5R philosophy and how to apply them in your daily life

The three Rs are certainly familiar to you: reduce, reuse, and recycle. Following the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act in the late 1970s, these words became common. They were the words on everyone’s lips, from NGOs to government organizations to garbage disposal facilities to schools. The three Rs were utilized to educate the public, and they performed an excellent job. Despite our familiarity with the three Rs and the fact that “zero waste” trends appear to be developing at a breakneck pace, the waste remains a significant global problem that is growing rapidly.

Bea Johnson published a book named Zero Waste Home, it became the bible for zero-waste livers in 2013. It’s a part inspiring story about how Bea changed her and her family’s lives for the better by decreasing their trash to an incredible one liter each year (one single mason jar). Everything from food and recipes to present giving, holidays, maintenance, housing, traveling, activities, and much more are addressed. It also presents the 5 R’s of living a zero-waste lifestyle. There are five of them: refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle, and rot. 

Although there are many more R’s to consider if you want to live a more sustainable life, 5 R’s are more than adequate for zero-waste living. The Five Rs provide us with a new framework for dealing with garbage in our lives, in part by assisting us in recognizing the practices that lead to increased waste and rubbish. There are several easy methods to include the 5 Rs into your everyday routine. Starting with tiny modifications, your attempt to live a more sustainable life will only get lighter. For example, bringing less plastic into your home means having less plastic to sort and discard.

These suggestions allow you to reduce both the environmental effect of your actions and the purchase of new things, so lowering your overall waste. Let’s get started.

Refuse

The first step in dealing with garbage should be to limit the quantity created in the first place. If you are given the choice of accepting an item that you do not require, it is wise to decline. Refusing from the start helps to eliminate a lot of waste. It’s about saying “no” to freebies that end up being wasted. Once the garbage is generated, all solutions for dealing with it necessitate the use of energy and resources. Some solutions are favorable to others, but it is preferable to avoid producing waste in the first place. Finding and actively incorporating reusable alternatives into your everyday life requires some practice and planning.

If carrier bags are not yet prohibited in your area, you can say NO! You can deny more than simply carrier bags. Say no to the plastic straw in your drink the next time you go to the movies or get a drive-thru takeout. Even biodegradable bioplastic straws frequently wind up in the garbage because municipal composting facilities cannot recognize them as bioplastic.

You are not required to pay for everything you receive, but freebies or gifts do have an environmental cost. Consider it every time you are offered anything throwaway. For example, you are able to decline the complimentary ketchup packet if you do not intend to use it. If you’re bringing dinner home and have reusable utensils, skip the plastic utensils and sauce packets. Don’t even take the brochure you were handed outside the tube if you know you’re going to toss it away.

Reduce

Simply decrease your purchases by being attentive to what you want and need. This is synonymous with refusing. Reducing is all about getting rid of things. It entails shopping with a goal and purchasing only what you require rather than falling into spontaneous splurges. When you go shopping, consider if the products you buy are in your best interests. Allow yourself to get drawn into the trap of hyper-consumerism. All too frequently, such haphazard purchases wind up at the back of a cabinet or in the trash.

Before making a purchase, consider whether you truly need the item. If you do, consider the quality. While pricing is an important consideration, aim to select the greatest quality within your budget. Products that are well-made will last longer, lowering the number of times you will need to buy. If you can pick one nice jumper over three cheaper and lesser quality ones, you will be helping the environment. As the saying goes, “Buy nice or purchase twice.” Another suggestion is to take care of your belongings by following cleaning instructions and labeling to ensure that everything lasts a long time.

Consider whatever you already own. There’s something at the back of your cupboards, a pantry, or the garage that you don’t truly need. Don’t get rid of it. Donate whatever you can to attempt to eliminate the need for greater manufacturing and to help people in need financially. It’s time to pass them on to someone who can make greater use of them. Instead of hoarding unwanted and unnecessary goods, disperse them to help save our limited resources.

Reuse

Repairing and reusing go hand in hand. When considering whether to throw something out or replace it, consider whether you can reuse or repair it. Clothing, furniture, and technology are all examples of this. If your phone or laptop is broken, instead of buying a new one, look into repair possibilities first.
Items may be fixed, mended, or patched up to give them a little more life. We may also lessen the likelihood of it breaking in the first place by completing our research and choosing quality and repairability.

We’re quick to swap in our old models for new ones when something fresh comes along. It’s known as intentional obsolescence. Many objects are now made to be disposable, and we are pushed to replace them more frequently. As a result, reuse also refers to the use of reusable rather than throwaway materials. Consumables like paper towels, wipes, and cotton balls are convenient, but you only use them once before throwing them away. If single-use products continue to enter your house, it’s time to replace them with more environmentally friendly alternatives. Single-use plastics are more expensive in the long term, but they are also more expensive right away: consider how much money you can save if you don’t buy a plastic bag every time you go to the grocery.

You may also reuse it by purchasing used items. Visit thrift and antique stores, as well as yard sales. You’ll save a lot of money and be able to repurpose something that someone else didn’t want. Don’t forget to get your library card, which is a wonderful way to reuse books, music, and movies.

Recycle

Recycling is the collection and processing of items that would otherwise be discarded as waste in order to create new goods. Recycling produces a closed-loop system by returning unwanted goods to producers for use in new products. This reduces pollution and devastation caused by the extraction of virgin resources from the ground, such as forests and valuable metals. 

Recycling necessitates purchasing fewer items. For example, suppose you had a glass bottle that you have recycled into some kind of glass pot. The glass that was used to manufacture bottles is now used to produce pots. You might obtain it for free. In any case, it was significantly less expensive than purchasing a new pot. 

Recycling, on the other hand, has a very limited value. Recycling should only be considered as a last option. If you did your best with the previous three processes, you should have a lot less trash already. The recycling infrastructure is straining to keep up, and recyclable materials are not being converted successfully into new goods.

Recycling is preferable to tossing anything away. However, recycling an item still requires energy, as it must be carried to and from the recycling plant. When they are recycled, they are downcycled into low-quality, throwaway commodities that wind up in the trash stream. Recycling is also an extremely energy-intensive operation.

Rot 

The final phase in the 5 R’s of zero waste living is to rot, or compost. While you may reduce your contribution to landfills by using reusable grocery bags, purchasing items with less packaging, and recycling as much as possible, composting may be the key to significantly reducing the amount of waste you toss away.

Making your own compost is the peak of recycling; it is nature’s way of converting decomposable organic material into nutrient-rich soil, and it is an excellent way to divert part (or all) of your household trash from the landfill.
You can do a lot with your food scraps instead of throwing them away. Composting them results in a nutrient-rich fertilizer that you may use in your garden. If you don’t have an outside location, you should be composting indoors. Worm bins are the most prevalent indoor composting method. Maintain a healthy balance of carbon (paper, cardboard, newspaper, and dry leaves) and nitrogen (food scraps).

If you want to compost on your own, you may purchase or construct a huge compost box for your yard or balcony. Simply described, it is a container in which organic waste can rot or degrade in a regulated environment. Worms and certain bacteria are also suitable indoor compost bin materials. To create the greatest compost, make sure you use the right combination of elements. The completed product should be dark brown in color, crumbly in texture, and smell somewhat sweet and moist from the woods.