When I was growing up Reduce, Reuse, Recycle was the manta that was all over mainstream media. Today, I never hear it anymore, it’s only about recycling.

I always thought Reduce, Reuse, Recycle was the correct order.

Reducing consumption is the best thing you can do, because things don’t need to be made in the first place.

Reuse means something else you may have otherwise bought doesn’t need to get made, which is another big win. I remember my grandpa’s shop growing up was full of old glass baby food jars to organize all his screws and things. Today someone would probably buy a plastic organizer and throw out the plastic baby food containers.

Recycle… something is still getting made. Some of the raw materials might be reused in the process, but it’s questionable how much, and how efficient the whole process is.

From what I’ve read, recycling program and push was paid for by the plastics industry. The hidden agenda was to get the public comfortable with single-use plastics, with the idea that they could be recycled, so it was no big deal. It seems they were amazingly successful in this effort to deceive the public.