Lots of us have been recycling, more or less, for a good many years, because we knew it was generally good for the environment or saved our town the money it took to haul more garbage to SEMASS and pay to have it incinerated. We give them money to have them concert carbon-containing wastes into greenhouse gases, largely noxious ashes, and other solid residues (some of which like metals, to be fair, they do recycle.) But did you ever reflect on how important incinerating less is in the effort to control climate change? Well, by and large, it takes less energy to melt down and reprocess metals and glass than to dig up the raw materials, transfer them - often from remote places, and extract what we want out of them from scratch. There are similar savings from recycling other materials, like making cardboard boxes out of waste paper.

But we should not lose sight of the other two R’s: Reduce and Reuse! When we reduce the amount of stuff we buy, we save not only whatever energy it took to dispose of it after use, but more that went into supplying and processing the raw materials, packaging, shipping to retailers, displaying and selling it there, and transporting it to our homes. In short, all the environmental advantages of recycling plus a good deal more! Reusing was a good old New England tradition well worth continuing, which silently reduces spending money on more things, also. There are several ways (see below) besides simply making do with what you have until it’s really worn out.

The last set of tips focused on energy-saving ways to change some of our indoors behaviors.

This time we’ll save money and energy via the 3 R's

Reduce

1. Try voluntary simplicity: Opt out of the culture of endless buying, mainly for the benefit of big corporations. Find more gratifications in non-material ways, like cultivating relationships with people. Think twice before buying more stuff: Do I really need it? Is there room for it in my quarters? If it’s a gift, couldn’t I make the recipient just as happy by something non-material, like a ticket to a concert or sports event? In the future world of ever-increasing climate crises and disasters, people who live in small, self-sufficient communities will have a better chance to survive than big-city dwellers.

Reuse

1. Use your ingenuity to find ways to repair and reuse things, and find new uses for old ones.

2. Give still-usable things to friends/relatives, thrift shops and other charities, Swap Shops, Freecycle.

3. Sell them at a yard sale, or on eBay, Craigslist, etc.

4. Give used books to the public library (or other charity) for book sales, or take them to the Swap Shop. Beat-up, no longer readable ones (or never, like some old school books): tear off and junk the cover, put the pages into waste paper recycling.

5. Buy used goods, where appropriate, from just-mentioned sources or get them free from Swap Shops.

Recycle

1. Recycle as much as you can. Take full advantage of our local recycling center—find out all the things accepted for recycling. Many people don’t go beyond the obvious (paper, plastics, cans, and bottles.) Many other discards may be recycled! Truro, like a lot of towns and more than most, recycles auto tires and rims, big metal parts, antifreeze, engine oil, lead-acid batteries; other batteries of most types large and small; all sorts of (unusable) books, phone books, magazines, catalogues, anything else clean that’s made of paper, such as junk mail, pasteboard or cardboard; fluorescent lights (compact and tubes;) other things containing mercury: switches, instruments, thermometers; “white goods”—major appliances like refrigerators, washers, dryers, ranges; metal scrap of all sizes from nails to empty tanks, things made of aluminum, copper, lead, bronze and other alloys, as well as iron/steel/tin; TVs, computers, monitors, cell phones, and other electronic gadgets; old CDs and DVDs. (There is a charge for some big items.) According to the US EPA, every year “The current national recycling efforts reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50.8 million metric tons carbon-dioxide equivalent (this is equivalent to the annual GHG emissions from 40.3 million cars.”) Recycling is a big way you can do something about global warming.

2. Furniture, except upholstered; appliances ,except dishwashers; electric, plumbing and lighting fixtures; and surplus new building materials may be reused by donating them (see http://habitatcapecod.org/how-to-donate/).

3. Recycle, don’t discard, outdated computers, cell phones, TVs and other electronic equipment. If they still work, donate them to charities.

4. Don’t discard deposit used beverage containers. They are collected at our recycling center to help charities or public institutions, or you can hand them in at supermarkets for the money. The bottles and cans get reused or recycled.

5. Buy products with recycled content; use salvaged materials when possible.

6. Take your own reusable bag when shopping. Both plastic and paper bags supplied by merchants waste enormous amounts of energy and other resources unnecessarily, as well as contributing to environmental pollution.

7. Avoid products with excessive packaging, and you reduce the amount of trash you need to recycle or throw away by 10 percent. Buy products in bulk, avoid over-packaged items, or purchase items with recyclable packaging. Estimated annual CO2 savings: 1,200 pounds.