WAC - Is it more important to Reduce, Reuse, or Recycle?

     According to KQED's the Math of Trash video,“Yearly America makes 160 million tons [of trash]”, (0:15). That's where the phrase reduce, reuse, and recycle comes in. It's a common phrase that we have all heard at some point in our lives. Annually, 22 billion pounds of Co2 is emitted into the air from garbage trucks alone. This causes climate change and pollution. But does recycling, reducing, and reusing really benefit the environment? And most importantly, which of the three is most important to do? It is more important to reduce than reuse and recycle. This is because reducing takes care of the root of the problem whereas recycling isn't efficient or cost effective and reusing items can become hazardous to your health. Let us elaborate on that.


     The root of our environmental dilemma can be addressed with reducing. After all, "The most essential way to reduce waste is to avoid creating it in the first place."(para. 2), wrote Bethany Wieman in her article What is Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle? In another article, Is it more important to You to Reduce, Reuse, or Recycle?, written by Trent Bateman and others, the article states that, “Conservationists argue that we cannot maintain our quality of life as human beings with as much waste as we produce, and that embracing sustainability is the best way to maintain modern culture"(para. 2). In other words, this means that the "best way to maintain modern culture" is by reducing. Reducing the amount of waste we produce and products we use would be the most efficient way to save our environment. The problem is that the amount of waste America produces is ridiculously high. Cutting back on how much we use will lead to a decrease in the trash we produce. In addition to this, reducing also preserves our resources. It saves our energy, plastic, paper, and more. In closing, reducing is a great way to address the root cause of problem and decrease the amount of trash in landfills.

     Sure reducing is a great solution, but what's wrong with recycling? Putting paper your plastics and more in that blue bin for it to be recycled into something new seems like a great idea. However, recycling isn't exactly what it is made out to be. For example, when it comes to single stream recycling (when all kinds of recycled items are mixed together in a collection truck), "about 25% of items in those streams end up going to landfills anyway"(para. 5), wrote Bateman and others in their article Is it More Important to You to Reduce, Reuse, or Recycle. Thus, meaning that recycling isn't really helping the environment as much as it should be. Furthermore, if the recycled items end up in landfills, the money being put into recycling is lost. That's not it though, the authors also stated, “The cost of recycling rises and the benefits decrease as cities transition from recycling just paper and metals to the practice of recycling plastic, food waste, and glass as well" (para. 5). In conclusion, recycling should not be a priority over reducing when it comes to helping out mother nature.


     Now that recycling has been discussed, let us review why reusing isn't exactly the best solution either. “Continuous use of some plastic bottles can lead to health risks if they are made with cheap plastic or if harsh chemicals leach out of those containers with increased use.”(para. 4), says Bateman and others once again in their article Is it More Important to You to Reduce, Reuse, or Recycle. This doesn't only apply to plastic bottles. If you reuse any poorly made item for too long, you are putting yourself at risk. Another example of this is if you are driving an old car. You may think that you are helping out the environment by continuing to use your old car rather than buying a new one but in reality, you aren't. Older car models are typically much less environmentally friendly. They use more gas and pollute the air with their old technology. All in all, reducing is still the best of the three solutions. 

     As I have shown, reducing is is the easiest, most efficient, and overall best method to prioritize of the three R's. Recycling is expensive and sometimes ends up leaving more trash in landfills and reusing can be unsafe. The next time that you brush your teeth or even leave a room will you turn off the tap? or turn off the lights? Hopefully you will. Just remember, the first step to creating a healthy environment is to reduce.