Reduce, Reuse and Recycle: Our October Efforts

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle! These are the 3 Rs of waste management for a better world.

We all hear these 3Rs many times and in most of the places we go, on TV, and even through websites.

But, how do we follow these 3Rs for a greener world?

I know, when it comes to saving the environment, most of us first think of recycling. But do you know that reducing is the first and best option for a greener and cleaner world?

The 3Rs Reduce, Reuse and Recycle are listed in priority order where Reduce is the best option and then it comes to Reuse. If Reduce and Reuse are not possible, then Recycle it.

Well, the above is just a reminder of how we can go green.

At my home, I try to follow these 3Rs where possible. Recently I started sharing more of our green efforts through this blog too as it can spread green awareness. On the other hand, I want my son to join me and learn how he can spend a simple yet comfortable life when he cares about the environment. Small acts matter a lot! Here is what you should know when you try recycling in Singapore.

Lately, I found that I don’t have more time to blog about our efforts in following the 3Rs. Therefore I thought of sharing our Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle efforts as a monthly roundup post.

This is our first post about the series and what we did in October. These can be good examples of the 3 Rs if you like to practice at your home.

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle: What we can do at home?

Reduce

Reduce is the best option from the 3Rs. Why is that? Not creating waste is the best way to manage waste. Some simple examples include reducing your waste in water, electricity, paper, and plastics.

Some of our October Reduce efforts:

Switching off the lights, and reducing water wastage are our everyday efforts. A simple act is that I use the remaining water in child’s water bottle to water a plant instead of throwing away through the kitchen sink. 🙂

Grocery shopping is limited to purchasing only what we need. This reduces our food wastage. I checked my cupboards for some stored items. According to expiry dates, I started using those grocery items in new recipes and stopped buying new ones until we finish the stocks.

We also changed our tap fittings as we found leakage. Hope this step will prevent water leakage and thus reduce the water bill.

Reuse

Reuse is the next best R after Reduce. In Reuse efforts, you can think of a way to Reuse your used materials instead of throwing them away. This is where you can use your creativity and knowledge. By reusing or repurposing, you can give a new life to used items.

Some Reuse examples include making rugs or bags or new items from old clothes, repurposing used jars, and creating storage containers using empty boxes. We use library book exchange corner to share our used books. I used empty bottles to create this bowling game where my kid was happy as a toddler.

Some of our October Reuse efforts:

We added a few books to the library’s book exchange corner. So, someone will find it a good read.

It is almost the end of the school term. I found some notebooks of my son’s that are with many empty pages. I removed the used pages of the notebooks. These look good and are ready for my use. My son can use these for his revision activities as well.

Some of our used clothes that are in good condition are ready to donate.

Recycle

The last option of the 3Rs of waste management is Recycle. However, when we recycle, we need to know how to recycle and what to recycle. Not everything we use is recyclable. Also, we cannot throw used bottles and other things simply in a recycle collector without cleaning them. Knowledge of recycling is important and helpful for a better effort.

For example, most tissue papers are not recyclable. This is because most of those are made using papers that are previously recycled.

On the other hand, remember to find designated locations to send your recyclable items. Once we made a DIY recycling bin to collect recyclable items until recycling day.

Some of our October Recycle efforts:

At the end of the month, we have items that are suitable for recycling. This month we recycled plastic bottles, old clothes, paper, and metal.

We had some recyclable plastic bottles. I cleaned all before we put those into recycle bin. Luckily, there are recycle bins located everywhere in Singapore.

This month we changed our tap fittings too. Therefore, we disposed our old tap fittings for recycling.

It was great to participate in Recycle Day in our neighbourhood where we could dispose the tap fittings as metal waste.

Above are some of the green activities we were involved in October. Although there are other activities too,I selected these activities to feature.

Your turn to Reduce Reuse and Recycle

Have you done anything that supports the environment? Please share your thoughts and experiences below as a comment.

Also, if you have a blog post that supports any of the 3R activities, Reduce, Reuse or Recycle, please share your post link as a comment. I’d love to visit. It can be from your achieved posts as well.

Reduce Reuse and Recycle! Save our environment!

**Check the link parties that I like to join.

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