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Tuesday, February 11, 2025

Learn the three ‘R’s: recycle, reuse, reduce

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Like many households, my own family recycles regularly, as an almost automatic knee-jerk reaction to finishing a carton of juice or reading through a magazine. Recycling has become such an inherent, automatic part of our life style that people have become ingrained with the notion that recycling can be the effective resolution to even the most drastic environmental issues of the day.

recycleHowever, far from serving as the remedy, regular recycling prevents only about one-third of all trash from ending up in landfills. Even among items recycled, conscientious consumers inevitably place the incorrect item in the wrong bin or perhaps even unrecyclable items among recyclable objects, thus significantly delaying the system. As a result, environmental experts now are encouraging people to address what have been the traditionally overlooked aspects of the three ‘R’s: Reusing and Reducing.

Among the most applicable and effective techniques in reusing include refurbishing common household objects and creating a functional purpose for them as another object. For instance, broken metal clothes hangers can be unwound and molded into a hanging wire for a kitchen appliance and identical, petite boxes can be taped together to form a drawer organizers.

In addition, many American households are not aware of the many ways to cut down on use. Besides turning off unused lights and keeping track of leaky faucets, insulating a house for the winter can cut down on heating bills by more than 80 percent, and using a non-mechanical water filter can reduce both electricity usage as well as cut down on chemical contamination.

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Chelsea Wang
Chelsea Wang
Chelsea Wang is a junior at Naperville North High School.
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