Reduce, reuse, and recycle; these are three words that all of us have likely heard at some point in our lives, yet probably have not considered the meaning behind them all that much. Although recycling can be very beneficial, it is still very costly and ultimately, reusing and reducing are the two most environmentally-friendly ways to reduce our usage of natural resources that are so limited on our planet. By reducing and reusing the materials that we use, this helps us to cut back on wastes that need to be buried into landfills which leads to pollution, save energy, and help maintain a cleaner Earth for generations to come. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)(http://www2.epa.gov/recycle/reducing-and-reusing-basics), there are some very basic actions that we can take to help reduce the amount of waste we produce by limiting the amount we dispose of, yet increasing our amount of reusing. Some of these possible actions we can take in our daily lives are looking for reused materials when we buy them or objects that have been made from recycled materials.  Another great way of reducing our personal cost and waste usage is by purchasing items with less packaging. This greatly reduces the amount of raw materials that we must use (often times these resources are non-renewable), which greatly helps to preserve our environment and resources for future generations. These little steps, things that may seem so trivial and inconsequential at the moment, can truly make a huge difference in the amount of waste we output.

Chris, I really like how you acknowledge that recycling has some major benefits, but it also has some major drawbacks. Recycling can be quite time consuming and expensive and I agree that reuse is simply the way to go. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/04/opini … .html?_r=0 This article in the NY Times states some of the potential drawbacks of recycling.