The 3 "R"s

When I first heard about recycling, it was presented in terms of the 3 "R"s. (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.) The order of these pieces is important. The best option is to reduce your dependence on things that will become waste. The next best is to reuse items that you might otherwise throw away (or come up with reusable alternatives to items that would usually be disposable.) Recycling is what you hope to do with things you can't do without, and can't reuse. (I say hope to do, because not everything is recyclable.)

Here's an example of how this works:

You're at a restaurant, and you've only eaten half of your food, and want to take home the rest. You can:

a) Pat yourself on the back for choosing a restaurant that features recyclable or compostable take-out containers. (Good, but the containers did take energy and other resources to produce, and can only be used once, even if they're not landfill-bound.) - Recycle
b) Bring a reusable container from home to carry your left-overs. (Better, as long as you remember to eat the food later, otherwise you waste resources cleaning the reusable container.) - Reuse (Though this gets upgraded to a "Reduce" if you remember your left-overs, and don't use an additional container for lunch the next day.)
c) Plan ahead and split your entree with your dinner companion so there are no left-overs. (best!) - Reduce

All of these are better options than the standard styrofoam take-out boxes you find at most restaurants, but they are not all equally good. It's a lot easier to recycle than to reduce or reuse (at least in most places.) But reducing and reusing are worth the extra effort, and they are the focus of this blog. Look around, and maybe you'll pick up a few new habits!