The Three Rs

This world is a great place to live and it is up to each and everyone of us to take care of it. the only way to fix problems is to do something about them, no matter how small.

The three Rs—reduce, reuse and recycle—all help to cut down on the amount of waste we throw away. They conserve natural resources, landfill space and energy. Plus, the three Rs save land and money communities must use to dispose of waste in landfills.

The hard fact is that global warming, deforestation and other earthly ills cannot be solved by switching brands.

“Reduce” means using fewer resources in the first place. This is the most effective of the three Rs and the place to begin. It is also, I think, the hardest because it requires letting go. But you don’t need to let go completely or all at once. “Reduce” is a comparative word. It says: cut back from where you are now. When you shop, shop differently. Look for things that will last—things that are not just durable and well-made, but useful and beautiful enough to please you for a long time.

The extra money you spend on their acquisition will be offset by the money you do not spend replacing them.

Don’t chase the latest fashions. They will age the fastest. With electronics, extravagance may pay. A super-charged computer will still run the software that comes out two years from now, and a large monitor will accommodate the ever wider webpages that companies will be building then. Similarly, a cell phone with a full text keypad (or the iPhone) will see you through the text-messaging era that is upon us. When you make a purchase, find out how to keep the item in shape. Then, maintain it accordingly and repair it when necessary.

Before you recycle or dispose of anything, consider whether it has life left in it. A jam jar can store leftovers. Food scraps can become compost. An old shirt can become a pajama top. An opened envelope can become a shopping list. A magazine can be shared. DVDs can be traded. A dishwasher can be repaired. A computer can be upgraded. A car can be resold. A cell phone can be donated. Returnable bottles can be, well..., returned. Reusing keeps new resources from being used for a while longer, and old resources from entering the waste stream. It’s as important as it is unglamorous. Think about how you can do it more.

When you do decide to replace something large and “reusable,” be sure to donate the old one to charitable outlets like Goodwill, Salvation Army, Habitat for Humanity, Vietnam Veterans, and the many others that are probably in your area. Most of the time the item can be repaired by those groups, and then redistributed into other homes rather than landfills.

Recycling is the R that has caught on the best. Partly, this is because there are so many curbside recycling programs today which makes recycling so darned easy.

Just about anything in your home (or office, or school, etc.) that cannot be reused can be recycled into something else. You’d be amazed what can be done with a recycled product! A recycled soda bottle can be made into T-shirts, combs, or hundreds of other plastic goods that can be used for many years. Even your brand new computer case might be made from ordinary recycled plastics. And paper products can take on different forms as well; an old phone book or coloring book might become one of your school books or a notebook.