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"  We use the word &amp;quot;recycle&amp;quot; often, usually in the context of returning cans for a nickel, using recycled grocery bags in exchange for a small discount, or getting a few dollars worth of credit for your old electronics return at Best Buy. As a society, we&amp;#039;re still just beginning to embrace the idea of recycling, but Mother Nature has been doing it for billions of years. In fact, she&amp;#039;s perfected it brilliantly in a cycle of rebirth that produces zero waste. Almost everything in the natural world is part of the life-continuum, whether we&amp;#039;re talking about the earth, the atmosphere, or living organisms. For example, volcanoes give rise to mountains and rocks to the sand on our beaches. Rivers feed oceans, which evaporate into the atmosphere, and fall back down as rain to fertilize the soil. A tree inhales carbon dioxide from the air and incorporates it into its structure; when the tree finally falls to the ground, other life forms break it down, and that same carbon dioxide is once again returned to the atmosphere. In the spirit of Earth Day, I&amp;#039;d like to encourage everyone to think of how we fit into the earth&amp;#039;s life-cycle and realize that we can&amp;#039;t be exempt from the bigger picture of recycling. Beyond the small financial reward for returning soda cans, we can think about the entire lifecycle of products we&amp;#039;re using from the beginning to the end; this includes the energy and water used to manufacture them, whether they&amp;#039;re made of recycled materials, and how we dispose of them. Recycling isn&amp;#039;t a one-way street to the recycle bin\u2014it&amp;#039;s an entire life cycle.  If we continue to carelessly dispose of non-biodegradable and non-recyclable products because it&amp;#039;s the cheapest and easiest option, we&amp;#039;ll continue to build sprawling landfills and irreversibly pollute our air, drinking water, and land. With minimal extra effort, we can buy &amp;quot;green&amp;quot; goods and recycle what we use when we&amp;#039;re ready to dispose of them. Have you made any changes in your life to go more green? Let me know in the comments. If you&amp;#039;d like tips on simplifying the recycling process, we have a handy guide to electronics recycling. Need help choosing eco-friendly products? Look for items that have earned the Green Good Housekeeping Seal. If you want to find out how we evaluate products for their eco-friendliness, come join our special green tour of the Research Institute on Earth Day. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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