In my opinion, reuse and repurpose is really important during our life. We could reuse the paper and zip- top can. It is a bad habit when we throw things away because it will hurt the environment and produce lots of rubbish, so we should drop them in a recycling bin.

Hi!
I agree with you. Few days ago I did a research, and I found out that the recycling can make a lot of difference.
For example: for each recycled kg of plastic, 1.5 kg of CO2 is produced in less , compared to the CO2 produced to produce a new bottle.
Recycling an aluminium tin saves 90 % of the energy necessary to produce new tins: - 9 kg of emissions of CO2 to the kg of aluminium!
For each kg of recycled glass, 300 gr of CO2 are produced in less and for each kg of recycled paper, rather than to be thrown in the refusals, they are avoided 900gr of emissions of CO2, apart from methane emissions.
A glass that is produced from recycled glass instead of raw materials can reduce related air pollution by 20%, and water pollution by 50%.(http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/v … -facts.php)
To pollute less, everyone should use cloth bags instead of plastig bags. This one are disposable, and pollute more than cloth bags. Furthermore, the most part of plastic (for example plastic bags or plastic bottles) is thrown in the sea. Because of this plastic in the sea,  many animals die, because they eat it. Sometimes  this plastic damages them. Around 80 percent of marine litter originates on land!        ( http://www.nrdc.org/oceans/plastic-ocean/)
I found out also that each ton of recycled paper saves 17 trees.
To produce less CO2, it would be necessary to do the recycling collection, because to dispose of the trash, we produce tons of CO2, while with recycling collection, the paper or the plastic are reused, and we produce less CO2.

Reusing and repurposing various objects that you would throw out is a great idea and very sustainable. But after doing this for a while wouldn't your house get really cluttered?

Everybody knows that our environment today is endangered, but very few people want to know why and how to cope with this problem. Various forms of pollution are happening due to some careless human actions. Littering is one of them. It can lead to water and air pollution, land and soil pollution, and to many other unwanted effects.  garbage has become a serious environmental issue nowadays. Of course, the majority of normal people know that littering is a negative thing. However, there are still lots of careless people who continue scattering their trash around.                                                   
Most effective way to get rid of waste - waste recycling. Recycling of waste - it is their secondary processing. When disposing of the products carefully are processed, cleaned and are shredded. Only after such a multi-stage work of them do, new consumer products.
If we can learn to recycle all our garbage, then we will preserve the beauty of our planet

Reusing and repurposing various resources helps contribute to being one step closer to lessening Co2 emissions and greenhouse gases. Reusing a product for its same process like drinking from the same water bottle multiple times means there will be less products to create and cause greenhouse gases from. Repurposing a product for a different use also helps too just as much. Reusing and repurposing goods will take away all the energy used for production of new goods (according to www3.epa.gov/climatechange). This way, you will save all the energy that would be used if you just help out with little things. Reusing and repurposing will help our world and its harmed habitats be brought back to normal, when less energy is used. The decrease in greenhouse gases will allow opportunities to live where the climate change is not drastic and away from the catastrophes of the effects of that. People would benefit from having less health issues, avoiding premature death because of global warming and extra Co2 in the air, and the economy will face greater wealth that could be used to f urther help with this project. The world will profit from reusing and repurposing.
The process of producing a new good contributes a lot to greenhouse gases. When a good is made, fossil fuels are burned to provide energy for it to be able to be harvested, transported, and processed. Extracting and processing raw materials contribute to more global warming. Manufacturing these resources is also unhealthy for the environment as making a product takes up a lot of energy. Next, using cars/trucks/planes for distribution burns the most gas and fuel you could imagine. Distribution is also done to many different location, and the more goods to distribute, the more greenhouse gases are released. After, goods such as appliances are used for energy too. Last, if we don’t manage our stuff we will just give in to a bad environment.

In stead of throwing or recycling everything we can try to reuse them.  For example water bottles, we can plant food or plants in them and or clothes we can make them into new or different clothes or give them to others.

I agree that we should reuse a lot of stuff instead of throwing it out.

It is important to reuse our stuff because that's the best way to reduce pollution. If we star reusing the think that can be used again, the production of stuff will be reduced and with that the pollution will do the same. We'll be eliminating the excess of garbage. Also, I think is really important that if we're done using something, it isn't a hard work to put it where it belongs, so why we don't do that?

One way I can help the environment by reusing and giving something a purpose is by using my own water bottle. Instead of buying plastic water bottles at the store I can reuse my water bottle for anytime I drinking something. Statistics show that Americans throw away over 35 billion plastic bottles a year. I am grateful enough to go to a school like Bishop O’Dowd where they take the time to recycle and make sure that we put all of our trash in the correct bin and making sure that we are all knowledgeable about what goes on in the world when dealing with this topic.

http://www.ecowatch.com/22-facts-about- … 85971.html

I didn't know how high the numbers were for how many plastic waterbottles are thrown away each year! I remember using a lot of plastic bottles as a little kid but as I became more aware of how much they affected the environment, I decided to buy a reusable one. I think that even a small change like this is extremely useful in helping achieve a better environment because if everyone makes this small adjustment in their lives a creates a huge effect in how we impact the world.

In my community in Oakland, California we have a strong system of recycling. The city will recycle green waste, glass, paper, and many plastics. The city could still expand the program more to include a wider range of plastics. In my household, while we recycle a lot we need to do much more to reduce the amount of trash we have. Such as not buying items that contain excessive non-recyclable packaging. We should also reuse more of our materials. Some interesting examples of reuse in my community are a local artist/art teacher who repurposes a lot of items like bottle caps and old tiles in her art. She also runs art camps in which people create art out of repurposed items. There are also a number of gardens in my community that have incorporated used items into them. For example, using old paint cans as pots for plants to grow. Ultimately, the more we can increase recycling and reuse will make our planet better.

