But, that relies on the customer to be ecologically aware, and although headway has been made, many U.S. consumers still toss everything form glass to plastic to aluminum in the regular trash bin. Target is taking a different approach on its website by selling 'recycled' consumer electronics products. Now, that may be a tad misleading, I suppose -- Target is actually selling refurbished or store-returned products for lower-than-new prices on its website in an effort to clear inventory that has been returned by customers. So, this is recycling in a different sense -- but it's just as important.

Instead of wasting time, effort, gas, paper and a million other resources to send these products back to a handful of manufacturers, Target is attempting to sell them again to customers looking for bargains. This "experiment" -- which has been confirmed by the retailer -- could be a great way to save costs and resources from multiple sources and allow Target to sell these products again without the expensive paper and resource trail a return to a refurbishing house or manufacturer takes. With the American appetite for gadgetry and electronics items (which are the top sellers this holiday season), this is a great move by Target to lower its footprint into the wasted resources category.