green ecoliving | Reduce Reduce Reduce

Reduce Reduce Reduce

Posted on July 7, 2009
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Toronto is now in the 16th day of a municipal workers’ strike. For the average home owner the biggest impact is that they now have to take their own garbage to a temporary dump. As the garbage piles up and tempers flare I can’t help but wonder where did all this garbage come from? How did we, as a society, come to the point where we produce so much garbage on a daily basis?

The 3 R’s of sustainable living shouldn’t be reduce, reuse and recycle, but reduce, reduce and reduce! Of course reusing and recycling are very important but the focus should be on reducing what we buy in the first place, and purchasing products with little or no packaging.

Until now I felt that I was doing my part by recycling and making sure that all the food waste went into to the “green bin” for composting by the city, but after repacking all my garbage to take to the dump I realized that by far the biggest problem is the amount of waste that we bring into the house on a daily basis. A lot of food packaging is not recyclable and the packaging on consumer electronics is so excessive and difficult to open that someone even invented a special tool to deal with it!

As consumers we can do more. We can choose to purchase products with minimal or no packaging, and we can take take our own shopping bags and boxes. Ultimately though it is governments and businesses that must step up to the plate and reduce this ridiculous waste. It is not possible to reduce all packaging but it certainly can be reduced substantially, and what must be used should be recyclable.

So reduce, reduce, reduce, and when you can’t then reuse and recycle. Reusing and recycling should last resorts and not easy cop-outs.

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