The Three R's of the Environment

Every year, Americans throw away 50 billion food and drink cans, 27 billion glass
bottles and jars, and 65 million plastic and metal jar and can covers. More than 30%
of our waste is packaging materials. Where does it all go? Some 85% of our garbage
is sent to a dump, or landfill, where it can take from 100 to 400 years for things like
cloth and aluminum to decompose. Glass has been found in perfect condition after
4,000 years in the earth!

We are quickly running out of space. It's time to learn the three R's of the
environment: reduce, reuse, recycle. Then practice what you preach: don't buy
things you don't need or items that come in wasteful packaging or that cannot be
recycled. Reuse and recycle whatever you can.

Reduce
Reducing the amount of waste you produce is the best way to help the environment.
There are lots of ways to do this. For example:

Reuse
Instead of throwing things away, try to find ways to use them again! For example:

 Bring cloth sacks to the store with you instead of taking home new paper or
plastic bags. You can use these sacks again and again. You'll be saving some
trees!
 Plastic containers and reusable lunch bags are great ways to take your lunch
to school without creating waste.
 Coffee cans, shoe boxes, margarine containers, and other types of containers
people throw away can be used to store things or can become fun arts and
crafts projects. Use your imagination!
 Don't throw out clothes, toys, furniture, and other things that you don't want
anymore. Somebody else can probably use them. You can bring them to a
center that collects donations, give them to friends, or even have a yard sale.
 Use all writing paper on both sides.
 Use paper grocery bags to make book covers rather than buying new ones.
 Use silverware and dishes instead of disposable plastic utensils and plates.
 Store food in reusable plastic containers.
Recycle
Many of the things we use every day, like paper bags, soda cans, and milk cartons,
are made out of materials that can be recycled. Recycled items are put through a
process that makes it possible to create new products out of the materials from the
old ones.

In addition to recycling the things you buy, you can help the environment by buying
products that contain recycled materials. Many brands of paper towels, garbage
bags, greeting cards, and toilet paper, to name a few examples, will tell you on their
labels if they are made from recycled materials.

In some towns you can leave your recyclables in bins outside your home, and a truck
will come and collect them regularly. Other towns have recycling centers where you
can drop off the materials you've collected. Things like paper and plastic grocery
bags, and plastic and aluminum cans and bottles can often be brought to the grocery
store for recycling. Whatever your system is, it's important to remember to rinse out
and sort your recyclables!
Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle

How can you help conserve our natural resources?

Reduce, reuse, and recycle. There are steps that you personally can take to
conserve our natural resources and reduce waste. The waste that an individual
creates is small in proportion to all the waste produced by society. Yet all small
contributions, when added up, make a difference.

Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle

Why conserve resources? During your lifetime, it is possible that the world may run
out of some nonrenewable resources, especially as the population passes 8 then 9
billion people. So it is necessary to try to make these resources last as long as
possible. You may have heard people say, "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle." You may
know that this is the slogan of the campaign to conserve resources. But what do
each one of those words truly mean?

Reduce
What exactly does it mean to reduce? Reducing means decreasing the amount of
waste we create. That could also mean cutting down on use of natural resources. In
addition, many ways to reduce also result in saving money. Minimizing of waste may
be difficult to achieve for individuals and households, but here are some starting
points that you can include in your daily routine to reduce the use of resources:
 Turn lights off when not using them.
 Turn the television off when no one is watching.
 Replace burned out bulbs with ones that are more energy-efficient (Figure below).
 Reduce water use by turning off faucets when not using water.
 Use low-flow shower heads, which save on water and use less energy.
 Use low-flush and composting toilets.
 Put kitchen and garden waste into a compost pile.
 In the summer, change filters on your air conditioner and use as little air conditioning
as possible. The use of air conditioning uses a lot of energy.
 In winter, make sure your furnace is working properly and make sure there is enough
insulation on windows and doors.
 Mend broken or worn items instead of buying new ones.
 When you go shopping for items, buy quantities you know you will use without waste.
 Walk or bicycle instead of using an automobile, in order to save on fuel usage and
costs, and to cut down on pollution.
 When buying a new vehicle, check into hybrid, semi-hybrid, or electric models to cut
down on gas usage and air pollution.

These fluorescent light bulbs are much more energy efficient than standard light bulbs.

Reuse
Let’s now look at what we can reuse. Reusing includes using the same item again
for the same function and also using an item again for a new function. Reuse can
have both economic and environmental benefits. New packaging regulations are
helping society to move towards these goals. Water is a resource that can be reused
for numerous purposes. You may not drink used water, but it is quite useful for other
purposes. Some ways of reusing resources include:
 Use reusable bags when shopping.
 Use gray water. Water that has been used for laundry, for example, can be used to
water the garden or flush toilets.
 At the town level, purified sewage water can be used for fountains, watering public
parks or golf courses, fire fighting, and irrigating crops.
 Rain can be caught in rain barrels and used to water your garden.
What are some other ways to reuse resources?
Recycle
Now we move on to recycle. Sometimes it may be difficult to understand the
differences between reusing and recycling. Recycling involves processing used
materials in order to make them suitable for other uses. That usually means taking a
used item, breaking it down, and reusing the pieces. Even though recycling requires
extra energy, it does often make use of items which are broken, worn out, or cannot
be reused.
The things that are commonly recycled include:
 Batteries.
 Biodegradable waste.
 Electronics.
 Iron and steel.
 Aluminum (Figure below).
 Glass.
 Paper.
 Plastic.
 Textiles, such as clothing.
 Timber.
 Tires.

These aluminum cans are packed together in a recycling plant to be reused.

Each type of recyclable requires a different recycling technique. Here are some
things you can do to recycle in your home, school, or community:
 If you have recycling in your community, make sure you separate aluminum, plastics,
glass, and paper products.
 See if your school recycles. If not, you and some friends could start a recycling club,
or organize efforts to better recycling goals.
Laws can also be created to make sure people and companies reduce, reuse, and
recycle. Individuals can vote for leaders who stand for sustainable ecological
practices. They can also tell their leaders to make wise use of natural resources.
You can also influence companies. If you and your family only buy from companies
and restaurants that support recycling or eco-friendly packaging, then other
companies will also change to be more environmentally friendly.