Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Recently I have been accused of making too big of a deal out of recycling. I wanted to turn this into an opportunity to give you some facts about what my cause as a team member at work as well as a human being is.

• The U.S. recycles approximately 32 percent of its waste which saves an equivalent amount of greenhouse gases to removing 39,618 cars from the road. 
• Increasing the recycling rate to 35 percent would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an additional 5.2 Million Metric Tons of Carbon Dioxide Equivalent.
• Net carbon emissions are four to five times lower when materials are produced from recycled steel, copper, glass, and paper. They are 40 times lower for aluminum.
• Just one person recycling their newspaper, magazines, plastic, glass, and metal for one year is enough to save 471 pounds of carbon dioxide from going into the atmosphere. One person does matter.
• Overall recycling rate for Michigan is a sad 20%, falling after years of being country's leader in recycling. Thanks to the high deposit campaign, can and bottle recycling rate once was almost 100%. Due to budget cuts in the recent years affected recycling programs statewide, we are facing a fall in recycling. 
• Apart from the obvious benefits, recycling also creates more jobs than disposal does, uses less energy than mining, harvesting, importing and otherwise processing raw materials, and creates less greenhouse gas than landfilling does.
• In a recent Adopt-a-Highway event, volunteers combed a 46-mile stretch of country roads in Kent county. It was sorted and weighed. It included:
• 514.1 pounds of newspapers, magazines, paper, plastic and fast food wrappers/containers
• 227.7 pounds of carpet, clothing, furniture and building materials
• 204.2 pounds of auto parts
• 34.8 pounds of beverage containers covered by the bottle deposit law
• 29.4 pounds of water, tea and juice containers
• 23.6 pounds of milk, liquor and wine containers

Imagine.

My cause is not recycling. My cause is, being as environmentally friendly as I can be, in balance with a normal lifestyle. Recycling is only a means. It is actually the 3rd and last R of being green. We first Reduce, then if possible Reuse, and Recycle.

Being environmentally friendly does not mean you need to fit into the hipster stereotype of only wearing cotton, belonging to a food-coop, composting your waste, always riding a bike or a hybrid car, or being politically active about it (although none of these hurt)... It is just doing what we can. And I believe we are all capable of caring and helping our homes and workplaces be environmentally conscious. The least we can do in our workplace is reusing and recycling paper products.