Problem

The 3 R’s for Sustainable Living:  Reduce Reuse Recycle 

No Reduce Reuse Recycle = No Landfill Space, No Safe Water

Many Americans do not chant the reduce reuse recycle mantra.  According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, every year Americans throw away:

• 15 million tons of food
• 25 billion Styrofoam cups
• 16 billion disposable diapers
• 2 billion batteries
• 2 billion disposable razors
• 1.6 billion disposable pens
• 1 billion foil-lined fruit juice boxes
• 700,000 televisions
• 700,000 automobiles

The U.S. alone cranks out more than 220 million tons of municipal solid waste every year.  There are more than 36,000 municipal solid waste landfills in the U.S.

The UK lifestyle is also guilty of not abiding by the reduce reuse recycle mindset.  In the UK alone, 240 million toothbrushes are thrown away each year.  The average person goes through four toothbrushes per year.  That’s a total of 4,320 tons of toothbrush trash. 

Though the reduce reuse recycle lifestyle isn’t yet firmly implanted in Western household habits, no one wants a landfill in their back yard.  This means that communities are becoming pressed about where expand overflowing landfills for household waste—and how to find the money to do so. 

Communities don’t want new household waste landfills because they are stinky and ugly.  But that’s just the surface.  Landfills also contaminate underground drinking water aquifers from waste leaching contaminants into the soil.  For example, disposable batteries are high in mercury; mercury is a neurotoxin that impairs children’s brain development, causes serious learning disabilities and is linked to autism.

Disposable Diapers:  Super Poopy Culprit Thwarting the Reduce Reuse Recycle Movement

If the pitter-patter of tiny footsteps abounds in your home, the number one best thing you can do to reduce reuse recycle is to use cloth diapers instead of disposable diapers.  In a household with babies, disposable diapers comprise 50 percent of the household waste.

Compared to cloth diapers, disposable diapers create 60 times more solid waste, use 20 times more materials such as petroleum and wood, and waste 2.3 times more water.  One baby’s annual supply of disposable diapers devours 20 pounds of chlorine, 50 pounds of petroleum and 300 pounds of wood.

Further, it takes 250 to 500 years for a disposable diaper to decompose; your great, great, great grandchildren will be gone before your child’s poopy diaper will be!  What’s the point of having offspring if you don’t follow the reduce reuse recycle lifestyle? Your child, and your entire lineage, will grow up only to be up to their armpits in disposable diapers!

Also, less than one-half of 1 percent of the fecal material in a disposable diaper is properly disposed of in a toilet to enter the wastewater treatment system.  In other words, all that poo is being improperly disposed of in a household waste landfill. 

It can cost more than $300 million annually to discard disposable diapers.  Clother diapers, on the other hand, are a terrific example of the reduce reuse recycle lifestyle:  They are reused from 50 to 200 times before being turned into rags. 

Solution

The Go Green Solution:  Reduce Reuse Recycle 

Go Green Tips

• Reduce household waste by composting fruit and vegetable scraps; pack any leftovers into a reusable plastic container for tomorrow’s lunch—go green and lower your grocery bill! 
• Use ceramic coffee mugs and reusable travel mugs instead of Styrofoam cups.
• Reduce household waste by using a traditional razor; replace only the blades.
• Drink juice from large glass or recyclable plastic containers labeled 1 or 2; for kids on the go, just fill small reusable plastic bottles from the larger containers
• Reduce household waste by donating old televisions to local charities.
• Donate old vehicles to local charities—go green and receive a tax deduction! 

Super Green Tips

• Reduce household waste by using rechargeable batteries instead of disposable batteries. 
• Use a cloth diaper delivery, pickup and cleaning service instead of disposable diapers—just as easy and environmentally sustainable! 
• Treat yourself to a nice pen—go green and look classy!
• Reduce household waste by using a toothbrush with a replaceable head.  If everyone in the UK used a replaceable toothbrush head, that would reduce toothbrush trash by 67 percent, which is a whopping 1,426 tons.

When you follow the reduce reuse recycle lifestyle, you enjoy a squeaky clean conscience and a squeaky clean planet!  

Effectiveness / Result