Pollution 3 Rs

The “three Rs” waste hierarchy:

1. Reduce

2. Reuse

3. Recycle

The most important of these is “reduce.”

The reason it’s most important to reduce is because when we reduce the amount of waste we use, then we don’t have as much to deal with and to try to figure out how to reuse or recycle. Its also the most cost efficient method. We do not have to spend money to recycle or reuse what we don’t use in the first place. It’s also cheaper for people who sell things if they don’t have to be wrapped in plastic or packaged in any way.

Reducing waste can be beneficial to companies. Some companies save millions of dollars by using less aluminum or less plastic in their cans and bottles. People can also contribute to reducing the amount of waste used in our country. One of the things that I do, and never really realized that I was doing it until this class, is that I often go to the farmer’s market in the summer and buy a truckload of fruits and vegetables that I put in laundry baskets (baskets that I keep just for this reason) and I take them by and distribute the whole truckload to my friends and family. I guess I am helping by doing this because if they were to go to the grocery store and buy these items, they would be wrapped in plastic, or placed in a plastic bag which would be thrown away later. I also buy, almost every month, a forty pound pail of laundry detergent, which I take by and fill my sister’s box with so she doesn’t have to buy another box of laundry detergent. This saves one cardboard box a month. I know it’s not much, but I guess it helps.

Reusing is another great alternative to throwing things in the landfill. I try to buy things that come in a glass jar, plastic bucket, or a can that I can reuse. I can always find things to store in glass jars and coffee cans, such as old nuts and bolts, and I save them until I find a use for them. That way I have reused a glass jar as well as the old nuts and bolts.

Recycling is the least efficient means of...