the materials. Until I heard this I would have never imagined that something like this existed, but it seems pretty cool.
If you think about it, just about everything can, and should, be recycled in today's economic and scientific landscape. Just like in shingle grinding, there are entire business that are based around recycling materials. I'm sure you've heard of the newest craze which is recycling old tires and sneakers to make new playgrounds and basketball courts. That has become big projects in inner-cities and suburbs alike, usually spearheaded by tire and sneaker companies. Companies have also started setting up recycling programs for cell phones, batteries, televisions and computers.
What used to sit in a landfill has now become big business for recycling companies. If you're razing and then rebuilding your house, almost every part of your original structure can be recycled. While you may know that materials like metal, glass and wood can be either sold or donated to recycling programs, very few people know that previously "trashed" materials like drywall and wiring can be recycled. That's right, you read that correctly: drywall. There are state programs and private companies that will pick up the used drywall, reprocess it and then form it into brand new drywall. This saves hundreds of tons of drywall from sitting and rotting in garbage dumps around the world.
If you have something to recycle and you don't know whether it will be accepted somewhere, do a little research. You'll probably find some company that will take it off your hands and reuse it.