What ever happened to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle?

Recycling has become the one way everyone can feel like they are contributing to a "greener" world. It has become such an easy way for people to participate, all we need to do is figure out what is recyclable and sort it and put it at the end of our driveway and there it is we have done our bit to be green! But is that really enough....?

What happens to what we "recycle"? Out of sight out of mind? The picture above is only one of many that depicts what is happening to our recycling. Jennifer Clapp contributed a really interesting article to the book called Confronting Consumption . She talks about how too many times when we think we are recycling what we are really doing is contributing to the mound of computer parts and waste through out the third world.

Industrialized countries have attempted regulate the shifting of waste but third world countries such as China have poverty stricken communities who are desperate for employment. People in these communities dismantle computers, blenders and various other electronics appart with their bare hands. Is this really recycling?

Many environmentalists have suggested that companies fabricating these technologies should have to abid by take back legislation which would make companies like apple, dell and sony take back their products when a customer is done with them and recycle them into new products.

This brings me to "what happened to reduce, reuse, recycle?" It seems as though we really only do the one now, Recycle. We don't just simply use the hundreds of plastic shopping bags we already have instead of taking new ones to had to the pile. Yes we use them for lunch bags and such but why do we insist on taking more. Or why not invest a little money into fabric shopping bags we can use over and over and over again.

Being green means more than putting your recycling out by the curb! It means being aware of where your waste goes, the waste that goes in to making what becomes our own personal waste. By bringing back reduce and reuse we renew our environmental consciousness.