It's very tempting to throw things away or even drop them in a recycling bin when we are done with them. Is there a better way?
Share your ideas for extending the “lives” of the items that we buy and use, and their packaging as well!
Reuse & Repurpose
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Fast Fashion. This has become a term everyone has become familiar with. Over the last couple of years, fast fashion has made its presence known. The fashion industry itself is known to be responsible for almost 10% of our global emissions. Fast fashion produces massive amounts of clothing that are more affordable and more efficient to produce. These industries jump on latest trends to draw in large crowds. However, even though this sounds extremely convenient, fast fashion has made numerous detrimental effects on the environment. Clothing requires unimaginable amounts of oil, space, chemicals and water to produce. According to BBC, it is estimated that it takes 2,700 litres of water to produce ONE t-shirt! Unbelievable right?! Over the years, globally, clothing has made a huge impact on our own personal carbon footprints. To combat this issue, we have to make the choice of supporting more sustainable brands. We should also be willing to reuse and repurpose our materials. Every single action of ours, impacts someone or something else in one way or another. It’s important that we are aware of the results of our actions. By dressing green, we can save green!
I agree. Fast fashion has been a problem. One thing you can do is to stop going to fast fashion places and start thrifting. thrifting is a good way to stop buying fast fashion. When you thrift the clothes are generally cheaper and could be better quality and also decreases your carbon footprint. It's also a good way to reuse and repurpose clothing that were once used.
Did you know that 19 precent of Canadian households drink primarily bottled water. This just shows that there are still so many people that don't use a water bottle. It us very important to use a water bottle because it prevents us from using so much unnecessary plastic. it is also way cheeper to use a water bottle instead of buying bottles water because if you have a water bottle you can just refill it but if you buy bottled water than you have to buy it every time you need water. You can also just refill the bottle of water you buy and keep refilling it instead of getting a new one every time. This is why you should just buy a reusable water bottle because it will save you money, time and help the environment.
Reusing things are really important like going to the grocery store and buying new bags for ur grocery's but instead u can use reusable bags and bring them from home. By doing that your saving urself money and being eco friendly. Ur also cutting down the waste of the extra plastic bags your buying that is goanna end up in the landfill or ocean. Also fixing up t-shirts like sewing ones with holes or rips in them and if ur clothes get smaller donate them.
In our society, lots of new things are being made cheap and quickly every second of the day. They are made out of plastic, being imported into wealthier countries, and they don't tend to last. Instead of participating in fast fashion, people should try going to thrift stores and buying used clothes or items. Thrifting is also typically much cheaper than buying brand new items. You may even find products which are made with higher quality fabrics. If you grow out of your clothes you should donate them to thrift stores, reuse the fabric for something else, or try making a Tshirt no sew reusable bag.
I know a lot of people now buy new bags whenever they go grocery shopping and always get new plastic boxes when getting takeout for food. Although what happens to all those bags and boxes once you are finished with them? Most are just throw in the trash and forgotten about which causes more carbon and methane into our atmosphere. So start reusing your bags and boxes instead of getting new ones everytime you go out to eat or go shopping.
From the article “ Introduction: Reuse, Recycle, and Repurpose: The Afterlives of Japanese Material Culture” by Halle O’Neal the action of reuse and repurpose is focused and explained.
As defined within the article, “To reuse, recycle, or repurpose an object often necessitates repairing that object so that its usefulness can continue.” By completing the action of repurposing an object this will help allow in a decrease of trash buildup. Not only does it help with decreasing waste but the reuse aspect allows for that object to continue to be useful in a variety of ways.
I really like this idea, not only does it cut down on waste but it could potentially give the item a new home and purpose.
A lot of people may think that repurposing and recycling is limited to just plastics, however this is not the case. The article https://www.almanac.com/upcycling-ideas … -repurpose gives a variety of ideas in order to repurpose everyday items such as, rubber bands, toilet paper cardboard, and even toothbrushes. I believe that if influencers and people who have a big social media presence advertised this more and made repurposing trendier, then it would lead to an overall positive effect on the environment. Think about thrifting, while it has always been around, apps like TikTok and Instagram made it a trend to buy secondhand clothing. This has led to a positive effect on the amount of clothing that makes it to landfills. If influencers advertised that more over fast fashion, it would create such a huge impact on our waste.
