Is it what is being dug from the ground? Is it oil? Or is it water? My parents and my grand-parents - to my memory - were very careful in not wasting water, they collected rain to water their vegetables and trees, and the dishwashing was done by hand, which uses less water and detergent. The website WaterFootprint Network shows impressive figures of water consumption to make daily drinks such as coffee and tea, and we all know that growing maize / corn, that's commonly used to feed cows, requires huge quantities of water, the quality of which is usually drinkable. Also growing eucalyptus trees to make "green" gasoline uses much water. Though I'm quite ridiculed for using the water used to rinse my flat's floor to water my plants or to flush my WC, may be adding some sodium hypochlorite, I keep doing it. Water is not simply "water": it has many a quality, from drinkable to demineralized to waste, and so on; we've to be more aware of these differences.

As a general, though generic observation, there's a common trend to undervalue / underestimate recyclability of valuable materials, and not of materials only. The "use and scrap" way of thinking is still too common, it has to be reversed to some kind of "think before you print" mentality. Is EVERYTHING we routinely do and use really necessary? Speaking of water again, why to let it run while brushing teeth instead of closing the tap and make water run to rinse the teeth? There are - may be - million examples of possibly recyclable materials - and ideas, documents, from plastic bottles to make toys to garments to make upholstery, and so on: the only hindrance is to view recyclability as a wealth demonstration, not its opposite.