October 13th, 2009

By Tom Kessler
Green Right Now

The mantra of “reduce, reuse and recycle” tends to play out in real life with an emphasis on “reduce” (be frugal) and “recycle.” That’s because “reuse” is a harder concept for we Americans to embrace. “Reuse” makes us a bit uncomfortable — it starts to sound a bit distasteful like “used” or, even worse, “second hand.”

Yech! Let’s not get all “Depressionary” just because we’re,well, living through a depression.

But “reuse” isn’t about looking like you’re so down on your luck you have to shop at swap meets. It’s about reclaiming things that haven’t exhausted their usefulness — or maybe have a new life through some alternative use.

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