The 7 R’s of Waste Management for Greater Sustainability
The 7 R’s of Waste Management was originally the 3 R’s which focused on reducing, reusing, and recycling. Depending on where you read, the 4 R’s added to this are either rethinking, refusing, regifting, repairing, rotting, or repurposing.
Honestly, it really doesn’t matter. This is just a way of helping people remember what they can do to impact climate change.
The world generates 400 million tons of plastic waste a year. So here’s a list of R’s to keep in mind to help you make a difference for the planet.
Rethink
The average person just doesn’t think about waste management. They’re more concerned about paying bills and enjoying their life. But if we can get people to rethink of waste management as something they can do to reduce bills and enjoy life more while helping the planet, more people will do it.
Corporations, for the most part, focus on making a profit. Producing products to last longer and be easily repairable means replacements won’t be bought. Less replacements bought means less of a profit.
Governments could create financial incentives for companies that choose to meet a standard of product creation that reduces waste. But enough people would have to demand it or lobby for it. Otherwise, companies aren’t going to do something that goes against their bottom line, which, in a sense, you really can’t blame them.
Refuse
Two ways this principle has been explained is that one should choose not to constantly buy things and also should only buy things that follows zero waste. Minimalism is a movement that’s risen in recent years which highlighted this kind of simplistic way of living.
When you think about it, you can’t throw away something you don’t have. The less items you own, the less waste you’ll create. But we live in a mindset of FOMO often that we get things so we don’t miss the opportunity to benefit from something that we end up only using once.
While zero waste is an ideal concept to reduce plastic waste, there are just not enough people who are going to go to those lengths to do that. The responsibility should be more focused on the corporations changing than the people. If all corporations stopped using plastic and switched to using eco-friendly materials, waste could reduce a lot in a short period of time.
Reduce
We can reduce waste in a variety of ways. Choose to borrow things from someone rather than buy it.
Utilize eco-friendly items such as reusable shopping bags. Just brainstorm different ways you can reduce your eco-footprint, your waste output, and your consumption.
Reuse and Repurpose
All of these R’s basically reiterate each other, so forgive the repetitiveness. But by putting the focus on reusing, this is one way you can tie sustainability to finances.
The more consumers reuse, the less they have to buy. The same can be the case for corporations as well. More ways they can add reusing to their business model can reduce overall costs and increase overall profit.
Repair
While it’s a good principle, most people are probably not interested in repairing things. It’s the idea that we tend to go for the easiest choice or solution. It’s easier to buy a new item than to repair it.
Still, getting the idea of saving money into people’s heads can motivate them to want to repair things more than buy replacements. Of course corporations would rather we buy replacements than repair existing items.
Regift
Regifting is something people can think of in a selfish way to benefit themselves. The reciprocation principle is the idea that people are more likely to give something back to us if we give something to them first. By regifting something to someone, you’re helping reduce waste and you’re giving yourself the opportunity to get something out of someone.
Recycle
Adults taught just about all of us on this growing up. Recycle to reduce waste and help save the planet. Corporations tend to applaud themselves for doing this bare minimum act of helping with climate change.
But a study from the University of Leeds found that recycling ranked as the least effective thing to do to limit global warming. In actuality, it was found that using renewable electricity was the most effective thing to do to help the planet. The real questions consumers should be asking corporations is not how much they recycle, but how much renewable energy they use.
Another interesting thing that came out of this research is what was the most effective thing to avoid to limit climate change. Less paper was least effective, and living car free was most effective.
Bonus R: Rot
Rotting, also known as composting, focuses on recycling food waste into your soil. It helps to reduce food waste and methane emissions, and it also improves your plant growth and reduces erosion.
It’s an R that most people might not be aware of, so we need to educate people more to understand the importance of this. But it’s probably one of the simplest R’s that people and corporations can do.
What R is most likely to make a difference?
The R that’s most likely to make any difference is rethinking. There’s not enough thought given to how you can make people want to do things. Those that try only use arguments that preach to their own choir.
You have to think about people’s primary motivations and tie them to sustainability in some way. As much as it would be nice if people cared about the planet as much as you do, the truth is, they don’t.
People care about their financial independence, their freedom to do whatever they want, the least path of resistance in any choices they make, and their personal happiness. It’s that simple.
Make it worthwhile for people and corporations to want to be more eco-friendly and maybe they will. But this impending doom of the potential destruction of the planet is a fear most people don’t see as a real threat in their lives. At least not as much as going broke or never accomplishing what we want out of life.
Check this out:
I was recently featured as an expert in a Redfin article. You can read the full article here: Home Interior Design Trends for 2025: What’s In, What’s Out | ApartmentGuide | Rent
