Reduce, reuse, and recycle. These are the three r's we were all taught about in elementary school. What is their importance and what on earth do they have to do with carbon footprints? The three r's are essential to the goal of lowering carbon footprints and while many people know about these three r's, not many people make an effort to incorporate them into their daily lives. When we reuse and recycle, we are actively working to make a difference by trying to work with what has already been manufactured, with reducing, it's more of a preventative step, how can you reduce the amount harmful carbon emitters that you use in your daily life? What are some ways we can think about that can help us lower carbon footprints and use the three r's?

I agree with chlaireasaurusrex response because I also learned the three r's (reduce,reuse, recycle) in elementary school. The three r's will help the entire world if everyone follows the three words attached. The first word reduce is important for us because we can apply this to almost anything we do that requires waste. For example, to reduce excess water waste, we can take shorter showers or turn the running water tap off when we are brushing our teeth. The second word reuse can be applied to our lives not all the time but has a greater positive affect. For example, we don't have to always buy new clothes, we can instead reuse clothes from older siblings or other people in our lives. This will lower our carbon footprint emission to go to a store and lower the carbon emission that is produced from the production of fiber and fabric. Lastly, recycle which can be incorporated with all the r's listed. For example, we can used recycled paper for homework instead of new paper. This can also be a form of reuse as we are taking a recycled paper and reusing it. The three r's are very important and will greatly help the world!

Yes, i agree that the three R's are essential to reducing your carbon footprint. they are simple yet effective, and easy to integrate into your everyday lifestyle. personally, my family tries our best to follow the three R's, we reduce by trying not to buy anything with too much packaging and also using things like water bottles and containers which we can simply wash and use again. we also try to reuse stuff like plastic bags and jars which after we've used them to their extent, we then recycle. i also think its smart that we're taught the three R's in elementary school, cause being taught this at a very young age helps us integrate it into our everyday lifestyle.

I love that we're talking about the big 3 R's of reducing, reusing, and recycling and their importance! When I was working on waste-sorting a few years back, we always added in a fourth for Rot (we usually used it in reference to compost). Later, at a climate conference, a presenter brought up the idea of Refusing, as in refusing to buy into overconsumption and fabricated "needs" in the first place, and I thought it was a great idea. I liked Claire's consideration of the connection between carbon footprints, the three R's, and education. It's also important to note that when we're looking to decrease our carbon footprints using the three R's, we should go in order: first trying to refuse, then reuse, recycle, and lastly let things rot - like Silas was explaining his family did - and to use them in conjunction like Eldrick mentioned. I'm happy this conversation is being had and that we're able to implement what we were taught at a young age in our current everyday lives.