You've probably heard of 'reduce, reuse, recycle' but do you really know what that means, and are you doing as much as you can?
Reduce, reuse, recycle are in this order for a reason.
Reduce is the most important and environmentally friendly thing you can do, then reuse and then recycle (and compost).
Try to think before you bin it...
- can the waste be reduced?
- can it be reused?
- can it be recycled or composted?
The last thing that you should do is throw something in the bin!
It's much easier than you think to follow the 3 R's and make a real difference and it's not just something to do at school, it's important to think about it at home too.
At home
If you've got a blue box at home for paper, cans and foil and a bin for cardboard and green waste, make sure you use them and, more importantly, remind your family to use them!
If you don't have a recycling collection from your house you can take your cans, foil, plastic bottles, paper and glass to your nearest recycling banks it only takes a minute but it will save those landfill sites getting full up and polluting the environment.
If you want to make a real difference to your environment then read on to find out how you can ... REDUCE REUSE RECYCLE!!!!!!
Reduce
This means to make smaller. The best option for dealing with waste is not to produce it in the first place. You need to cut out any unnecessary packaging and only buy exactly what you need. You can do this by thinking about what you buy and asking yourself, Do I really need this? And think about the amount and type of packaging things are wrapped in.
What's in your lunch box?
Think about your lunchbox. I bet when you've eaten it all there's lots of rubbish to throw in the bin.but can you have a zero waste lunch so that there's no rubbish to throw away? It's not that hard to do.just think about reducing the amount of rubbish that you will have to throw away, reusing things and recycling what's left over. Here are some ideas:
- Wrap your sandwiches in foil, you can then recycle it, or better still, put them in a reusable plastic box.
- Take your drink in a flask which can be used again and again, or refill a bottle each day rather than buying a new one.
- Snack on fruit and vegetables rather than chocolate and sweets with lots of packaging. Any unwanted fruit and vegetable scraps or cores can then be composted.
- Buy big packets of crisps, chocolate, dried fruit, nuts etc. and take some each day in a small reusable box.
Reuse
We are creating more and more rubbish all the time, so try to reuse things:
- Refill bottles of water instead of buying a new one
- Buy refillable pens instead of disposable ones
- Use rechargeable batteries instead of buying new ones
- Donate unwanted clothes to charity or give them to a younger brother, sister or friend who can reuse them
Basically, if you can reuse something do it!
