Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

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This morning, as I prepared to garden, I pulled out an old, favorite t-shirt with mother earth in the center.  Surrounding her are dancing bears, representing different country flags.  The saying: The Future’s Here – We Are It – We Are On Our Own – Reduce – Reuse – Recycle.  The t-shirt is about 15 or 20 years old.

It got me thinking that 15 – 20 years ago, the caretakers of the earth were definitely a minority.  How times have changed.  Or have they?  Are there really more caretakers of the earth or is it a fad that has become the chic, in, green thing to do?

Reduce, reuse, recycle – we see and hear this saying more and more often, but what does it really mean?  Yes, many of us recycle and make the trek to the curbside once or twice a week, but there is more to recycling than putting our plastic, cans, glass and paper out on the curbside.  Recycling, for most, is what is convenient.  If you are out about town and you finish drinking your plastic, bottled water (which I won’t get started on here, but please invest in a reusable water bottle) do you look for a recycling bin, take it home with you to recycle or do you just toss it in the nearest trash can?  In New York, where I live it is the law to recycle and we can get ticketed for it if they find recyclables in our trash.  However, as I walk thru my town and others, there are very few places where you can recycle your containers.  Why is that?  If we are all supposed to do our part, why is it so difficult to recycle when we are away from our homes? We have become a disposable society.  Have you ever heard the saying “we are going to market to that demographic because they have a higher ratio of disposable income?”  That is like saying let’s target this group because they have a lot of money they can throw away.  Think of it in those terms and it changes things.  You wouldn’t consciously throw away your money, would you?

Recycling Bin with Trash (notice the NO TRASH)

The definition of reduce is to lessen in extent, amount, number, degree or price.  When I think of reducing in my life there are many things that come to mind: reduce my waste, my impact on the environment, my expenses, my dependency, which for me gives me an increase in the quality of my life.  If you have not had the chance to see the Story of Stuff, http://www.storyofstuff.com/, I highly recommend taking 15 minutes to sit back and have an “aha moment”.  It really is all about changing the way we think about things in our everyday life.  Most people use paper towels in their life, but do you really have to use as many as you do?  There was a time when paper towels did not exist and people survived.

Here’s an example. Now, you have to remember that I said it is all about changing the way you think and for that matter how you look at a product that you use pretty much unconsciously. Let’s take a journey with paper towels and see how one product and its uses can tie into all three r’s.  Think about the way you use a paper towel: cleaning glass, windows and mirrors, wiping up a spill, using in place of napkins, drying an item and I am sure that you can think of other uses.

Reducing your use of paper towels is to look at other items that can be used in place of paper towels.  Most of us use paper towels to clean glass products, but in reality vinegar and water with newspaper cleans glass better than glass cleaner and paper towel.  Your hands may get a little dirty from the news print, so either use gloves or wash your hands afterwards.  Cleaning glass this way is a lot cheaper than using the traditional glass cleaner, about $3.50 a bottle compared to pennies for a mixture of vinegar and water, and you get another use out of the newspaper before placing it in the recycling bin.  If you use paper towels or paper napkins invest in some cloth napkins, which are better for the environment.  If you have several people in your family, collect different napkin rings and let each person pick which one to use for the week.  You reach almost automatically for a paper towel when cleaning up a spill, why, when a sponge, dishcloth or rag will do the job just as well.

You cannot really re-use a paper towel, but you can re-use other items that are replacements for paper towels; sponge, cloth, newspaper.

Recycling a paper towel is not really done; unless you have used a paper towel in place of a plate then you can recycle it with your other paper products, but you can also reuse it for cleaning.  You can recycle paper, and you can buy paper towels that are made from recycled products.  More and more paper product companies are doing just that.  Paper towels that are made from recycled products work just as well as the products that are made from virgin materials; there is no reason not to purchase those products.  Consumers speak by the money that they spend, so make sure that your money makes a statement and supports companies that are concerned about our limited resources, global warming, our environment and the earth.

The next time that you reach for a product you use in your home, work place, school or the grocery store think consciously: Is there something else that I could use that is a better choice for the environment and my wallet? It is all about changing the thought process from a disposable, wasteful and costly way of approaching things to a “conserve, preserve and enhance” way of thinking. Change happens gradually, so don’t try to change everything at once, take small steps and before you know it you will be automatically thinking in a new way.

Thank you for reading and I hope it made you think and possibly start a conversation with others about how to make change happen. I would love to hear about some of the things that you do.

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