Chapter 4

The Three R’s (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle)

Learning Objectives

After studying this chapter, the reader will be able to:

List ways to reduce waste and explain how waste affects our environment
Describe how organic materials decompose
List the advantages of reducing trash and waste from our environment
Discuss the benefits of reducing
List the ways that reusing has on the environment and the economy
Identify ways that can be used to reuse or recycle resources
Explain how to repurpose
Describe how water can be reused as grey water in agriculture
Discuss the use of a closed loop reuse program
List the products that can be reused or recycled by remanufacturing
Identify the three chasing arrows recycling logo and explain the ISO standards for recycling plastics
Describe the quality of Recyclates
List the recycling process from consumer waste to it final product
List the advantages of recycling e-waste
Discuss the benefits of recycling and urban mining

Key Terms

15 Second Rule
Carbon Credit
Closed-Loop Program
Compost
Decibels
E-waste
Greywater
OSHA (Occupational Health & Safety Administration)
Packaging
Plastic Recycling Codes
Reduce
Recycle
Recyclables
Recyclates
Remanufacturing
Repurpose
Reuse
Urban Mining
Three R’s
Waste Reduction (Minimization)

Animations

All animations are in Adobe Flash format. Click link to play. To download, right mouse click on the animation and choose Save Link As and save it to your computer.

Plastic Recycling Codes

Recycling Paper

Recycling Reusing Plastics

Trash Separation

Trash Separation Spectroscopic Sorting