The number of plastic we use is an insane number.In my opinion we shouldn't throw it away immediately,but use it as much as we can and recycle it.
Thank you so much and I completely agree with everything that you said! There is so much overproduction and overuse of plastic especially with water bottles and then they just end up in landfills or in the oceans. I think that with this issue there are many answers to this problem. One solution could be to buy water bottles that are reusable and are not made out of plastic. This has been a new trend, especially in the United States through Stanley and Hydroflask water bottles where people have these on them at all times. Another solution that I practice at home is by rinsing out all plastic bottles and then use them to propagate plants. I take the bottles and cut them to the desired size and height and then fill them with water and put the plants in them. Not only do I do this but I also went to go have lunch one day and saw a business putting plants and avocado seeds in plastic bottles to propagate them. Plastic and bottles are so multifunctional and if we just stop to think about the different purposes we can come up with great ideas and unique ways to help save our planet. If we can just start reusing little by little we can continue to get plastic out of Mother Nature. Thank you and have a great rest of your day!
It is very important to be aware of Your impact on the Earth, which includes the products you buy and use. However, it is just as important to be aware of how you can reuse those same products so you can reduce your carbon footprint as well. For example, you can reuse plastic containers that came with food when you bought it for future usage. It's also just as important to help bring awareness to others on how they can be more earth friendly like putting up posters on public areas about where and how to properly recycle.
I agree that the usage of plastic in everyday life has reached an extremely high number. In addition to this, the act of using “one time use” plastic items like plastic water bottles or plastic bags at grocery stores feels so normal as so many people do it in their everyday lives without concern of the harm it does to the environment. Overall, I agree that the usage of plastic is not good and instead people should seek an alternative like a metal water bottle or a reusable bag for groceries.
Recycling and reusing are important strategies for reducing waste and conserving resources, which benefits our environment. By recycling materials like paper, plastic, and glass, we reduce the need for new materials, which helps lower energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Reusing items, whether it’s repurposing containers or donating clothes, extends the life cycle of products and minimizes landfill waste. We can help by including these practices into our daily lives—setting up a home recycling system, buying secondhand items, By making small, conscious choices, we can collectively make a positive impact on the planet and promote a more sustainable future. This link will take you to a clothing website that uses used clothes and re purposes them into cute vintage clothing.
Recycling isn't hard at all. I think an easy way to start off recycling is to buy a recycling bin and sort out all the trash that you have into groups of whatever can be recycled and that's the basics of recycling. If you really want to be environmentally friendly you could volunteer for recycling programs to help out around your area and around other places as well.
I agree with you.It helps reduce waste. Like, we produce so much trash every day,and recycling means that we’re giving materials a second chance instead of just tossing them in a landfill.That’s way better for the environment! Plus, recycling saves energy. When we recycle things like paper and plastic, it takes way less energy to turn them into new products than it does to create those products from scratch.
One thing I can do to better help the environment is reducing the use of single use plastic products. This can be plastic water bottles, straws, and even the wrapping of packages that products come in. There is a saying that goes reduce, reuse, and THEN recycle. It is firstly important to reduce the use of single use plastics. I found that having a water bottle that isn't made of single use plastic is a good way to reduce the amount of single use plastic I use. One of the ways I reuse plastic is through takeout containers. We have a Vietnamese restaurant that serves takeout food in plastic containers. Instead of throwing them out, we have started using them to store leftovers when we eat.
My mom does this a lot and I do too because those containers are good when you have a lunch box and want something to put food in and most of all it's free who would want to miss out on that?
I learned that old makeup packaging makes up 120 million units of thrash and when I found that I wanted to see what I could do to keep that from happening. So, most of my makeup packages I would reuse for other things which is to hold other things and the ones I couldn't reuse I would do the Sephora and they have a bin where you could recycle makeup packaging.