I recently got into a conversation with someone who told me he didn’t believe in recycling and thought it was a joke…So I told him he might be right.

It’s true there’s a mass of plastic large enough to be viewed in space by NASA that was supposedly recycled floating in the Pacific Ocean. It’s also true trucks collecting recyclables curbside also run on fossil fuels.

While I don’t think recycling should be abandoned people should know if you want to call bullshit on recycling that’s fine, just know you also have the option of Reducing and Reusing instead of doing nothing.

Those are the other 2 Rs we tend to forget in the phrase Reduce-Reuse-Recycle. Seems like you can turn almost anything into a bird feeder as many green sites will tell you, but if that’s not your bag you can reuse Nike sneaker boxes as storage or give your clothes to others to reuse.

Really you get the most bang for your (green) buck by Reducing, that is, reducing your energy consumption. You can retrofit your home so it takes less energy to heat, you can drive less or carpool more or you can reduce your product consumption.

Everything takes energy to manufacture and by simply deciding to pass on another shower radio or bottle of water you won’t be buying into the energy intensive process used to make them, ship them or ship their parts. Reducing your consumption reduces your contribution to CO2 levels that contribute to global warming.

If you need something buy it. If you don’t need something, instead of buying it consider putting that money towards something you can reuse or use for a long time so you can reduce your consumption.