Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Here's an excerpt from the eco team's presentation about waste...

\

Here’s a bright idea! We need to do whatever we can to… MAKE LESS GARBAGE. You may be wondering, how? It's easy. Just remember these three words, REDUCE, REUSE, and RECYCLE.   

Reduce means LESS.  LESS garbage.  LESS packaged goods. LESS ‘STUFF’.  Somehow, we’ve become people who want more and more and more STUFF. And that’s creating a problem, a GARBAGE problem.  We need to be more mindful about what we buy, what we eat, what we use and what goes in the garbage can.

If you are unable to reduce… then reusing is your next best option. Reuse means to use things again and again and again. At school, you can reuse lunch containers, water bottles, coffee cups and much more. It’s super easy to reuse. Just refill a water bottle instead of using a disposable plastic bottle. Pour juice into a reusable container, instead of using a disposable juice box. And yes teachers, your coffee… Lug a mug to the coffee shop to avoid waste.  And everyone… please pack homemade foods in reusable containers for your lunches and snacks.

If, for one reason or another, you are unable to reduce or reuse, then RECYCLING is your next eco-friendly option. Recycling means making something new again. We need to recycle as much as we can. The city of Toronto has an EXCELLENT recycling program. So many things can be recycled. BUT NOT EVERYTHING!  We need to educate ourselves about what can and can’t be recycled. We can’t afford to get it wrong.

Here are some common recycling mistakes at Jackman.  Teachers… your Coffee cups go in the garbage. And kids… your snack wrappers need to go in the garbage - every time. Juice boxes CAN be recycled, but only if they’re empty and the straw is taken out. And Toronto’s biggest problem… plastic containers with food still in them…. Please rinse these containers out!  

Now, what happens if something can’t be reduced, reused or recycled. What do you do?  You just throw it away… right?  Just toss it in a garbage can?  Then, like magic, your garbage turns into a… cute little bunny?!?!?!  Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way.   You‘re garbage doesn‘t just go away... it goes somewhere... it goes to a landfill.

That’s right. Toronto’s garbage is carried in trucks 200 km away to GreenLane landfill.  It’s strange to think our landfill is called, ‘Green’Lane.  There’s nothing ‘GREEN’ about it.  And the problem is, if we continue creating garbage the way we do now, our landfill will be full in less than 10 years.  Then what? 

Now we know why it’s REALLY IMPORTANT to reduce, reuse and recycle as much as we can.  It’s our responsibility to make less garbage.