Did you know that ‘recycling’ is step 6 of the 7 Rs of sustainability? The other R’s are just as important even if they are often forgotten.
Rethink- Do I really need to buy this? The point of this step is to stop and think.
Refuse- Does this product damage the environment? If so, refuse to spend your money on it. i.e. single use plastics, harsh chemicals
Reduce- How much of this do I really need? Buy less! Buy in bulk when you can as it often equals less packaging to throw out.
Reuse- Can I use this product again? Can I fix what I have so that I don’t need to buy something new? Reuse that plastic water bottle a few times. And instead of buying new, try thrift shopping, flea markets, yard sales etc.
Repurpose- Unlimited creativity! Does this item have another use? i.e. old torn clothes can be rags or plastic cups can be planters.
Recycle- Can I recycle this? Not everything can be. There are also some important steps to making sure your recycling is done properly. If unsure, look up local recycling regulations.
Rot- Can I compost this? Food waste, yard clippings, newspapers and many other items can be composted instead of being tossed in the trash. Composting is surprisingly simple and helps reduce harmful greenhouse gasses from entering the atmosphere.
What is the point of the R’s?
The number one benefit of the 7 R’s are the reduction of the amount of waste sent to incinerators and landfills. The EPA website provides a lot of useful information. Other benefits that we can reap from
implementing these concepts in our life are (as listed on the EPA website):
• Prevents pollution caused by reducing the need to harvest new raw materials
• Saves energy from not making a new product
• Reduces greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change
• Helps sustain the environment and natural resources for future generations
• Saves money from processing our waste
• Increases economic security by tapping a domestic source of materials
• Helps create jobs in the recycling and manufacturing industries in the United States
Kristina Smithe was running a marathon in California a few years ago when she started thinking about all the waste such events produce — esp
"Kristina Smithe was running the California International Marathon in 2019, grabbing cups of water to stay hydrated, when she started to think about how much waste such events produce. On the flight home, she did the math: 9,000 runners, 17 aid stations and something like 150,000 cups used once and thrown away.
“I was just shocked that, even in California, it’s not sustainable,” Smithe said.
That sparked her idea for something more durable — a lightweight, pliable silicone cup that could be used again and again. After working out a design, Smithe ordered her first shipment and tested them at a race in 2021.
Now her business, Hiccup Earth, has 70,000 cups that Smithe rents out to interested races to replace the typical white paper cups that can pile up like snowdrifts at busy water stops.
Billions of disposable cups are used around the world each year. These cups are often made of plastic, but even if they are made of paper, they typically have a plastic lining that makes it difficult for them to biodegrade. And making these cups, and disposing or burning them, generates planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.
“That’s just a small subset of the amount of plastic waste that we produce, but it’s a pretty visible one,” said Sarah Gleeson, solutions research manager and plastics waste expert at climate nonprofit Project Drawdown. “It’s something that generates a lot of waste, and waste — depending on what exactly it’s made of — can really last in landfills for hundreds of years.”
As she was getting her business off the ground, Smithe emailed race directors to ask if their event used disposable cups.
“The answer was always yes,” she said. Her response: “If you’re looking for a sustainable solution, I have one.”
Now, she rents out the cups by the thousand, driving them to events in massive totes and leaving bins with the company logo for collection after use. Smithe picks up the used cups and washes them in a proprietary dishwasher.
At the PNC Women Run the Cities race in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, in early May, Smithe helped quench the thirst of thousands of runners, dropping off 17-gallon tote bags full of her flexible blue cups.
After that race, Smithe, 35, estimated she’s taken her cups to 137 races and spared 902,000 disposable ones from the landfill. She also says her washing process needs only 30 gallons (114 liters) of water per 1,500 cups. An average efficient household dishwasher uses 3 to 5 gallons (11 to 19 liters) for far fewer dishes.
“It’s just a solution to a problem that’s long overdue,” Smithe said.
One trade-off is that the cup rentals cost race directors more than other options. Disposable cups might run just a few cents each, while 10,000 Hiccup cups would rent for about 15 cents each. That price drops if more cups are needed.
Gleeson, of Project Drawdown, sees the reusable cups as just one of many ways that innovators are looking to cut down on waste. Such solutions often have to be rooted in convenience and grounded in local or small applications to get more people to adopt them. Some cities, for instance, are experimenting with reusable food takeout containers that customers return to nearby drop-off spots later on.
While no one solution can fully tackle the problem, “The scalability is there,” Gleeson said. “I think in general, high adoption of these kinds of solutions is what is able to bring costs down and really maximize environmental benefits that you could get.”"
ways I've been navigating my life and spending money as someone who is poor but less poor than I was, hates spending money, loves my community and is terrified of microplastics
wowwww im so good at short and snappy titles /s
I'm not someone who is wealthy, though I'm certainly not as poor as I was when I started this account like 6 years ago when I was 16. Still, I am always battling between choosing the cheaper option and choosing what I know is good for me.
Often, I choose the cheaper option even if I can afford the better option because I have a lot of poverty shame I work through, and I am very careful with what little money I have because I'm so worried about the future. It's all very unstable right now.
