You have probably heard of the 3 Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. But what do they mean?

The 3 Rs are actions we can take to manage our waste. They are important because waste is increasing faster than we can deal with it. Right now we produce 2.3 billion tonnes of trash every year! If we don’t use the 3 Rs, in another 25 years that might be almost 3.8 billion tonnes 😱

Also a lot of the waste, like plastic, is toxic and dangerous for people and animals. The 3Rs help us to remember what to do to solve the problems caused by waste, like ocean pollution and climate change.

The 3 Rs come in a special order, or hierarchy. This is shown as an upside-down triangle called the waste hierarchy:

The order is important. It shows the priority for each action:

1. Reduce
2. Reuse
3. Recycle

Reduce is the widest part of the triangle at the top because this is the first and most effective action we can take. It affects the largest amount of waste.
Reuse comes second because it is the most helpful action to take with the stuff we can’t avoid.
Recycle is at the bottom because it should be the last action we take, after we have already tried the other two.

What does it mean to REDUCE?

Reducing waste means using less stuff so we avoid creating waste in the first place. There are a few ways we can do this.

We can think before we buy new things: do we really need this? Or, we can refuse unnecessary things like plastic straws, cutlery or sachets of sauce that are offered with takeout food. We can grow or make food from natural ingredients instead of buying packaged products. Doing this will cut down a lot of waste in your bins!

Companies can also design their products and services to make less waste. They can use less packaging and produce things that are made to last, not break easily. Then we don’t have to throw them away and buy new ones so often.

When we reduce, there are fewer things we need to reuse or recycle.

What does it mean to REUSE?

We can’t avoid using stuff altogether! So reuse is something we can do with the things we need in our lives. It means helping stuff to last longer.

So we can think before we throw something away: is this really waste? Maybe it can be given to someone else who might find it useful. Maybe it can be repaired and used again. Maybe it can be repurposed for another use, like when we clean an empty jam jar and use it to store other things like crayons or nuts. Or if we give food scraps to animals to eat. Can you think of any other examples?

Some companies design things to be reused instead of thrown away after one time. We can choose these items instead of disposable ones. For example, if we carry reusable shopping bags and water bottles when we go out, we can use them again and again without needing to buy plastic bottles or take bags that will be thrown away later.

A few companies also make packaging that can be reused. So after you finish your shampoo, you can return the bottle to the store and they will clean it and fill it up again. We need more businesses to design products like this.

When we reuse things we don’t have to take more resources from the Earth to make new ones.

What does it mean to RECYCLE?

When we can’t use or reuse stuff any more, the best action to take is recycling. Recycling breaks things down into their original materials, so they can be used again. But not everything can be recycled. Right now, we can recycle:

• Food and garden waste – it breaks down into compost to fertilise the soil. Click here to find out how to make your own compost.
• Glass
• Metal
• Clean paper

Plastic is not on this list because it’s tricky to recycle. There are thousands of different types of plastic and they are difficult to identify. If different types get mixed up it can be dangerous (toxic), or make the end product unusable.

Clear bottles, made from a type of plastic called PET, are the easiest to recycle. Usually they don’t get turned into new bottles, but into clothes (like fleece jackets) or carpets. This is called downcycling because the material can’t be recycled again, it will just be thrown away. For plastic, it’s better to reduce and reuse wherever we can.

To recycle you need to sort your trash into different bins so they can be collected or taken to the right place to make them into new things. Organic waste goes into one bin and then clean glass, metal and paper into others. With plastic, you will need to check the label carefully to see if it can be recycled where you live.

What about the rest of the trash?

After you have reduced, reused and recycled what you can, there will usually still be some trash left over. Try our waste audit activity to help you see how this could be reduced further.

It can be hard to get to zero trash so don’t be disappointed if you can’t get there yet: remember, we can’t do it all – the big companies also need to use the 3Rs and design their products and services to make less waste.

Lots of organisations (like Trash Hero) are already campaigning to make this happen, so we can protect people, animals and the planet from plastic pollution – thank you for doing your part 💛

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Litter is what we call trash when it ends up outside a bin or landfill.
Litter is bad for animals and people. Plastic waste suffocates, disables and kills thousands of animals each year. Litter is dirty and spoils our environment.

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TOXIC FOOD

Turtles, seals, birds and dolphins often mistake plastic waste for food. Plastic bags floating in the water can look like jellyfish, for example. After animals eat plastic, their intestines get blocked and their normal food can’t be digested properly. If they eat too much plastic, their stomachs always feel full, so they don’t eat anything else. Eventually they can starve to death. Plastic also contains lots of nasty chemicals that can posion animals and cause internal injuries. In India, 20 cows die every day because they have eaten plastic bags; and most sea birds on the planet already have some plastic pieces in their stomachs. The chemicals in the plastic eaten by fish and other animals are passed up the food chain to other creatures, and even to humans.

