Day 1: Recycling is not enough – enter the other ‘Rs’

It has been very difficult to pin down a challenge, as I had several different ideas. I have landed on something quite broad, but which will require a lot of conscious effort and creativity. 

I am aware of an increasingly louder conversation around the merits of recycling, and the greenwashing, mal/ poor practice, misunderstandings and other issues that surround our over-reliance on recycling as a way to deal with our consumption habits. I have tried over the years to be more thoughtful and reduce my waste, but I am absolutely guilty of over-relying on recycling to make me feel better. Therefore, this month I am going to document my waste, including what I put into the recycling, and will deliberately REDUCE my consumption of recyclable packaging. I will also look to REPAIR and REUSE/ REPURPOSE items that would often be considered ‘disposable’ or ‘rubbish’ and will share my creative work on this. And I will REFILL where I can at the zero-waste shop in my town. I will RETHINK purchases – I will enforce a cool down period of at least a day to decide whether a new thing I am considering buying is really necessary (can I make one instead? Can I buy second hand instead? Can I rent instead)? And I will become part of the gift economy (thank you Robin Wall Kimmerer!) and REGIFT where appropriate. 

In short, I will engage the many other ‘Rs’ outside of our default Recycle and I am excited to share those experiences with you all! Wish me luck – it is broad and big but also motivating.

Image from Twitter @RecyclingBC