Redoooooo, Reuhhhhh, RECYCLE!!

Good evening, everyone! Even though I'm cutting it close tonight, I was able to start another entry before midnight - huzzah! What to blog about... that's the next question.

Well, it is Earth Day, so let's talk about that! Maybe it's just me, but whenever I hear about Earth Day, I immediately think about recycling. Now, recycling is very important, but the 3Rs are actually more than just "Recycle, recycle, recycle!".

So the phrase with the actual 3Rs is "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" and I've read that ordering it this way is actually important because it can be viewed like a three-stage process. The first step is reducing. Using fewer natural resources leads to fewer toxins released in the environment, which both lead to a smaller impact on the environment. A bottled water company can make bottles that use less plastic or refine the process so it doesn't use as much oil. Reducing is the best approach because you're halting some of the problem before it starts.

Next is reusing. We can all think about things we can reuse in our lives: water jugs over plastic bottles, actual plates over paper ones, a random doodad into an art project. This is second in the process because you're not decreasing initial needs to use up resources, but you're holding off of someone using those resources again for something new. The resources that go into making a plate are used up when the plate is done, but if you simply wash the plate, someone doesn't need to mill lumber to make another stack of paper plates.

Then there's recycling. Nowadays, it's common to see a label on products denoting post-consumer recycled content. To rattle off some examples, notebooks, plastic bottles, newspaper, and even traffic cones have some degree of recycled material. Recycling has a definite impact in the world since it keeps useful material out of a landfill, but recycling is third in the adage because like reusing, you used some resources to make the thing in the first place, but you also have to use extra energy after the first purpose in order to turn the item into something new. Well, "new". To fit it to an example, a state park near my hometown collected plastic bottles and milk jugs and turned them into a section of a boardwalk through a bog. Again, it's great that someone found a use for these old drinking vessels, but extra resources were needed to shred up the bottles & jugs and make them boardwalk platforms.

Who's to say why recycling sticks out in everyone's mind above the rest? Maybe it's easiest for consumers because they separate their trash rather than change their buying habits, including wanting everything to be brand new and shiny. Recycling also has a designated system with specific rules on what can/can't be recycled, whereas reducing and reusing are problems solved by the individual. It's easier to think "Newspaper goes into this bin instead of the trash" rather than "Now can I do with this newspaper after reading it all?". Recycling is an important part of the system, but it shouldn't completely overshadow the importance of reducing and reusing.


Looking at tomorrow, we have English Language Day, Impossible Astronaut Day, Movie Theater Day, and Take Our Daughters and Songs to Work Day. You know, I want to list more: National Lost Dog Awareness Day, World Book Night, and Talk Like Shakespeare Day. Tomorrow should be quite the day, just saying.

DFTBA