You may have come across the 3 Rs of sustainability – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – or even the 7 Rs (or even 9 Rs) of sustainability (see our previous blog on this).

We are examining these in a little more detail – here is the seventh and last in the pyramid – Re-cycle

If all else fails, if you have re-thought, refused, reduced, reused, repaired and repurposed your “stuff” and you have no longer any use for it then, and only then, put it for recycling. Recycling involves a lot more energy than any of the other processes we have been thinking about. Also, it is currently not very efficient – a fraction of what we put for recycling actually gets recycled, and what does get recycled is not done very efficiently.

Here is the story about three plastic bottles:

Only one of the bottles goes for recycling but that involves lots of energy in transporting and recycling. The recycled plastic is usually contaminated so it cannot be used to make more plastic bottles or food containers, instead it is used to make other products such as furniture or clothing.

Another example. Although up to 80% of a mobile phone is recyclable, at the end of their life they are often transported to India or another developing country where they are separated into their components. Because of the way they are constructed this can involve smashing them into tiny bits and then using machinery to sort the bits. The separated materials are then transported around the globe to places where they can be cleaned up and refined before shipping them to where they can be used to make new things. The quality of the material may not be as high as when new so it may not be able to be used to make new phones.

There is a huge emphasis on recycling, and it is extremely important that we recycle everything we can at the end of its useful life, but it should be the last resort. The 7 Rs are in the order that they are for a reason.

  • Do you think we can stop putting things in landfill?
  • Can we reduce our environmental impact?
  • What do you do to reduce your environmental footprint?