Skip to Main Content
Living Green: The Missing Manual
book

Living Green: The Missing Manual

by Nancy Conner
August 2009
Beginner to intermediate content levelBeginner to intermediate
320 pages
11h 56m
English
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Content preview from Living Green: The Missing Manual

Chapter 3. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Your great-grandparents lived by the saying, "Waste not, want not," which means that if we don't squander what we have, we won't lack for it later. That's a far cry from today's throwaway mentality, isn't it? Whether it's clothes, a cellphone, or a DVD player, many people find it easier to replace something that's old, worn, or broken than to fix it. The amount of trash people in developed countries produce is staggering, as you'll see in this chapter. And it piles up fast—just how fast might surprise you. What happens to all that junk? And how can we scale back the literal mountains of trash that go into landfills?

Everyone has to do their part. You're no doubt familiar with the phrase, "reduce, reuse, recycle," which is an updated, eco-conscious version of the "waste not, want not" philosophy. By now, most people have heard these three Rs so much that they seem obvious—of course we should be doing all those things to ease the toll we take on the planet. But it's worth pondering whether you actually follow all three Rs as much as you could.

This chapter shows why wasteful living is a bad idea and teaches you tips to help minimize it. By taking a close look at each of the three Rs—how you currently implement them and how you might fine-tune your current practices—you'll minimize waste, conserve precious resources, and save energy that would otherwise be used to create and transport new goods. And you'll feel smug knowing you're doing your part for ...

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Start your free trial

You might also like

Lifescale

Lifescale

Brian Solis
Green Energy to Sustainability: Strategies for Global Industries

Green Energy to Sustainability: Strategies for Global Industries

Alain A. Vertes, Nasib Qureshi, Hans P. Blaschek, Hideaki Yukawa
Step into the Metaverse

Step into the Metaverse

Mark van Rijmenam

Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9780596806460Errata Page