Reduce, Reuse, or Recycle?

“Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.”

Has that phrase grown tiresome? After you hear something too often, you start to ignore it. And while the concept is important, I’ve learned that how we incorporate the “Three Rs” into our lives is based on personal interpretations. There’s no all-encompassing trick to waste reduction. Some places don’t have recycling services, and some items can’t be recycled, which is why reduce and reuse come first in the well-worn principle. And what works for you might not work for another.

For instance, one of my family members is allergic to corn. She can’t eat food in corn-based packaging, which includes biodegradable food wraps, bottles from specific soft-drink manufacturers, and wax on organic fruit. While biodegradable packaging is a manufacturing breakthrough in avoiding single-use plastics, it doesn’t work for her. In many cases, recycling may be her best bet.

Sometimes, the Three Rs might be set aside to serve other principles. I’ve ordered produce subscription programs during winter months when I can’t grow my food and don’t want to buy vegetables grown halfway around the world. Fresh, organic, and grown by U.S. farmers, the produce arrives in cardboard boxes with insulation I can’t reuse for anything. We shred the boxes for our compost pile, but the insulation takes up space in our trash can, and then in the landfill.

And while we try to shop locally, brick-and-mortar stores are dwindling. Sometimes, I order something online that I can’t obtain locally. Those packages arrive in many ways. While I appreciate how plastic crushes small in my trash can, I’d rather hand-shred cardboard, crumpled paper, and cornstarch-based packing peanuts for my vermicomposting bin or to use as garden mulch. Smaller packaging isn’t necessarily more sustainable, especially if it can’t be reused.

So, what about reducing waste in general? Even before worrying about the environment, farm life and living on a budget taught me the value of reducing waste on a personal level. I watch vegetable peels fall into other people’s waste bins, thinking about what garden that compost could bless. Or, I purchase older vehicles, balancing the value loss of newer vehicles with repair costs for a used one. Yet, I see a disconnect in the mindsets of those who can’t understand why I wouldn’t want the newest product. Or, I watch in admiration people who’ve mastered upcycling for decades longer than I’ve been alive.