REDUCE, REUSE AND RECYCLE: THE THREE R’S FOR A BETTER WORLD

las tres r

Have you heard of the three R’s? I’m sure you have, but maybe you’re not clear on what exactly they mean. 

It is an initiative carried out by Greenpeace to reduce the production of waste in order to protect and preserve the environment. 

These rules will change our consumption habits to make them more responsible and sustainable for the environment. The idea is to fight against one of today’s biggest ecological problems, excess waste and its consequences for the planet. 

In this article from WellWo, we are going to explain what the three R’s are and what exactly they consist of.

THE THREE R’S THAT WILL MAKE US LIVE BETTER

Reduce: it is about reducing the consumption of energy and material goods. By doing this, we will not only reduce the raw materials used to manufacture them, but we will also reduce the water that is spent, the consumer goods, the CO2 emissions and the energy consumption (the one used to create, transport and distribute them).

To make it easier to implement, we advise you: 

  • Buying less and choosing what we buy according to certain criteria: that they are local products, with recycled materials, that they respect the rules of sustainable production, etc.
  • Choose products that do not have excessive packaging and are made from materials that can be easily recycled. 
  • Do not accept plastic bags, use shopping bags made from recycled material and that we will reuse them in the future. 
  • Do not use plastic or reduce its use as much as possible. 

Reuse: this consists of trying to make the product last as long as possible. Therefore, before throwing it away and buying a new one we will try to repair it, if this is not possible, we will have to try to give it another use. 

This measure, apart from helping the environment, will also help us spend less money. 

  • We should try to reuse everything, both material goods and nature’s resources.  For example: we can put a bowl of water to wash the fruit and vegetables before cooking and use it later to water the plants. 
  • If you can’t think of a way to reuse something, you can look up ideas on the internet, it’s full of tutorials and ways we can give a second life to an object or resource. 

In time you will surely become more creative and no longer throw things away directly, but first try to figure out how to reuse and take advantage of them. 

Recycle: this idea refers to treating what we throw away in such a way that we can obtain new products and save the materials that we can use in the future. In this way, we will not damage the environment by eliminating them, since gases and substances that are toxic to nature are emitted when we try to eliminate an object. 

  • To be able to carry out this action, we must start recycling at home, correctly separating the waste we generate in our daily life. In this way, in the recycling plants they will be able to treat them properly. 
  • There are also international regulations that all countries must respect in order to recycle as much as possible and damage the environment as little as possible.