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Be The Change

A 12 Step Sustainability Program for Communities

Step 3: Reduce -> Reuse -> Recycle -> Rethink

We all know we should recycle more. Why don’t we? It’s not just laziness. Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to make recycling much easier and thus more likely.

We’ve got to find better things to do with our trash than burning it and piling it high in dumps. Incinerators put CO2, mercury and other toxins in the air. Landfills create methane—a greenhouse gas that is 21x more powerful than CO2. They also leak toxins into the groundwater.

 

REDUCE

Reducing the amount of trash that comes into your house is even better than recycling. Buy bulk-packaged items to cut down on individual packaging.

• Buy products in reusable or recyclable containers.
• Don’t buy disposable products when you can avoid them.
• Frequent restaurants and other businesses that use recyclable or biodegradable wrappings. Encourage business to recycle by telling them you prefer to buy from businesses that do.
• Have your name removed from lists that send you unwanted mail by contacting the Direct Marketing Association. Choose the catalogs you don't want to receive by mail any more at Catalog Choice, a new beta site. You can also reduce your mail by signing up for on-line billing.
• Stop buying bottled water in small bottles. Get yourself a good water bottle and refill it from gallon bottles, water coolers or filtered tap water. All those water bottles we throw out are swallowing landfill space, increasing air pollution and destroying the ozone layer. More statistics about the environmental costs of bottled spring water are available on theNational Resources Defense Council website.

 

REUSE

Reusing is the highest form of recycling.

• Give old magazines, books and catalogs to neighbors, hospitals and nursing homes.
• Give unwanted clothing and repairable appliances to other or donate them to charity.
• Frequent consignments shops – they often have lots of cool items that just aren’t sold anymore.
• Churches have annual rummage sales.
• Get together with neighbors, collect unwanted items and have a garage sale or organize a community-wide garage sale and promote community spirit
• Consider developing a Freecycle network in your area. Freecycle is a website like Craig’s list where people list things they are willing to give away to anyone willing to pick it up.
• Buy a reusable water bottle and keep it filled instead of buying a new water bottle every time you are thirsty.

Great reuse tips from New Zealand

 

RECYCLE

Recycling is not just a nice-nice thing. It is a cornerstone of a sustainable community.

• Create more job than landfills.
• Causes businesses to become more profitable as they think through ways to eliminate waste.
• Reduces the need for landfills and incineration which both put toxins into our water and air.
• Saves the energy and pollution that would have come from extracting and processing of virgin materials drawn directly from nature.
• Decreases emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute to global climate change. Landfills produce a lot of methane - which is 21 times more harmful as a greenhouse gas than CO2.
• Conserves natural resources such as timber, water, and minerals. • Helps sustain the environment for future generations.

Quick tips for recycling more:

We produce four types of trash in the kitchen—compostable organics, paper, the other standard recyclables (plastic, glass and metals) and the rest that can’t be recycled. If you don’t have four types of bins in close proximity to each other, then you’re setting yourself up to not recycle as much as you can. Convenience is important!

Is there a recycling bin next to the place where you sort your mail? You can usually get an extra one for free from the trash department in your local government. Or, just use a box from the local liquor or grocery store.

When was the last time you read the recycling rules for your area? They’re a lot looser than they used to be. In many communities, you can recycle almost all plastics and the old rules about taking off labels and squashing cans have been lifted. Some cities are even experimenting with non-separated recycling to boost recycling rates by making it even more convenient.

Challenge yourself to cut the amount of trash you make in half. If you were putting out a barrel every week, can you make it every other week? If you live in an area that charges per bag, this will save you money.

Look through your garbage each week. If you are composting there shouldn’t be much in the way of gooey rotten food. You don’t have to pick at it, just toss it around a bit and see what you might have put in the recycle bin or compost bucket.

Don’t forget to close the loop and buy products made from recycled post-consumer waste. Start with toilet paper and printer paper. Everyone uses these.

Earth911.org is the most comprehensive site on recycling. Type in your zip code to get community specific information on recycling , including how to deal with hazardous wastes in your community.

EPA Municipal Waste FAQ

I’ll tell you mine, if you tell me yours

After an appropriate InterMission movie, create groups of 4-5 people and have each person share how recycling is done in their household.

RETHINK

Rethinking how much we consume, what we consume, and what is really necessary for us to consume is really going to make the greatest difference in the long run. If we think honestly about the situation our world is in, it's clear that we, and our society, simply can't buy our way to a sustainable world. It's time to change not only the way we consume but also the amounts we consume. How much do we really need anyways? Here are some thoughts on this topic from our friend and contributor, Vicki Robin.

