A BETTER WORLD (CHAPTER 3) RECYCLE

Reduce, Reuse and the third, RECYCLE. These are the 3Rs that are helping us to transform our environment into a better world through three simple but committed ecological practices.

Recycling is the reprocessing of waste into a new product. But sometimes the practice of Reuse is often confused with that of Recycle. Let’s see the difference.

When we make a mural with waste (CDs, parts of electrical appliances, plastic containers, bottle caps, etc.) and integrate them into a painting, we are not Recycling, we are Reusing, because we are giving another use to a product whose original function was not that.

An example of Recycling is to take the glass bottles that after having finished their function of containing a liquid; they have been deposited in a container specifically or taken to a glass collecting company; then this collecting company takes it to a processing factory that will select, wash and melt the glass, to create new products that will go to the market. Only if the waste is processed to become again raw material for new products, we can talk about Recycling, otherwise it will be Reuse.

The products we consume contain various materials, so some are too complex to enter into a Recycling process. But others, on the other hand, are easier both in the separation of materials and in the processing to become raw material again. Generally the most common materials to recycle are: paper, glass, plastics, cotton fabrics and metals.

Perhaps we do not have the capacity to recycle because we do not have a processing company, but we can contribute to deposit the waste in places properly classified by materials, if where you live there is that opportunity; you can organize the collection of some of these wastes and take them to collection companies, you can even create a network of collectors generating jobs; or, you can do Recycling on a small scale, for example in schools recycling paper which is a simpler process.

The important thing is not to remain oblivious to this proposal of being subjects of transformation of our environment. Let’s start with ourselves; let’s share this information with other people; let’s make a list of things that we can implement from now on in our daily lives from the concrete practice of the 3Rs. Then, we could pause for a while so to review what other things we can change or incorporate in our daily habits that, although they require more effort, we see it important to assume; review not only of our consumption practices, but also how we understand our relationship with the Environment, the relationship with our fellows (interpersonal and working group) and with the other beings of Creation, so that they too, are equally in this  harmony of respect, care and justice.

Marisa Folgado