Re-design first!

Among all the 'R's we feel it is better to Re-design to avoid having to do the 3 Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) once the product is made.

A classic example is the aluminium tab in soda cans. A few decades ago, when u pull the tab to open a can of soft drink, the aluminuim tab is detached and often thrown indiscrimately. SO much of aluminium is lost. So they went back to the drawing board and came out with the current design where the tab is still intact after pulling the tab to open the can.

But lately, "in the name" of recycling, people have been forcefully pulling out the tab to be used in making craft items like handbags, selling for hundreds of $. This requires lots of the aluminium tabs and nowadays, u can even buy it from the recycling centre. I am not against recycling/re-fashioning but i worry what will happen once the novelty of carrying an aluminium tab bag is over. What will happen to the bag? Most probably passed to other hands and eventually thrown in the dumpster!  Isnt that a waste of precious aluminium? Even if sent for recycling, much time will be taken to undo the bag to retrieve the tabs.

This is the irony of recycling!

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