7 R’s Of Waste Management - Steps To Sustainability

Author: Karan Kapoor

We all are consumers! What we purchase and how we dispose off waste can harm the environment. A big of saving the environment is choosing the kind of consumer we are going to be. People concerned about the environment think about the environmental impact of what they purchase and whether they need to buy at all.

3R’s: Reduce; Reuse and Recycle have been in the flow for a long time. In more recent years, they have expanded to become the 7R’s. Rethink, Refuse, Reduce, Repurpose, Reuse, Recycle and Rot! All these 7 concepts are focused on minimizing the waste and taking steps towards sustainability work your way through all of them and you will be well on your way to saving the environment and living a zero-waste life.

  1. Rethink

Every time, you go for shopping to buy new clothes, or gadgets, think do you really need them? Consider going for a second-hand product. This way you will save resources and things from the trash pile.

Instead of buying things from a popular international brand, go for local products. This way, you will help to shorten the supply chain, which decreases transportation energy, use of packaging, and at the same time you support the small entrepreneurs.

  1. Refuse

Refuse is the second element of 7R’s of hierarchy. It can effectively help to minimize waste. Well, refusing waste can take some practice; keep refusing to buy wasteful and non-recyclable products. Making smarter purchasing decisions and setting some standards will make it easier to refuse waste in the first place.

  1. Reduce

Try to reduce the use of harmful, wasteful, and non-recyclable products. When you reduce dependency on these kinds of products, it leads to less waste material ending up in a landfill. Always use the minimum amount required to avoid unnecessary waste.

When you reduce the amount of a consumable that you use will in turn reduce the amount of packaging that you are throwing away. Not all packaging is recyclable, so you need to think smartly.

  1. Repurpose

Finding another use for an item is one way of not needing to dispose that item and have it end in a landfill. There are some products that cannot be refused, reduced, or reused, you can try repurposing them. It needs some creativity, but the possibilities are endless.

You can use old newspapers and other papers for arts and crafts, glass jars for holding food or planting new seeds, coffee mugs for holding pens.