The three Rs.

I also keep a bag for recycling wherever I have a trash can. I have to say I fill up two really big black trash bags twice a week. I am a bit ashamed to say this because I feel like I should not be purchasing so many products that need to be recycled in this way, it is mostly plastic bottles and packaging. The biggest reason I recycle next to trying to help the environment, is my guilt over using so many products. I guess I can say I reuse occassionally and definitely recycle. Not so good on the reduce part of the three R's though. Hope to get better.

We try to buy products with little extra packaging. We only produce about 1 garbage bag of trash a week. There's not much to recycle.

We do try to follow the 3 r's. But how big is my garbage? How are we measuring this? We have a huge trash can with wheels issued to us by the city. We never fill it. We could go 2, sometimes 3 weeks without filling it all the way. But on trash day I will see trash cans filled to overflowing at some meighbors houses and I wonder how can they produce so much trash weekly.

Reduce is the key to the cycle - that is why it is listed first. By reducing the usage of disposables, we do a lot better for the environment than either of the other two steps. Recently, we converted from bottled water to a faucet-mount filter. I did a comparison of the costs and put it in an article here: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/722313/green_product_review_the_pur_vertical.html By reducing usage we also reduce demand and ultimately production. Reusing is the next best thing. Sometimes, it just isn't possible to reduce, so when we opt for reusable products rather than disposable ones, we make a bigger impact than recycling. Eventually, even reusable things will have to be disposed of but we should get as much life out of them as possible first. Recycling is certainly better than simply throwing things away. Recycling still uses a considerable amount of resources, though, so we need to exercise the first two R's until we have no further option. Sorry about the dissertation, but this is something that I feel very strongly about! Thank you for starting this discussion and giving me a platform.

I'm down to one kitchen size garbage can a month going into the trash. I don't even have a weekly pick up any more. Because it's so little, and I have family next door they let me put mine in with theirs.

there is a small bin for used paper in my room. there isn't a big bin reserved for lot of used trash for recycling. But soon i am going to buy bins for different types of trash e.g recyclable glass/bottles, clothes, paper, etc i totally support recycling and recommend everyone to start recycling instead of throwing everything in bin . Recycling will support our environment and if everyone starts keeping a recycle bin, surely, we can save a lot of trees and other precious compnents of our environment.