The pwan's personal unbranding method
Recycling

Problem

Landfills are too full of junk.

Context

Recycling is one of the discarding methods. Like the other discarding methods it describes with a way to get rid of products which cannot be unbranded.

Forces

Recycling is different from the other Discarding methods in that it deals with products which are at or pretty close to the end of their useful life. The other discarding methods deal with distributing the products to other people which could use them more.

Note that there's nothing about this method that implies donating to charity. Recycling is big business, and you should be getting top dollar for your recyclables whenever possibile.

Note that since some products are made up of a combination of different materials, some of which might need to be separated to be recycled, this method could be used in combination with Thearuputic Sledgehammering to break up the product

Since, no doubt you are already buying for unbranding, you could also take it a step further and start buying for recycling as well.

Solution

Break up the product into its base recyclable materials, and drop off the material at your local recycling center.

Also support all recycling programs in your local neighborhood, and work with your local government to extend recycling programs at evey oppurtunity. For example, you could push that any company doing business with the government would have to have a recycling program in place.

Tools Used

No special tools needed.

Skills Needed

Knowledge of your local recycling oppurtunities. Remember that if your local government has substandard recycling facilities, perhaps one of the neighboring governments is more with it.

Payback

Generally, not that great from an unbranding point of view - you are getting rid of the logos, but its not to easy to recycle, especially if the product needs to be disassembled to get at all the base materials. Of course, you get your warm fuzzies by not contributing to the landfill problems, but that's not the payback we're tracking here.

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