When Farah arrived to spend the day during the summer vacations with her friend Amena, she found Amena busy painting paper sheets, and a number of used cans and empty bottles were strewn around her.

Amena showed her friend the pencil holders and other things she had made earlier with apparently useless things. Though Farah was impressed a lot, she could not understand why Amena went through all this trouble when such beautiful stuff could be bought from the market.

Amena told Farah that it gave her a sense of achievement and pride that she can create beautiful things herself, and at the same time she is able to use all these bottles and cans which would otherwise be thrown in the garbage.

As they chatted, Amena continued with her work and soon Farah too, found herself busy helping Amena. By evening, they had made between themselves a number of pencil holders, plant bottles and decorative boxes.

When the next day their science teacher learnt about this, she seemed very pleased and told them that they have not only shown their creativity but also followed one of the three Rs of environment. Sensing that some of the students were not quite familiar with the concept she decided to forego that day’s lesson and explain the idea to the class.

She told the class that only in Karachi 9,000 tonnes of solid waste is generated in a day, most of which ends up in landfill sites, where some materials take many, many years to decompose, while some items do not decompose even in a hundred years. With so much waste being dumped daily, landfill sites fill up soon and new sites have to be created which occupies space that can otherwise be put to better use, besides the other dangers to environment and human beings. The gases emitted during the decomposition process are harmful to human health.

To reduce the amount of waste produced each one of us has to play his/her role and practise the three Rs of environment, which are, ‘reduce’, ‘reuse’ and ‘recycle’.

Reduce

The first rule is to reduce the amount of waste produced. The best way to do this is to buy only what is necessary; you can share things which you would not be using frequently and are not for very personal use. Also buy things that are durable so that they last longer.

Avoid food wastage. Fill your plate with only what you can eat, as the rest goes to the waste bin, especially at restaurants.

Avoid using disposable items like paper plates, glasses, etc.

Another way to reduce waste is to buy products which do not use a lot of packaging as packaging material constitutes the bulk of waste.

Some people are in the habit of printing all that they have to read; when the material is available on the net and can be saved for future reading, it is no use taking a printout and then throwing it away. So take prints of only what you absolutely need.

Some people consider writing on both sides of the paper as being thrifty, which is definitely not the case, it is rather a wise thing do to, as is using small pieces of paper to write short notes or phone numbers. This not only reduces waste but also saves trees (remember paper is made from trees).

A compost bin is another way to reduce waste. If you have some open space at the back of the house you can place a large bin wherein you can dispose of fruit and vegetable peels as well as dried fallen leaves and grass, and plant trimmings, etc.

Over time these materials will break down as a result of natural decomposition process.

Just remember to keep it tightly closed so it does not release bad odour. This compost can be used in place of fertiliser in your garden, thus serving two purposes: reducing waste to go to the landfill and reducing the need to buy soil/manure.

Reuse

The second rule is reuse that is instead of throwing things away we try to find ways to use them again. For instance, while going shopping, take a cloth bag to carry your shopping instead of plastic or paper bag; cloth bags can be used again and again. Also, use ceramic or plastic plates and silverware instead of disposable utensils.

Rather than buying disposable bottles and cans of cold drink you can buy glass bottles that need to be returned so they can be reused.

Before throwing away your broken and old toys, see if they can be repaired and used further. If you do not want them, give them to someone who can use them along with your old clothes that you have outgrown; there are many children who cannot afford to buy new toys and clothes, they would be happy to receive your old ones. And you do good to both the environment and to these children.

Shoe boxes, various types of containers like bottles and jars can be reused to make pencil holders, home-made plant pots and other similar craft items.

There are so many other ways, like sharing things such as books and DVDs with friends, and getting kitchen and electronic appliances repaired and getting your computer upgraded instead of buying a new one. You can think of many more.

Recycle

Environmentalists say that in order to reduce waste it is best to recycle as much as possible and buy recycled products to support recycling. Many of the things that we use every day, like paper, cardboard, plastics, cartons, glass and metal cans can be recycled.

Recycling process makes these items usable once again like new ones. In developed countries, even things such as old computers, television, old appliances and tires are recycled.

While in Pakistan, these items are collected by garbage collectors who later send it to recycling units, in some places around the world the recyclables can be left in bins outside the home from where a truck comes and collects them on regular basis.

In some other places, there are recycling centres where you can drop off the material you have collected for recycling.

It is a good habit to separate recyclable material before putting waste in the garbage bin and give them away in a separate bag.

In addition to sending things for recycling, you can also promote buying products made of recycled material. Nowadays many products are available, like some brands of paper towels, garbage bags, greeting cards and toilet paper that are made of recycled material.

Not only does it reduce waste and keep items out of the landfill, recycling conserves natural resources. For example, making newspaper out of old paper saves a valuable natural resource — trees.

If you faithfully follow these three ‘R’s of environments from a young age, you will realise that you will grow up saving yourself a lot of money as well as the environment.