The 4 Rs
By Jessica Kocur, Sustainable Kingston
I was thinking about juice boxes the other day. I had not thought about juice boxes in years and when I did think about them back in elementary school, my thoughts didn’t go beyond what flavour I wanted and how cold the juice was inside. I didn’t think about the box itself – where it would go after I was done with the juice part. I didn’t think about recycling the box or why there was no option to recycle them if I had wanted that, and I certainly didn’t think about a reusable option for having juice for lunch at school. I just had my juice in its tiny box and when I was done, the box went into the garbage pail. That was it. With my better-informed, 2023 adult mind, I am horrified to think of this cavalier attitude towards waste generation – that I threw something out with such limited thought; that we all, or many of us, did this regularly and often still do.
My elementary school was pretty recycling-savvy by early 1990s standards. I was one of the students who went around the school collecting recycling every week. My class would sort the waste and get it ready for pick-up. I felt like my class and I were doing a good thing but I did not see how recycling fit into the bigger picture – the intricacies of what it was and why it is important.
Recycle, recycle, recycle. We get those words tossed at us at almost every turn we take in our lives as consumers. So much emphasis is put on the Recycle that we often forget about the other two – or, better yet, three – Rs that come before we get to Recycle. Reduce, reuse, refuse, then recycle.
I’m not here to shame anyone. We are all prey to corporate green-washing, there is so much information out there it’s overwhelming and we are facing a climate crisis and just doing the best we can. I’ve messed up. It’s happens, so let’s delve into the 4 Rs a little more. Little bits count and it’s important to feel that we are making even a small difference, by doing things like following the 4 Rs.
Recycling is important, no question, but we need to focus on the practices that come before it.
Reduce – ask yourself, “Do I need this?”
Reuse – ask “Have I used this ’til it’s absolutely worn out?”
Recycle – ask, “Can I recycle or compost this when it can’t be used again? Can the item be easily sorted in the recycling facility? Is there a strong, steady market to buy the recycled materials?” (City of Portland, Oregon, 2018)
By reducing what we consume as a first line of defence, resources aren’t being used in the first place. There’s less waste being generated through resource extraction, manufacturing, shipping and storing before the item even gets to you in the store (real or virtual).
Reusing is a great option when items are purchased because, hey, we live in this world and as George Monbiot states in his opening lines of the book, Heat: How to Stop the Planet From Burning, we don’t want to go back to being cavepeople and have to exist in this world (Monbiot, 2006). Avoid single-use items (packaging, containers), wash out containers to use again (even if they are “ugly”), wash out bags and dry them on your refrigerator using a magnet.
Refusing is a new term that I’ve heard proposed to be added to the Rs list. It’s a hard reality that we need to start doing this more. Say no to things you don’t need – the shopping bag, even if it’s deemed sustainable, the packets of sauce at the restaurant, the extra napkins, the plastic cutlery, the SWAG at events (who really needs another stress ball or pen anyway?), the free giveaway item or BOGO (buy one, get one free), No one wants to be rude and seem ungrateful but refusing more and more means that we aren’t going to end up with unnecessary things, each item coming with an ingrained environmental footprint.
Emphasis on recycling without curbing our consumption habits is a way of making ourselves feel better about our excessive consumption – ex. “I can consume all these individually-wrapped beverages without feeling badly. The aluminium can or plastic bottle is recyclable. Phew.” With that mindset, we don’t have to get into the uncomfortable territory of having to change ourselves, our habits and our outlook. I get it. In this example, feeling good about recycling isn’t looking at the seedy underbelly of the situation. The focus just on recycling lets us off the hook without looking at how resource-intensive, say, aluminium or the raw materials that go into plastic extraction is. It’s essential to consider how resource-draining recycling that can or bottle is, too, if the item is even able to be recycled.
A shocking number of items we put in our recycling bins end up going to landfill, either because they are contaminated (think of residues left in plastic containers or cans, or green glass getting mixed in with clear glass and the whole batch has to go to landfill), the integrity of the material is compromised (products have a lifespan and can only be recycled so many times) or there is no end-market for the recycled product. The item in the recycling bin might be highly recyclable but if there is no entity willing to buy the recycled end-product, where does it go? Answer - landfills or less safe locations like the ocean. It is often cheaper to extract virgin materials than to make a product out of recycled substances (City of Portland, Oregon, 2018).
Recycling will continue, though, as it should, along with the preceding reduce, reuse and refuse, so let’s do it well. What if I don’t know if it’s recyclable? The mantra I use is, however painful, “When in doubt, throw it out.” Not all items with the recycling symbol can be recycled in all municipalities. Check out the Kingston Waste Sorting Lookup buddy at:
https://www.cityofkingston.ca/resident/garbage-recycling/waste-tools/lookup.
In addition to Kingston’s municipal recycling collection, there are networks like EarthHub that operate in Kingston and beyond that collect, reuse and recycle “special” items like mascara wands, make up containers, plastic bottle caps, and bread bag tabs.
Recycling costs money. Landfill disposal costs money. Reducing waste is the best option (Withgott & Brennan, 2007).