Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Alternatives for Waste Management

Guide One thousand-314
Fahzy Abdul-Rahman
College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, New Mexico State Academy

Author: Extension Family Resource Direction Specialist, Department of Extension Family and Consumer Sciences, New Mexico State University. (Print friendly PDF)

Introduction

This publication provides an overview of the reasons and ways to better manage garbage or other household waste product. While "recycle" may exist a buzzword for an environmentally friendly way to manage waste, a more comprehensive approach to doing so is summarized by the "Iii Rs":

Image of the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle logo

I. Reduce: Buy only what you need because a better manner to reduce waste product is by not creating it.

II. Reuse: If you have to acquire goods, try getting used ones or obtaining substitutes.

3. Recycle: When discarding your waste matter, notice ways to recycle it instead of letting it go to landfill.

As a nation, nosotros are generating more garbage and we don't know what to do with it. Ineffctive or irresponsible disposal of this waste can pollute the environs and pose a public wellness risk. We are running out of space in existing landfills. Citizens are discovering that at that place is no piece of cake way to get rid of the garbage they one time assumed could be buried or burned and forgotten.

Electric current disposal methods threaten our wellness, condom, and surroundings, and pose additional indirect costs to society. Well-nigh industrial, commercial, and household waste is now being placed in landfills or surface impoundments. Waste treated in this manner may contaminate groundwater, rivers, and streams. When waste product is burned, it releases chancy gases into the air and leaves toxic residues in the form of ash. These hazardous waste byproducts observe their way into humans and animals in 1 class or another.

Photograph of a recycling bin and recyclables.

The U.Southward. is currently recycling just a small percent of its waste. The benefits of recycling come non only from selling recycled materials and conserving resources but too from reducing expenses or from "avoided costs."

In New United mexican states, the legislature passed the Solid Waste Act of 1990, which set a goal of diverting 25% of New Mexico'due south municipal solid waste from landfills past 1995 and 50% by July 1, 2000. In club to manage waste, the Ecology Protection Agency (EPA) and the Solid Waste Act favor an integrated solid waste management strategy that includes 1) reducing the corporeality of solid waste generated, two) recycling as much refuse equally possible, 3) transforming waste matter in an environmentally safe manner, and iv) continuing safe landfilling. The strategies can be further discussed in the "Three Rs" approach—reduce, reuse, recycle—as briefly mentioned in the introduction.

I. Reduce

Reducing the amount yous purchase is the most significant of all the options to manage waste matter. The key is to only buy goods that we need and in the correct corporeality. If nosotros never generate products in the get-go place, we do not have to extract raw resource, manufacture goods from scratch, come upwardly with shipping materials, utilize additional resources for shipping, and and then devise means to dispose of them. Tabular array ane lays out how long it takes to decompose typical waste material products.

Reducing the corporeality you purchase tin can help reduce waste product in surprising ways:

  • Phone books: When was the last time y'all used a phone volume? The white pages alone cost v 1000000 trees a year. They generated 650,000 tons of waste in 2009 (EPA, 2010). You can opt out of phone book delivery by registering your accost at sites similar www.yellowpagesoptout.com.
  • Disposable razors: More than 2 billion dispensable razors are disposed of each year in the U.S. alone (EPA, due north.d.).
  • Disposable diapers: In 2010, l,000 tons of forest pulp were used to produce disposable diapers, and almost 4 million diapers were discarded in landfills (EPA, 2011). As listed in Table 1, it takes 450 years to decompose a disposable diaper.
  • Cell phones: Despite bully strides in manufacturing, a typical new cellphone consists of 40% metals and twoscore% plastics, which use oil for their manufacturing, every bit well as other resources for packaging and transportation. EPA estimates that more than than 125 million prison cell phones are discarded each year, generating more than 65,000 tons of waste (EPA, 2004). Because cell phones contain hazardous materials, you should always trade in, donate, or recycle your one-time phones.
  • Low-cal bulbs: Energy STAR meaty florescent light bulbs save about $6 per year and about $40 over their lifetimes (ENERGY STAR, n.d.).

Reduce: What Tin can We Do?