I totally agree, plastic bottles are an unnecessary luxury. Americans especially are super wasteful when it comes to plastic. The source I found gave an even higher number of the plastic bottles water per year, according to banthebottle.net,“Americans used about 50 billion plastic water bottles last year”. There's such a simple solution to this probelm, bringing a reusable water bottle. This saves you money and saves the Earth. Also just buying less drinks in general can make a big difference. Instead of buying a soda in a wasteful bottle, just drink water. It’s cheaper and healthier anyways.

I agree with you on this issue as well. I think that the number of bottles thrown away each year hurts our environment everyday. I too bring my reusable water bottle everyday to school, and try to limit the amount of plastic bottle I buy a year. Plastic takes 700 years to fully decompose in our landfills, so these bottles that will be here for longer than many human lifetimes. Also only 1 out of 5 of these bottles are put into the recycling bin, they rest are put into the trash or littered. We should encourage recycling as well as using reusable water bottles to limit the amount of waste we put into this earth.
https://thewaterproject.org/bottled-wat … r_wasteful

There are a few small things that could make a big difference in our amount of waste that humans produce. First of all, reusable water bottles! Reusable water bottles are not very expensive, and can be used for many years, rather then buying and then throwing out plastic water bottles. Another small thing is buying glass containers for food. Using and throwing out plastic bags is really bad for the environment, and again, glass containers can be used for many years. Finally, bringing fabric bags when you go shopping, rather then taking paper or plastic bags and throwing them out. All of these things can help reduce out amount of plastic waste.

It saves a lot of energy when you shop at thrift shops to get stuff.  Instead of buying a new product and creating more waste, you're reusing something that was already used.  Also, even though plastic water bottles are recyclable, a lot of them can only be recycled once before they become non-recyclable plastic.  Try to get a reusable water bottle and fill it up whenever you need water, that way, less waste will be put into the environment, and if you already use a plastic disposable water bottle, try reusing it until it gets really messed up.  And with glass containers, you can easily reuse them to be containers to hold other stuff, that way, they don't get wasted.  Just some ideas to help reuse.

These are really good things we can do to help reduce our carbon footprint. I think if everyone made small changes like these, it could really make a difference. Good ideas!

It really does save a lot of energy because that is less clothes than people have to make. I think that people don't realize how little you can do and still make a huge change.

Although it's great to buy something brand new, it may be even better to reuse an item that will result in a greater outcome in the long run.  For example, if I decide to buy a bottled water every day to accompany my lunch then I will be costing myself way more than if I were to use a plastic or glass water bottle that is reusable. I would most likely only have to pay once for this reusable water bottle and (with washing it out after a number of uses) would most likely cost myself less because I'm reusing an item and saving myself money.

I agree with you because in order to sustain our planet, we are going to need to reuse the materials we already made and make them for a different use. We can do this by recycling our bottles, plastics, cans, food, clothes and anything biodegradable. Then after this we can find things to repurpose it for. In 2014, in the US generated about 258 million tons of MSW. Over 89 million tons of MSW were recycled and composted which is equivalent to an overall 34.6 percent recycling rate. I think it's a great idea to buy a reusable water bottle instead of a non-reusable water bottle because like you said it will cost less the more times you use it and it will help our environment by not contributing harmful plastic to the Earth. I am trying to help the environment by reusing plastic water bottles and refilling them, so I can get more than one use out of them.

I completely agree with you, Sofia. It's great nowadays that in our American society it is easy to get reusable items. If you go to your local store, you can easily find a reusable water bottle, lunch box, or other reusable items. These items would have the potential to save numerous non-reusable items that would just be thrown in the trash later and put in a landfill. Taj, it's amazing how much municipal solid waste we can produce. However, it's also very good how we are recycling more MSW; our recycling percentages of MSW have dramatically increased from 6.4% to 34.6%, (https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/fi … ge2014.jpg) and that number will continue to increase if more people buy reusable items.

I agree with you. In my opinion, it is great to reuse things. But it is also great to buy new things. But with buying new things you are probably going to use it once and it will kind of be a waste of your money. With reusing things, you will be able to save a lot of money. In my experience, I have found buying a reusable water better than just buying plastic water bottles that will last me one day. In order to keep our environment safe, we should learn to reuse things. I found this article that talks about reusing everyday items that would help and that it saves energy,  ( https://www.clearancesolutionsltd.co.uk … g-reusing/ )We should all read this and become better at reusing things.

I think that if everyone stopped drinking out of plastic water bottles that you get from the store and use reusable water bottles then companies would stop producing as many plastic throwaway bottles. And if people do buy the throwaway bottles than you can reuse them multiple times before throwing them away.

I agree that using reusable bottles would be an important step in reducing the amount of plastic that is wasted each year. Americans used approximately 50 billion plastic bottles last year, but the rate for recycling plastic in the United States is only about 23%, leaving around 38 billion plastic bottles to be wasted. If everyone used reusable metal or plastic bottles, than this problem would go away. However, like you said, a lot of drinks and sodas are in throwaway plastic bottles and completely preventing companies from using plastic as a cheap material would by difficult, so reusing throwaway bottles as much as possible would help.

I agree that we use too much plastic. It is a terrible pollutant for the Earth, and the materials made to make it are just as bad. We need to start reusing throwaway water bottles, or even better, use a reusable one that can be cleaned. This could reduce the amount of waste we use, and would force water bottle companies to make more efficient, reusable bottles.