When you mention recycling to most people, they instantly conjure images of aluminum cans, soda bottles, and old newspapers. For most of us, that is where recycling begins and ends. In our culture of replaceable products, the idea of reusing something, anything, is almost antithetical. Western culture and the rise of consumerism has instilled in us the idea that new is better and that old is garbage. No matter that a product may be perfectly serviceable, if a “new and improved” product is sent to market, we rush to replace what we have with the new thing. And the thing being replaced is relegated to the trash heap. This attitude not only permeates the products that we use, but also extends to the way we view natural resources and our public infrastructure.

The problem with this kind of thinking is that we end up wasting more than just the material that these products or things or created from. We also waste valuable time, space, and money by discarding that which still has use and we defile land and water resources through the creation of bigger cities and larger landfills. The end result is a cultural mentality that encourages wastefulness at every turn. All of us, due to our cultural upbringing, have fallen into this mindset, and the effects of this attitude can be seen in our landfills, in our cost of living, and in our assumption of entitlement. And while we may not be at fault for having this attitude instilled in us, we are to blame if we make no effort to change it.

Let’s start with the first “R,” which is reduction. The concept of reduction embraces the idea of eliminating wastefulness and curbing unnecessary materialism. We all need certain “things” to sustain our lives and the quality of our lives. From food and shelter to transportation and energy, our need for “things” is not, in and of itself, a negative quality. The problem occurs when we become wasteful of what we have in order to replace our things with updated versions, despite the fact that the original things still work just fine, or when we purchase duplicate items we don’t really need just to have more stuff. This problem is exacerbated when we become callous or indifferent to this wastefulness and even encourage it through the advancement of “throw away consumerism.” If you’ve ever eaten at a modern buffet restaurant and watched the amount of discarded food, you know what I mean by wastefulness. If you’ve ever driven through a deserted downtown on your way to the newest outlet mall, you’ve seen the result of mindless construction and the waste of materials. If you’ve ever left every light on in the house or ignored a leaky faucet because you couldn’t take the time to turn them off or fix the leak, you’ve contributed to the problem. If you’ve ever purchased a new cellular telephone in order to get the latest added techno-gadget, you’ve fallen into this trap too. Americans in particular have been force fed the notion that more is better and newer is necessary. Yet in a world where thousands of millions struggle to feed their children every day, the absent minded wastefulness practiced by each of us on a daily basis is nothing less than ridiculous. By reducing our consumption to more moderate levels we not only save ourselves money, we make available more of the resources required to create “things” to others who strive for a better life.

The second “R” stands for reuse. If through reduction we can eliminate (or at least significantly decrease) societal wastefulness, it is through the concept of reuse that we can extend the life of our products and infrastructure. In addition to our culture of consumerism, we have been taught, through the efforts of our business and government leaders, that everything is replaceable an, in fact, should be replaced. We have been conditioned to accept the fact that all things are created with a preplanned obsolescence. Goods are designed to either break down or become outdated in a relatively short span of time. Yet from a Common Sense point of view, this type of planned uselessness creates an unnecessary strain on both our resources and our budgets. Sure, many of us donate our old computers or televisions to organizations like Goodwill when we get a new product. But just as often, when the new stuff enters the home, the old stuff goes out to the curb for the trash man to collect. These products can be reused by others, or at the very least, disassembled so that their components can be recycled and reused in other products. This same attitude can be applied to the abandoned buildings that litter our landscape, the broken down furniture that fill our dumps, and on and on.

Our final “R” is the one that many millions are already used to hearing about, recycling. But recycling must go beyond our pop cans and newspapers. Recycling is a concept that needs to be expanded to include all produced goods that have become unwanted or unworkable. Recycling is a concept that makes a lot of sense from an economic standpoint, but it also allows us to limit our use of nonrenewable resources. Everything we make uses resources from the natural world, and in many cases, once these resources are transformed into goods they become forever unavailable for any other purpose. Unless we recycle them. Recycled products can be either refurbished and redistributed or they can be broken down to their original elements and used to create new goods. Either way, recycling lessens our need for raw materials by reusing those which have already been through the process of refinement.

So, you may ask, what is the point of reducing my consumption when no one else does? Why should I reuse or recycle when none of my neighbors do? What is the benefit to me? The answer to all of these questions is simple: We should reduce, reuse, and recycle because it makes sense, both economically and environmentally, and it shows the rest of the world that we are willing and able to share the limited resources of this planet more equitably. But it is not enough to simply apply these concepts to our own daily lives. We must also push for governmental policies that require our businesses and individuals to reduce the use of resources. We must push for an end to the culture of planned uselessness by requiring our manufacturers to create products that have a long shelf life, even as technology makes things more versatile. We must insist that our cities limit new development to building things that are needed rather than to things that are just wanted. And we must develop the processes and infrastructure that can facilitate recycling of all things.

These concepts are not new ones, by any means, but they are ideas that are often swept to the wayside in our ever-growing desire for bigger and better. Changing the way we think about resources and changing the way we use raw materials could do more to show the world that we are willing to be equal partners in the quest for a better life for all citizens than forcing our culture of consumerism on the world has done. There is nothing wrong with wanting the best things that mankind can make. But there is something inherently wrong with the proliferation of a culture that advocates, through ignorance or laziness or callousness, the wanton wastefulness for the sake of having more.