Making Less Waste

I just got an e-mail about a website that facilitates the buying and selling of used wedding goods. For example, you buy forty glass vases to use as centerpieces at your wedding. When it's over, you can't exactly put them to good use. So this site (and others like it) allow you to sell your goods.

It brings me back to three R's:

1. Reduce
2. Reuse
3. Recycle

I love the fact that websites like these promote reusing. Reusing is way better than recycling. People tend to feel all high and mighty when they recycle plastic water bottles, for example, but think about how much energy goes into making, shipping, and recycling that bottle. It is much better to reuse the same water bottle--like a Nalgene, Sigg, or old juice bottle. The same goes for canvas grocery bags. Unless you reuse them as trash bags, there's really no reason to use anything but a canvas grocery bag. Reusing is much better than recycling.

But the same holds true for the other R: reducing is better than reusing. Before you buy 40 vases, perhaps you could ask yourself if you really need them? Do you need a centerpiece on every single table? What's the effect you're going for? Could it be accomplished in a less wasteful way? Could something you're using at the ceremony be reused at the reception?

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