Recycling: What’s Old is New Again

The world of recyclable materials is beginning to extend far beyond traditional paper, plastic, glass and aluminum cans. There are loads of materials that are now being recycled that you may not know about including wood, paved asphalt and all sorts of building and roofing materials.

Currently, researchers at Michigan State Univ. are investigating how to reduce urban blight through the recycling of building materials. Anyone following the news knows that cities such as Detroit and Flint have been hard hit over the last 25 years by economic downturns. Unfortunately, these economic downturns have resulted in an overwhelming number of abandoned buildings of all sorts. Now, municipalities are looking for new ways to get businesses involved in improving these once-booming towns and cities. We will be very eager to see what this study finds. Go MSU!

In our home state of Delaware, a high schooler named Samantha McDonough is helping to collect unwanted shoes which will go to those in need in dozens of countries all over the planet. Samantha hopes to ship upwards of 400 pairs by the time she is through. We often forget that our old clothing may be unwanted to us, but that does not make it trash per se. Kudos to Miss McDonough; we wish you the best of luck in your project.