A Deeper Shade Of Green (Non) Consuming

By Vicki Robin

"The purpose is to use simplicity to promote spontaneity and freedom so that we may do justice to life's new occasions and singular moments." -- Lewis Mumford

1. Do you plant trees, carpool and recycle?

2. Do you precycle, buying products unadorned by plastic and cardboard packaging which you'd only have to throw away?

3. Do you "shop for a better world" by purchasing products from socially responsible companies?

Congratulations! You are a green consumer -- but all these practices are no longer good enough. Green consuming is still consuming. Finding ways to not consume now constitutes the front line of the environmental revolution. Green, which used to mean GO, is now the signal to STOP.

By now, we all know that we must "save the planet." Overconsumption in North America is implicated in almost every environmental and social problem we face, from species extinctions to ozone holes to the loss of a sense of community. We must stop polluting, stop cutting down the forests, stop unnecessary burning of fossil fuels. And this means we must stop shopping to fill our time, satisfy our needs for admiration and affection and maintain our relationships with other people.

Where is a solution we can live with? Must we now tighten our belts? Do without? Make do? Kiss our comforts goodbye? No. There is, indeed, a kinder and gentler solution to our "overgrazing" the earth's resources in our endless search for greener pastures. It's knowing when enough is enough.

What if, for every purchase, we were to ask ourselves, "Will this item bring me fulfillment in proportion to the amount of my life-energy I spent to get it?" If you earn $10/hour take-home pay, a silk blouse could cost you a day of your life. If you wear it often and wear it out, it could be worth it. But if it hangs in your closet, too delicate to wear, its fulfillment quotient is pretty low. Survey your current possessions. How many stand up to the fulfillment test? Our garages, closets, attics and basements are full of unused or under-used clutter that brings us no pleasure and actually costs us money to store and insure. All these things represent wasted hours of our lives and wasted global resources. Every dollar wasted represents one pint of oil unnecessarily extracted and burned -- i.e., the energy it took to turn a piece of the planet into a piece of junk in your basement. Have a garage sale. Share the wealth. Cut back to having only what brings you fulfillment, and nothing more. You will soon reach that magic point of "enough."

Why is that belt-tightening is a victory for dieters but an anathema for shoppers? Why do we worship thin bodies but fat wallets? Why is it that we express ourselves by what we buy and what we have, rather than by who we are and what we give? Perhaps if we were able to cut our consumption down to what really serves us -- what is enough, but no more -- we would end up not deprived but fiscally fit.

What will it take for America to lead the way into a sustainable future? It will take bringing discussions of money and consumption out of the closet. It will take active dialogue and debate about how much is enough. It will take debunking cherished myths like "more is better" and "an ever higher standard of living equals an ever higher quality of life." As you become more a producer of happiness for others and less a consumer of stuff, the better off we will all be. And that is the deeper shade of green non-consuming.

Fun Facts about recycling from Earth911

• Throwing away a single aluminum can, versus recycling it, is like pouring out six ounces of gasoline. Last year, Americans recycled enough aluminum cans to conserve the energy equivalent of more than15 million barrels of oil.
• The EPA estimates that 75 percent of what Americans throw in the trash could actually be recycled. Currently, only 25 percent is.
• Incinerating 10,000 tons of waste creates one job; landfilling 10,000 tons of waste creates six jobs; recycling 10,000 tons of waste creates 36 jobs.
• The national recycling rate of 30 percent saves the equivalent of more than five billion gallons of gasoline, reducing dependence on foreign oil by 114 million barrels. This could be even higher!
• The aluminum can is 100 percent recyclable and can be used to make new beverage cans indefinitely – demonstrating recycling at is finest! "Every can, every time!"
• According to the EPA, recycling, including composting, diverted 68 million tons of material away from landfills and incinerators in 2001, up from 34 million tons in 1990.
• Recycling 35 percent of our trash reduces global warming emissions equivalent to taking 36 million cars of the road.
• Every Sunday 500,000 trees could be saved if everyone recycled their newspapers.
• Think recycling is expensive? Consider this: aluminum cans are the most valuable item in your bin. Aluminum can recycling helps fund the entire curbside collection. It’s the only packaging material that more than covers the cost of collection and re-processing for itself.

[We need to get republishing rights in writing.]