> Of the three Rs drilled into our heads in school—reduce, reuse, recycle—recycling is the only one that most of us regularly practise. This is the most salien

> Of the three Rs drilled into our heads in school—reduce, reuse, recycle—recycling is the only one that most of us regularly practise. This is the most salient point of these discussions, I think. I've found it much easier to reduce and sometimes to reuse. For one, it's just not hard for me to tell myself that 'I don't need that' -- whatever 'that' happens to be at the moment. For another, replacing plastic bottles with reusable containers involves some effort initially, but once you figure it out, it's actually easy. I lived in Seattle when the recycling nazis first started up their garbage patrols. What a waste of effort. Spend the energy on providing accessible and clean drinking fountains or spigots, or spend some influencer money on making reusing stuff cool. Yes, I understand that many consumer products are made in such a way as to shorten their useful life, and there's a lot of economic reasons behind that. So spend some effort on changing that and it will still be more beneficial than fining people for putting their trash in the wrong bin.