The Three "R's"

In the process of recycling, there are three important rules to follow: reduce, reuse, recycle. Reducing may be as simple as carpooling with a neighbor, or  focusing more on what you're buying, so you don't buy items with excessive packaging. Canceling your name on a mailing lists can save huge amounts of paper, as much of the time the junk mail you receive ends up in the trash. Reusing  is just as simple as it sounds. If you're going to throw away something, think about whether it might be useful to use again. For example, many plastic containers can be used again to store leftovers or other food items. This picture to the right shows an old egg carton being used as a place to grow plants.  Not everything you throw away is going to be useful another time, but being aware of the idea is an important part of recycling. Lastly, recycling is the final step to the three R's. This idea follows much of what I mentioned in my previous blog. Separating your own wastes into categories such as plastic, metals, cardboard, etc., is a crucial part to an overall reduction in our waste. There are many places around the country that are looking to do more curbside pickup, to try and get everyone on the right track to recycling. (FactMonster)

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Interesting Fact:

-In a study that involved recycling 35,116 tons of material, it was found that the reduction in green gas emissions was equivalent to taking 22,140 cars off the road.

Why Recycle?

Many people will say, 'I don't need to recycle, I'm only one person. It won't affect anyone if I don't recycle.' In actuality, every person impacts the world of recycling in many ways. Recycling has many positive affects: saving energy and money, creating new jobs, reducing pollution, and improving the wildlife habitats. (AboutMyPlanet) Everyday I see people throw paper into the trash bin instead of the recycling bin. Recycling paper can save an enormous amount of energy and money. How? When creating paper, the tree needs to be cut down and then processed into paper. It's much easier (and less polluting) to take waste materials and turn those into paper. Producing recycled paper uses 80% less water, 65% less energy, and cuts down pollution by 95%, compared to producing new paper.  By using less materials, we don’t create as much waste. This allows us to preserve natural resources, that we may have an abundance of now, but do not have an endless supply of. Next time you’re throwing something away, think about how your contribution can help the environment.



Green tip of the week: Use filtered water rather than buying bottled water. The industry that creates bottled water produces about 1.5 million tons of plastic per year. (AboutMyPlanet) That's a ridiculous amount! Buy an Eco-friendly water bottle, and refill that using filtered tap water.