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ALL TANGLED UP

Animals often get entangled in plastic bags. This means they can suffocate, starve or drown. It also makes it easier for predators to catch them. Plastic bags constrict an animal’s movement which means they can get exhausted, or sometimes develop an infection from wounds caused by material wrapped around them. Plastic packaging can sink to the ocean floor, get wrapped around and smother coral reefs. Inland, plastic blocks drains, allowing mosquitoes to breed and spread dengue fever.

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BAD FOR US

Litter makes the beach look dirty. Sharp objects like broken glass can cut your feet. Because of this, there may be fewer visitors and local people will have less income from tourism.

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WHAT CAN I DO TO HELP?

1. ALWAYS put your trash in the bin. If there is no bin, hold on to it until you find one.
2. Say NO to plastic bags, bottles, straws and spoons in shops. Carry a cloth bag and reusable bottle with you to use instead.
3. Become a TRASH HERO and pick up any litter you see lying around

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Trash is just stuff we don’t want or have a use for any more. What to do with all our unwanted stuff has been a human problem for thousands of years.

But…

more people,
more stuff and
different kinds of stuff

means that nowadays, that problem is becoming a crisis.

In the past, most trash was organic waste. This means it can decompose over time in the soil. Even if we don’t want our rotten rice, plenty of bugs would love to eat it; and Mother Nature can use the remains as compost.

The biggest problem with our trash in recent times is that most of it is inorganic: think stuff like glass, metals and plastic. Plastic does not decompose like food. The chemicals used to make it mean it is very durable. Even after hundreds of years, it never goes away. Inorganic waste can often be recycled – turned back into raw materials that can be used again – but much of it, including many types of plastic, cannot. 

So what should we do with it all? Where does our unwanted trash belong? You’re probably thinking “in the bin!” And that is exactly where most trash ends up: in gigantic bins called landfills, huge rubbish dumps, usually (though not always) located outside of towns, where most people never go. Out of sight, out of mind.

Meanwhile, we keep buying and using more stuff, and producing more waste.

But what is going to happen when these landfill “bins” become full? If you live on an island there might not be any more space! Not to mention the big trash pile also releases lots of toxic chemicals into the soil around it. This is called leachate.

Some people think we should burn our trash in special incinerators. This would make more space in the landfills and we can also use the heat produced to generate electricity. But this solution is expensive, uses a lot of energy, and leaves behind a poisonous ash. Burning trash in the open air is even more dangerous, and is never a good idea!

A better solution might be to rethink trash and what we throw away in the first place. Do we really need to use and throw away so much stuff?  We know trash spreads disease, pollutes our waterways, harms animals, and contaminates our soil and groundwater. So what if we reduce (and eventually stop!) the trash by designing less wasteful stuff, using less of it, and reusing and recycling more? This is called a circular model and it looks a bit like this:

Compare this with the linear model we have now. It looks like this:

It’s called linear because it’s a straight line that starts with us taking the Earth’s resources and ends with us dumping them. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that model will end with a giant pile of trash and the resources all gone! The circular model allows us to save the Earth’s resources by using what we already have again and again, with little or no waste.

So the main things we can do to move towards the circular model are:

1. reduce the amount of stuff we use
2. reuse and recycle as much as we can

This way, less stuff will even become “trash” in the first place — and less trash produced is good for us, and good for our planet.

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Sometimes you might see litter or illegal rubbish dumps on beaches or roadsides, where people throw away their trash if they can’t find a bin, or nobody comes to collect it. This kind of trash is especially dangerous as it will usually end up in the sea.
You can read more about that topic in: Why Litter Is a Problem.

LET’S THINK ABOUT TRASH

No matter where we live in the world, trash is one thing we have in common.
But what we also have in common is the power to do something about it.

Everyone makes trash, though some people waste a lot less than others. How can we be less wasteful?

Ask yourself:

What kind of things do you throw away in your family?
How could you stop these things being thrown away?

Could you buy stuff wrapped in different materials?
Or replace things you use just once with things you can use again and again?

Could you reuse anything in your trash? Could you recycle it or maybe give it to someone else who might need it?
Or maybe you could repair it instead of throwing it away?

Talk to your friends and family about trash – what things could you do to make less waste?
Have a competition with your friends to see who can produce the least waste in one week!

You can get more ideas here: REDUCE WASTE

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