Growing up in recent times usually means that we have been coached somewhere along the way about global warming and small steps we can take to make a difference. Most certainly everyone nowadays can recite the 3 R’s on demand: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
My concern is this: do we know how to rercite the 3 R’s so well that we don’t actually stop to think about what they mean?
In my opinion, judging by the what the people around me tend to do, Recylcing and Reusing are being done (although, for the most part Reuse is being applied to simply reusable bags when it can extend far beyond this). But the most overlooked R is REDUCE. This is one that is incredibly hard to implement, for a few reasons.
One minor reason has to do with repair. In order to reduce our consumption we would have to repair broken gadgets, items, and so on. But when repairing costs almost as much as buying a brand new replacement, it’s difficult. As a result there are less specialized people around, making it even harder to repair our things – we have to travel farther and/or pay more. Most often times we opt for the newer, shiner version instead of repairing our scratched and outdated one. But this leads to 99% of goods manufactured and consumed in the trash within 6 months! This is not unintentional, unfortunately, it was all planned and perceived.
