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This is my mantra: reduce, reuse, recycle. Notice how “recycle” comes at the end of the chain, implying that it is the least important of the three.
It is better to consume less, because everything you consume puts a strain on the environment: manufacturing, transportation, packaging, etc. For those things you do consume, it’s better to consume them completely than to use them once and then send them to the landfill.
But when all else fails, the minimum thing you can do is recycle. Think about the amount of paper you consume in a day: the morning newspaper, the carton of orange juice, the paper towels and napkins and toilet paper, the insulation ring around the cardboard cup of coffee, the sack your lunch comes in, the Post-Its stuck to your monitor, the stack of magazines and junk mail… You’re awash in paper products, and at the end of the day I bet you’ll have discarded 90% of it. Would you want the paper companies to chop down another tree to create the paper you’ll want tomorrow? Or would you rather someone found a way to reuse the stuff you threw out today?
So, anyway, I recycle just about everything because it makes sense to me to do so. I’m cognizant of the costs of recycling: machines sort the refuse… trucks haul sorted refuse to processing plants… more machines chew up the used paper or plastic or aluminum, etc., into small bits… chemicals are added; fumes are released… Recycling is not the best thing that ever happened to the planet, but considering our lifestyles, recycling is a sensible mechanism for coping with the enormous amounts of waste we produce.
Remember how far we’ve come. Why is it easier to recycle now than it used to be? Maybe it’s because people demanded it. Demand creates an economic force. At some point somebody invented more-efficient ways to recycle, so now it makes economic sense to do so. Now imagine what would happen if twice as many people were recycling their paper, plastic, and aluminum waste. Isn’t it reasonable to believe that new efficiencies would be discovered, costs would be lower, impact on the environment would be reduced?
Today I gave the effort a tiny push. I picked a grocery item that I buy in quantity, and wrote a letter to the manufacturer requesting that they begin using recyclable packaging. The solution may be as simple as stamping the plastic bag with the appropriate resin code.
Next, I wrote a letter to the local warehouse chain — the place that sells probably 75% of the paper towels used in the state — requesting that they carry recycled paper products. This particular effort could have a huge impact, because the store has millions of customers, many of whom would happily pick the greener product if it was convenient.
If you have 120 seconds free, you could help with this effort by sending an email requesting recycled paper products to your local warehouse club:
