Buying products made from recycled materials can be just as important to the environment as recycling itself.

To make sure that the paper and bottles you've sorted and recycled so carefully don't end up in the landfill after all, it is important to buy products that are made of (or at least are packaged into) recycled materials. That way there's always a "need" for recycling materials and post-consumer recycling really ends up being reused. Buying recycled materials conserves natural resources, saves energy, reduces solid waste, pollutants and greenhouse gases.

When at a store, see if you can buy things that are made out of recycled materials and that they can be recycled again once you're done with them. Good examples of such recycled products can be many paper-goods like toilet-paper, household-paper, gift-wrap, envelopes, notebooks etc. Besides seemingly obvious things, there is a large variety of things that are also made of recycled materials, so keep it in mind when shopping for pretty much anything. You can find children's playgrounds, swings and sandboxes made out of recycled milk jugs, shopping bags and toothbrushes made out of yogurt tubs, carpets and insulation in ski jackets made out of water-bottles and so on. Even crayons, mousepads, wallpaper, shoes, clothing, garden hoses and furniture can be made out of recycled materials. So close the loop, and buy recycled products.