What Are the 3 R’s?

Published on June 26, 2014 by GirlieGirlArmy   ·   6 Comments

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In the second installment of my 34 video series for About.com I explain the 3 R’s.  It’s likely you’ve heard this term thrown around – but do you really know what it means? No worries, I’ll explain in layman’s terms in a few minutes, plus dole out a few tips on eco-saving! Remember, I don’t edit these videos, About.com’s able team does – but you can trust that I babbled on and on with all sorts of details. Fortunately for you, About.com is committed to keeping these vids under 5 minutes everytime to keep them digestible and watchable.

If you’re at work and can’t watch the video, the transcript is available below the video;

You’ve heard a lot about the three R’s; that’s one of the main tenants of green living: reduce, reuse, recycle. It’s simple, and I’m going to show you exactly what it means.

The first thing is reduce. Do you really need 800 lipsticks in your cabinet? Maybe you think you do, but you really don’t. A great thing to use is all in one products that cover a lot of turf with one bottle. There are plenty nowadays. You can also buy less. How? You ask me. You still love clothes, so do I. Have clothing swaps with your girlfriends where you swap out clothes at the end of seasons, or whenever you’ve had enough of what’s in your wardrobe. It’s great clothes for you, and less waste for the planet. It’s a win/win situation. I even do it with my kid’s clothes, with books, with pots and pans, you can really do it with anything.

It’s an amazing wealth of opportunity of ways you can reduce what you bring into your house. Also by using things that are what? Reusable, that’s right. Things like Klean Kanteen, dump the water bottle. It’s a simple step. Reusable plates like bamboo forks and knives, these are great to use for parties, but also permanently. They all come with little containers, so you can bring them to work with you if you wanted to. There are endless opportunities for reusables. I’m also a huge fan of glass straws which are unreal for kids, and also they really take up a lot less space than you think they would. Glass straw, hemp sleeve, boom, done. Reducing is simple.

Reusing is also simple. All of these things can be reused, but also things you wouldn’t necessarily think that could be reused like, what? A box, right; everybody has a box in their house that they get sent products in,
but usually people toss them in the recycling bin and then you buy another one when you need one. Save them, reuse them, everything is recyclable from your electronics, to glasses, to teddy bears, even your underwear. There’s nothing in your house that you have to throw in the garbage to sit in a landfill for hundreds of years. That’s ridiculous, and we can do better.

Starting with your electronics, my Kindle broke, what am I going to do? Well, it’s not garbage. There’s all these amazing websites which will buy your electronics back from you and pay you pretty competitive rates. You
also don’t always need the newest phone, or the newest flat screen TV. You can do with what you have and upgrade when it’s time, but always responsibly get rid of your electronics because there’s a place for them just like glasses. You can donate your glasses. You can donate old sheets and towels to animal shelters where they use them as bedding for pets in need. There’s absolutely no reason to throw anything out.

The final tip is recycling. Use you buying power when it comes to recycling. Absolutely everything you buy you can buy recycled versions of. My toothbrushes come from a plant that uses recycled fibers. My shoes are made from recycled PET, which is a safe plastic that’s been recycled into fiber. There’s nothing that you can’t buy. Use your buying power. Even if you have to spend a few more dollars; it’s worth it in the long run because what you’re contributing to is you’re investing in new technologies. You’re investing in a future for your children and grandchildren.

HOST: Chloé Jo Davis

SPECIAL THANKS TO THE STYLISTS OF GLAMSQUAD / Wardrobe by Daniel Silverstein

Reusable water bottle by EcoVessel / Glass Straw & Hemp Sleeve by Glass Dharma

The series was created exclusively for About.com, but you’ll be seeing it on GirlieGirlArmy.com as well. This is the first lifestyle series for About.com with an eco-friendly focus and they are “overjoyed” to be affiliated with GirlieGirl Army. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve heard of and visited About.com. About is the premiere resource for expert driven content on the internet and is one of the most established tech companies in the online publishing industry. About is 17 years old and has more than 86 million users each month accessing information on a wide range of topics, from parenting and technology to healthcare and cooking and more!

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Tags: about, about.com, Chloe Jo, Chloe Jo Berman, chloe jo davis, daniel silverstein, eco living, eco vessel, glamsquad, glass dharma, glass straws, green lifestyle, Green Living, recycle, reduce, reuse, Vegan Living, What Are the 3 R's?

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