To combat this, I have been trying to find an in-between of making sustainable, ethical swaps that feel like a safe amount of money for me. Because I'm poor. We're all working class people trying to make it. Especially as we head into more turbulent times, I find myself going back to old remedies I made when I was a teenager with no money, and now I'm just jazzing them up a bit.
I know that there is no ethical consumption under capitalism. But with what little money I do have, I try to give it back to my community or use it to make my life easier and more enriching, especially since I love to make things. Spending alone won't take down these mega-corporations, but conscious decisions greatly impact your neighborhood around you.
I live in an urban environment, so my money impacts the grocery stores in my neighborhood, my refill stores, my library, local farmers, and my local used bookstores as much as I can manage. Again, not because I think I can take down Unilever or something without some serious force, but because I want to make decisions that benefit me and keep these people in my community around, housed and OK. I think it's important for me to be person-first about certain things like this now that I have the means to. it's something I'm working on in therapy
speaking of therapy! my therapist is sliding scale and virtual which is so wonderful because I can adjust it if im super short on money for a while, I can't afford the cost of full price therapy, and I dont have to travel because I dont drive.
my upstairs neighbor has a bunch of old bikes in our shared shed from her previous roommates so I asked to buy one off of her, and she gave it to me for free! I have a beach cruiser now and wanted a commuter style for easier travel
I needed a water bottle for work because mine has too many overtly political stickers (like, pigs in cop uniforms). I bought a kombucha in a glass bottle for $2 and took the label off. That's my going out water bottle now lol.
I've been selling my old clothes on Vinted so I can buy new ones with less plastic fibers used, glass containers, and things I need without disrupting my paycheck's strict budget.
This money was also used to get myself an actual pair of supportive shoes secondhand because I could never emotionally justify paying out of pocket for them, and I don't like buying new clothes.
When I sell the clothes, sometimes I make the package out of my brown paper grocery bags I've gotten from groceries if it's not too bulky or going too far. I decorate it to make it look fun.
I joined a menstrual cup swap group on Facebook and got two menstrual discs for free. I am giving my ones that don't work for me to a friend. If you're like me (probably insane) and trust a good boil, it's really nice to not have to shell out $20-40 a month.
I am making a bigger effort to go to the farmer's market for produce. I love my local farmers. But I having been crocheting and considering sewing some cotton bags so that they dump my berries into that instead of a plastic grocery bag. Also, the joy on a beekeeper's face when I get honey from them for only $1-2 more than at the store is basically an SSRI to me. That will change my whole day.
I stopped eating meat about a year ago. I realize now, the whole time I only liked the breading that they put on some meat like chicken nuggets. I was literally eating the breading off of corn dogs. Now I get most of my proteins from beans. Along with my personal carbon footprint and plastic packaging, my food waste is reduced because I'm not avoiding my meals or leftovers. And it's so much cheaper. I know this is a privilege, but doing this thing (even though it doesn't majorly change the whole world) changes my mindset and positively impacts how I make other decisions that can affect my well-being and my community.
I'm fortunate enough to live near stores with small bulk sections. When the sales are affordable, I stock up on things like walnuts and flour. It's often much cheaper and I can just use my old jars.
Same thing with bulk shampoo. My hair is genuinely so picky, and the herbal ones work better for me. The cost is about the same if not less, and I'm hoping to try bars soon or make some
I made my own bug spray yesterday. Deet triggers my asthma, and I had almost everything I needed at home to make a supply big enough to share with my friends who work outside and also have asthma. I just needed witch hazel ($3) and citronella oil (special ordered it from a local store and got a discount, making it also ~$3).
I am making my own deodorant using baking soda, arrowroot powder, and coconut oil. These are things I can also just get little scoops of from the bulk section at the grocery store. And then I'm making the things I need out of stuff I already have or only need to spend $1-2 on to complete, rather than a whole secondary product, and I can recycle my old containers for this. It also gives me a sense of security to know I can provide this necessity for my hygiene for myself with little to no money.
I GO TO THE LIBRARY! I cannot emphasize this enough. I can borrow some insane stuff from there. Even like a table for parties or a power washer. I get books, movies, yarn for crafting, puzzles, and more. I save money and use what's already in the world, and I spend time with others in my community.
I love dumpster diving! One of my favorite things to do is go dumpster diving with my friends. I love to stumble upon a big batch of tomatoes and share them. Stop the waste at the source and give it back to the people!
my town has a local free day at the laundromat for disabled people and people on benefits. i have no washer and am disabled, as is my lovely gf, and we love catching up with people at the laundromat, so we do our laundry there, and by logging our use in the form (first name and amount of laundry), the program gets its funding to continue.
at my current job (I work at a grocery store now), we get to take home expired or damaged food. I supplement my groceries with this a lot, and if the food is just damaged I will sometimes drop things into free little libraries or a cool new free food stand in my neighborhood if it's not taken by my coworkers at the end of the day
I hate when you're trying to reuse/repurpose/recycle/upcycle an empty plastic container (say this giant honking sanitizer pump bottle I couldn't find a refill for), and all the suggestions are "take the liquid from this plastic bottle and put it in that plastic bottle!" Like the dish soap comes in a perfectly usable bottle already, I don't need to poor into this bottle and then have another different empty bottle to figure out how to repurpose
