The 3 R's Expanded

In the United States, in 1976, Congress passed the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act to help promote conservation of natural resources, recycling, and dealing with the rising trash problem. The slogan of the three R's, "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" grew out of the efforts at that time to get the general public to use the new recycling programs starting up. It worked pretty well, its a catchy phrase and recycling centers and programs have grown all across the country. 

Today, however, reducing, reusing, and recycling are not enough. The 3 R's have been greatly expanded by grassroots efforts and environmental programs. In looking up the 3 R's you can now find expanded lists of R words to use to help you be more environmentally friendly. Most lists had 5-9 words, putting them altogether created 12!

Reduce

Reuse

Recycle

Repair

Repurpose

Refurbish

Refuse

Recover

Regift

Rethink 

Retrain 

Research

That is a lot of options! While the first nine are actions we can do for the sake of creation, the last three are not actions, but ways of making decisions based on environmentally friendly values. We need to rethink what we are doing, we need to retrain our brains to think without disposables. We need to do research to find out what is the best option. With these words, we make better choices for the sake of creation and are better able to put the first nine in action. With this full list, there is almost always a way to be environmentally friendly and reduce the amount of trash created.