In Andover:
can one recycle biweekly?
will recyclables be collected, including dates and streets?
does one dispose of special materials?
is it important for Andover to recycle?

Recycling Committee:
Tony Connell
Candy Dann
Don Gottfried
Marya Lundgren
Alanna McKee
Jan Niebudek
Glenn Rogers
Scott Stecher

Public Works:
Jack Petkus, Director
Sandy Gerraughty

978-623-8350

Completing the Recycling Cycle

Tips from Keep America Beautiful

YOU can help make recycling work for everyone by closing the loop.”

Why Should I Buy Recycled?

"You “close the loop” when you buy items or packaging made from recycled materials. They have now come full-circle: from bag or bin to a manufacturer, to the store shelf, and back to your home. And after using the item, you can start the loop again by saving it for the local recycling program. When you buy recycled, markets are created and a use is assured for recyclables being collected in your community and in thousands of others. Manufacturers will respond by continuing to use recyclables in their products.

Without informed consumers and a ready market for products made of recycled materials, local recycling programs will become more costly and fewer recyclables may be collected and processed. More reusable material will end up in landfills, and comrnunities will need to deal with an increased amount of garbage.

How Do I Find Them?

 Products and packaging made from recycled material are everywhere--in stores that sell groceries, office supplies, auto parts, and everything in between. Recyclables are transformed into an amazing variety of new products. Plastic milk jugs return to yards and parks as plastic lumber and picnic tables. Steel food cans return to the hardware store as nails and screws. Newspapers become egg cartons. There's no limit to the things that can be made from recyclables.

Many products are identified recycled or partially recycled on the label or on the product itself .  Others may contain recycled material but may not be identified. For instance, there is a good chance that the glass containers, 'aluminum and steel cans, paperboard boxes and plastic detergent bottles you buy are made of some recycled material.

Some products and packaging also have labels describing the amount of "pre-consumer" and "post- consumer" waste that was used. "Pre-consumer" waste is also known as "manufacturing waste, " and includes any scraps, trimmings, over-runs, etc., from the manufacturing process. "Post-consumer" waste is a product or other material that has served its intended use and has been discarded and then collected for recycling. "

 Keep America Beautiful, Inc.'s (KAB) "Close The Loop. Buy Recycled" is a cooperative program between the U.S. EPA and KAB to encourage consumers and businesses everywhere to support local recycling markets by purchasing items made from recycled materials.

Keep America Beautiful, Inc. offers communities an ongoing, structured program that involves everyone in education and hands-on actions that improve waste handling and changes attitudes. It's called the KAB SYSTEM.

For more information, write: Keep America Beautiful, Inc., Training and Program Development., 9 West Broad Street, Stamford, CT 06902.

copyright 1997 KAB Specialty Products Office #KBR-006