Reduce, reuse, recycle: It all starts with you

The city has gone to great lengths to make recycling easier and more convenient and that is a good thing.

It is still up to us to reduce the amount of recycling we need to do and that is key.

The better way is still to reuse items again and again and again.

When you simply have no option but to buy something that has to be recycled then it is prudent to look for the less offensive packaging that will need to be recycled.

There is an opportunity here for us all to send a message to manufacturers.

When the item you purchase comes in a box that is unnecessarily large, or has a moulded plastic cover that there is no other use for, choose the competition and/or notify the producer of your decision.

Boxes of facial tissues are an example of unnecessary cardboard. Some brands will have boxes with 80 tissues while a similar size box will hold 150 and even 300 tissues. You will obviously have to buy three of four boxes of the 80 tissues instead of one box with 300. Similarly with toilet paper. They all have cardboard rolls in the core. Some have a quarter of the sheets of paper compared to others. You have a choice of whether to recycle four cardboard rolls or one depending on the number of sheets you purchase.

If you are buying tiny yogurt containers instead of a large one you are recycling far more than you need to. You could dispense the yogurt from a large container into smaller reusable containers if that is what you prefer.

Sometimes we think that once something goes into a recycling container we have done our bit and can give ourselves a pat on the back.

Most on us have no idea what happens to the items we put in a recycling container, where it ends up, and the energy/industry it takes to turn it into something else.

Last year China announced it would no longer accept paper and plastic recyclables from Canada and according to online information a recycling company in Calgary had been sending all its mixed paper to China.

Edmonton had been sending 10,000 tonnes to China every year.

Some African countries have long complained about “recycled” electronics ending up there along with any toxic byproducts. It appeared to them that we had an attitude of what we don’t want we will dump on other people.

B.C. has a program requiring manufacturers to handle the recycling of its own products. Holding manufacturers accounting is perhaps the key. If they have to collect and recycle what they put out they may think again about packaging. Recycling is a good thing. A conscious effort to reduce what we need to recycle is also a good thing and we have great sway here.

Not having anything that needs recycling in the first place is even better and is what we should be striving for.