Reduce and Reuse Before Recycling

Posted by Dawn M. Smith Jul 18, 2007

Anyone growing up in rural New England heard -Use it up, Wear it out, Make do without it-long before Reduce, Reuse, Recycle became fashionable. Then Yankee frugality was the driving force, not ecosystem preservation. Now recycling is the norm for many people. But focusing on recycling misses important things each of us can do to preserve the environment.

There are good reasons to concentrate on reducing and reusing first. Recycling takes energy. Recycled materials have to be processed in some way. Reusing is next best. In India, when we bought honey it was sold to us in a jar that had held Horelick’s® candies. Rather than taking the jar to a recycling center to be melted down and reformed, it was simply cleaned and disinfected. An environmentally conscious winery in England told me that they would love to do that but Health and Safety requirements were so stringent it was cost prohibitive. We need to look harder at balancing these issues.

Best of all is to reduce-consume less in any way you can. Most people pick the easiest thing for them-drying clothes on the line, not in the dryer for example. Turning off the water when brushing your teeth. Lenox, Ma has declared itself a no idling zone. That means you are expected to turn your car off, not leave the engine running to fuel your air conditioner or heater, while you run errands. Which is a great place to start. Modbury, in the UK has led a ban on plastic shopping bags, another great idea.

But we all need to do more. It’s time to pick one thing that is a bit harder. Trading your gas guzzling SUV for a smaller vehicle is great but actually leaving that vehicle parked and walking whenever you can-so much better. So start thinking Reduce first.