Each person adds to the waste management problem. If each household reduces its waste matter, the trouble will be reduced. You can start by analyzing what you throw away and what appurtenances are needed at domicile. Among the main steps consumers can take to reduce waste matter are:

Table 1. How Long Does It Take to Decompose (EPA, 2013a)

Paper towel 2–4 weeks Plastic purse 10–20 years
Paper 6 weeks Plastic picture container twenty–30 years
Apple core 2 months Tin can can fifty years
Waxed milk carton 3 months Rubber boot sole 50–lxxx years
Plywood 1–3 years Styrofoam plastic cup l years
Wool sock one–5 years Aluminum can 80–200 years
Cigarette butt 1–v years Plastic beverage bottle 450 years
Monofilament angling line 600 years
Glass canteen 1 million years
  • Choosing items that you need, not desire: People who keep upgrading their electronics (e.g., cellphones) to the latest design are very likely to waste their coin and also unnecessarily waste natural resources.
  • Shopping for high-quality items: You may take to pay more, but loftier-quality items may last longer, perform better, and requite fewer problems than lower-quality items. Instead of disposable items, opt for durable ones such as silverware, reusable cups, and reusable water bottles.
  • Using minimum packaging: Packaging materials like plastic bags, boxes, packing peanuts, and plastic wrappers frequently wind up in landfills. Bring your own shopping bags instead of using plastic bags. If y'all don't have shopping bags, employ newspaper bags instead of plastic because they decompose faster. Many stores take reusable bags for sale at the register, and some stores even have used plastic numberless for consumers to utilise.
  • Ownership local products: Besides stimulating the local economy, ownership local products means we can reduce negative environmental impacts from transportation.

Y'all may be able to make some of these items at home, such every bit shopping bags and homemade cleaning supplies. A selection of dwelling cleaning products and their uses are laid out in NMSU's Cooperative Extension Service Guide M-304, Choice and Employ of Home Cleaning Products (http://aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/_g/G304.pdf).

2. Reuse

The thought of being wasteful makes many people uncomfortable. Notwithstanding nigh of us continue to waste matter because we tin't call back of annihilation improve to do with last yr'southward telephone book, draperies that are too brusque, or a cupboard door that was scratched past a favorite pet. We are conditioned to call back of things that are old, empty, worn, broken, ugly, or marred as useless, then we throw them away without much thought virtually the consequences. Most Americans purchase far more than than they can utilise finer, as evidenced by jutting attics and garages.

The process of reusing starts with the assumption that the used materials that menses through our lives tin can exist a resource rather than refuse. Waste, afterwards all, is in the heart of the beholder. Ane person's trash is another person's treasure. If we actually look at things we are throwing away, we can learn to see them as materials that can exist reused to solve everyday problems and satisfy everyday needs. Well-nigh of us, withal, haven't even begun to exploit the resources in our trash. Once you have made up your mind to utilize trash for positive uses, you tin begin to begin and generate ideas. Reusing saves coin, conserves resources, and satisfies the human being urge to be creative.

Reuse: What Can We Do?

The following are some examples of reuse.

  • Containers can exist reused at home or for school projects.
  • Reuse wrapping newspaper, plastic bags, boxes, and lumber.
  • Give outgrown clothing to friends or charity.
  • Buy beverages in returnable containers.
  • Donate broken appliances to charity or a local vocational school, which can use them for art classes or for students to practice repairing.
  • Offer furniture and household items that are no longer needed to people in need, friends, or charity.
  • Sheets of paper that take been used on only ane side can be used for note-taking or crude drafts.
  • Quondam, outdated article of furniture can exist reupholstered or slipcovered. Have padding added to the furniture to give information technology a new look. Often the frame tin be modified slightly to change the way it looks.
  • Former towels and sheets can be cutting in small pieces and used for dust cloths.
  • Books and magazines tin can exist donated to schools, public libraries, or nursing homes.
  • Newspapers can be donated to pet stores.
  • Packing materials, such equally polystyrene, plastic quilting, and like materials, can be saved and reused again for packing.
  • Carry a reusable tote bag or take bags to the shop when you get shopping. There are attractive nylon mesh bags available that can be stored hands in the glove compartment of your car. Durable canvass bags, which have very little space to tuck away when not in apply, can likewise be used.
  • If you buy prepared microwaveable dinners, save the plates for outdoor parties or for children.
  • Onetime tires can be used in the garden and in the play g.

Some of the strategies are very closely related in these "Three Rs" categories. For instance, we need to reduce the use of plastic bags for grocery shopping, but we can use tote bags instead and reuse them while making sure that they are clean.

