Reduce, reuse, recycle

Hey, Leon, looks like you just finished that ice-cream. What are you going to do with the container now? Throw it in the bin? Have you ever wondered what happens when you do that? Rubbish doesn’t disappear when you throw it away.

It’s picked up and either taken away to a tip - a landfill - where it piles up, or to a place where it’s burned - a waste incinerator. Neither of these solutions are good, and rubbish sooner or later becomes a big problem for the environment. If the rubbish ends up in a landfill, it slowly breaks down - it decomposes. Decomposing paper and food waste produce gases like methane, which pollute the air and contribute to climate change. Some rubbish might also release harmful substances that enter the soil and groundwater.

Certain types of rubbish, such as plastic or glass, can take thousands of years to decompose - if they ever do! The other option is burning rubbish in a special incinerator. This creates energy that can be used to generate electricity or heat up water. But in the process, carbon dioxide and other substances are released into the air. Some of them can be filtered out, but some remain, pollute the air, and contribute to climate change.

Sounds scary, right, Leon? Is there anything else you can do with your ice-cream container? The easiest thing you can do is to separate your rubbish, and put it in the right bin. This container is made of hard plastic, so that can be put together with other plastic packaging. In the same way, you can separate glass, paper, and metal.

All these materials can be processed and used to make new objects - they can be recycled. In this way an old magazine can be turned into a notebook or a roll of toilet paper, old cans can become a bicycle, and the plastic can become for example a toothpaste tube or a toy! This sounds better, right? But what if we don’t throw this container away at all? Recycling uses a lot of energy, so it would be better if you wash your container, and reuse it.

How? For instance, to take a snack with you to a picnic, organise pens on your desk, or maybe even fill it with soil and plant something in it. Turning rubbish into something useful is much better than recycling - it’s upcycling! There are many other things you can reuse, instead of getting new ones every time you need them, like plastic bags, or water bottles. It won’t just save you money.

It saves resources and protects the planet. You can help the planet even more by reducing your impact on the environment - which is not just about reducing rubbish! You can save energy and water. You can reduce car emissions if you walk or cycle instead of going by car. Or you can minimise food waste by buying only as much food as you really will eat.

You also have a lot of influence as a consumer - every time each one of us buys something, we send a signal to the producer, that they need to produce more. And the more people who buy ice-cream in plastic, the more plastic will be produced - which becomes waste. That’s why it’s important to reduce your consumption and buy only things you actually need. Let’s think for a second: Do you really need to buy a new tub of ice-cream, Leon? You could try making your own ice-cream from scratch, and reuse this container to put it in the freezer.

Then you can invite your friends, show off your ice-cream making skills, and tell them about reducing, reusing, and recycling.