My belief is that, often, people are unaware of what exactly can and cannot be recycled. Because of this, people will throw away items that could easily be recycled, simply because they do not know they can. On the other hand, people will also recycle certain objects they believe can be recycled when, in reality, they cannot. While it’s good people are trying to recycle, putting unsuitable objects into the recycling ends up taking up people’s time and energy to re-separate these items. All of these issues could be remedied by posting more explicitly which objects can and cannot be recycled as well as educating people about what items can and cannot be recycled.

This is another YouTube video from the HappyDancingTurtle channel that contains a very simple explanation on how we can follow the steps of reducing, reusing and recycling. I tend to forget these three steps, and I am a big paper waster. I love to doodle, and I really like to use printer paper. If I mess it a drawing, I throw or recycle the paper. Sometimes I crumple a sheet if I made a small picture on both sides, and I go and get another piece of paper. I realize now that I waste the resources and money of others because of that. Now, I use both sides and only use printer paper when absolutely necessary. I learned how to reduce my consumption, and I reuse sheets of used paper when I want to doodle. After using all that paper, I recycle it when I want to get rid of it. It is amazing that small actions help me to reduce my carbon footprint.

We get so caught up in our routines that we forget that simple actions such as recycling that are disregarded harm our Earth and only home for us and future generations. I found this video on the Discovery Channel’s YouTube channel. It is an animation of the possible effects that not recycling a tin can is harmful to the earth. The video has shows the probable time lapse of a tin can degrading itself over 50 years and how it harms the life of plants and the environment around us. A simple action such as recycling a soda can into its proper location can harm the earth in a matter of years or even as of now.

I think there should be a greater emphasis on conserving resources and recycling here in the United States. In my neighborhood, and in many of my friends’ neighborhoods, there aren’t many places to recycle. The average American gets a new cell phone about every 3-4 years, and some of us don’t have a place nearby to recycle the old phones.
Also, the average American student throws away about 67 pounds of lunch waste a year, according to CHPS news. This is 40,000 pounds total for an average size middle school. Society in America has made it so that it is not a big deal to throw your food in to the garbage can, but in reality, it is a big deal. This fills up landfills, and also, it is just plain wasting. There are many people around the world who don’t even have a small piece of bland bread, but here, the average student sitting at lunch sees at least 10 people who throw away a perfectly good meal. I think schools should make their serving size smaller for hot lunches, and if someone wants more, they can always go back and get it. However, right now, the lunch ladies just give you a certain amount of food and you can’t tell them how much you actually want. This results in students not eating all the food on their plate, since they did not even want that much anyways.

Since I am involved in sports and many extra curricular activities, I find myself going through numerous amounts of water bottles a day. Try as I might, I can never seem to stop using them. They’e always available in vending machines and sold in our cafeteria. I’ve tried using reusable bottles, but could never seem to find one that I absolutely liked. I did some research and found some reviews on eco-friendly, reusable bottles that have been tested and approved to be user and environmentally helpful. Our school is already supplied with water fountains that accommodate for reusable bottles, helping us students save thousands of plastic bottles from landfills. By changing my ways I would not only be choosing a more eco-friendly option, but a simpler one.

Many communities offer recycling programs, but some do not. I know that where I live there is a recycling program and we put our recycling on the curb to picked up. One thing that my city does not do is recycle glass. There are many glass containers that are used in my house and they eventually are thrown away because my community does not pick up glass to recycle. Yes, my family could collect all the glass and take it ourselves to a recycling center, but I admit that this probably will not happen. I can take the responsibilty to either get my family to take glass to the recycling center or to try and get my community to organize a way to recycle glass. I know that the chances of people recycling glass would be much greater if it was as easy as recycling all other products. Another community that should recycle is a school community. Last year my school took away their recycling program because it was no longer able to be picked up. As part of my Beta Club services hours for my school, my friends and I would go around the school and gather recycling from all the offices and classrooms and put them in a teacher or parent car who would then take it to the recycling center. This process was the only way my school was able to keep their recycling program. By doing this, I felt like I took action to benefit the environment.

When one thinks of an ideal city, people may think of the adjectives “pretty”, “beautiful,” or “busy”. Cities like New York, Chicago, or San Francisco might come to mind, if you live in the United States. But what would be an “ideal” city? Must this ideal city be “beautiful”? Imagine a city in which everything is recycled and nothing fulfills its purpose only once, a city where used Coke cans were compressed and used as walls for buildings. Or a city where instead of building up, we built down, making all the things we live in underground. A city where there were recycle bins everywhere there was a trashcan so there would be no cause for “lazy trashing.” A city where everything was powered by either solar energy or water turbines. A city where everything was grown in and underground the city naturally and organically. A city where everyone wore their clothes more than once and continued to wear them until they stopped fitting, not until they went ‘out of style.” A city where people could walk anywhere and everywhere. This ideal city would not be very beautiful, but if every city looked like this one, it would be beautiful compared to those around it. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and beauty doesn’t have one definition. Something that is beautiful today might not be beautiful tomorrow, and something that would not be beautiful today might be beautiful tomorrow. This idea of “ideal city” is ever-changing, and maybe one day this city full of environmentally-wary ideas and people could exist and be considered truly beautiful.

My family and I use plastic water bottles all the time and I bring one to school almost every day and two water bottles to soccer practice. To save our environment I will use an eco-friendly refillable water bottle instead of using a different plastic one every day. My family and I do recycle these water bottles though. We also reuse plastic and paper grocery bags and my mom brings her own grocery bags sometimes too.

For me, I love to carry a refillable water bottle everywhere I go. It’s so convenient and easy and helps our planet. By using a refillable water bottle, this reduces the usage of plastic waters bottles and can save resources. Also, my family recycles so when we do use, let’s say, a water bottle or a can, etc. we will recycle it after so it goes back around and helps our planet grow as a whole.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2009 Americans produced 4.3 lbs of trash per person. The amount of trash we produce affects the environment. It is important the we reduce, reuse, and recycle. This does not only apply to trash, it applys to many things. I realized that the size of my carbon footprint could eaisly be smaller if I would just reduce many things. By reducing the amount of time I spend in the shower, the amount of time I leave the lights on, the amount of new technology I buy, the amount of trash I throw out, and many other things I could help the environment and reduce my carbon footprint. Reducing is not the only thing that I can do to help the environment. Reusing things such as phones that are older but still work well and reusing other things that do not need to be bought new, can also reduce my carbon footprint. Recycling is a simple and easy way to help the environment. At my school it is strongly encouraged that we recycle. There are recycling bins all around the school. Instead of throwing things in the trash where they are then put in a landfill, I can put them in the recycling bin so that they can be used again. Calculating my carbon footprint has helped me to realize that even as an individual person I can still help the environment.