3. Recycle

The main benefits of recycling are:

  • Recycling generates manufacture: As New Mexicans recycle, there will be a growing supply of materials generated. In club to utilize these recycled materials, manufacturing facilities will emerge to find uses for them. As more recycling plants are built and more products are manufactured, we volition proceeds a greater agreement of the unabridged process.
  • Recycling creates jobs: EPA estimates that recycling 10,000 tons of materials would create 36 jobs compared to six for landfilling the same amount (EPA, 2002). Some communities accept formed working partnerships with workshops for the disabled, adult and administered chore-grooming partnerships, or otherwise found work for unemployed labor in recycling programs.
  • Cost avoidance of recycling: For years, recycling has been hampered by the belief that it should brand money. That may be truthful for some recyclables, only not for others. Rather, recycling should exist thought of as a price-effective disposal option. It usually requires fewer government subsidies than landfilling or incineration. It saves natural resource and helps protect the surround. Lower taxes, energy savings, and a cleaner surround are the real "lesser lines" in favor of recycling.

Collecting Recyclables

A lot of the things that people trash can be recycled. Prime examples include paper, newspaper, corrugated cardboard, high-grade newspaper, aluminum, steel (can) cans, drinking glass, plastic, motor oil, organic waste material, and scrap metals. Some notes on recycling:

  • Paper with residues cannot be recycled in nigh cases. This is why used pizza boxes are not recyclable!
  • Recycling centers will not accept light bulbs, ceramic glass, dishes, or plate glass because these items consist of dissimilar materials than bottles and jars.
  • Recyclable items not accustomed by your city recycling programs may be accepted past local companies. For example, glass might not be accepted by a New Mexico urban center's recycling program but might exist accustomed by a supermarket.
  • Enquire your local recycling function about recycling programs and recyclable items in your area.

Master recycling drove methods are:

  • Curbside drove requires homeowners to split recyclables from their garbage. Clean recyclables may need to be placed in special containers, while the garbage goes in standard containers. Both are placed at the curb for drove past separate trucks.
  • Drop-off centers are 1 of the simplest forms of collecting recyclable materials; people can driblet off their used glass, metal, plastic, and paper at a designated recycling drop-off site. These centers are commonly placed in an easily accessible location about a high-traffic area such as the entrances of supermarkets and parking lots.
  • Buy back centers buy aluminum and other metals, drinking glass, plastic, newsprint, and sometimes batteries and other materials.

The "Three Rs" (Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle) try to promote better waste material management needs to be done in an constructive manner. If converting an old pair of jeans into a shopping bag that needs continuous repair, yous are better off donating the jeans in the starting time place and purchasing reusable shopping bags. Some efforts may involve a steep learning curve and require fourth dimension to get used to. Sorting out recyclable items may be challenging in the offset, simply in one case you become the hang of the system the related chores will become like effortless habits.

References

Free energy STAR. n.d. Light bulbs for consumers [Online]. Retrieved from http://www.energystar.gov/alphabetize.cfm?fuseaction=find_a_product. showProductGroup&pgw_code=LB

Environmental Protection Agency. due north.d. Fact flash — half dozen: Resources Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) [Online]. Retrieved from
http://www.epa.gov/superfund/students/clas_act/haz-ed/ff06.pdf

Environmental Protection Agency. 2002. Campaigning confronting waste [EPA 530-F-02-033]. Washington, D.C.: Writer.

Environmental Protection Agency. 2004. The life cycle of a prison cell phone [Online]. Retrieved from http://www.epa.gov/osw/education/pdfs/life-cell.pdf

Environmental Protection Agency. 2010. Municipal solid waste in the United States: 2009 facts and figures [Online]. Retrieved from
http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/nonhaz/municipal/pubs/msw2009rpt.pdf

Environmental Protection Bureau. 2011. Municipal solid waste generation, recycling, and disposal in the United states of america: Tables and figures for 2010 [Online]. Retrieved from http://www.epa.gov/wastes/nonhaz/municipal/pubs/2010_MSW_Tables_and_Figures_508.pdf

Environmental Protection Agency. 2013a. Environmental factoids [Online]. Retrieved from http://www.epa.gov/smm/wastewise/wrr/factoid.htm

Environmental Protection Bureau. 2013b. Wastes [Online]. Retrieved from http://www.epa.gov/osw/

U.S. Free energy Information Administration (n.d.) Using & Saving Free energy. Retrieved from http://www.environmental impact assessment.gov/kids/energy.cfm

Original version adapted with permission by Susan Wright from Florida Cooperative Extension Service publication HE 3157, past Marie Hammer and Jonathan Earle. Subsequent revisions by Constance Kratzer, family unit resources management specialist.

Photo of Fahzy Abdul-Rahman.

Fahzy Abdul-Rahman is the Extension Family Resource Direction Specialist at New Mexico State University. He earned his Ph.D. and M.P.H. from The Ohio Land University. His Extension programs focus on various personal finance topics, from basic banking to retirement planning.

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Revised January 2014, Las Cruces, NM