Reduce Reuse Recycle plus Compost
The Three Rs along with compost can avoid waste generation. The first R stands for Reduce. This strategy can also be called waste prevention; the less materials that are used, the less materials that will be produced as waste. One way of reduction is source reduction, reducing the waste in the early stages of design and manufacture. Source reduction can also increase energy efficiency by producing less waste to dispose of in later processes. While at the time of production, source reduction may seem like it is using more energy, taking into account the later processes of disposal evens out the energy used during production. The second R stands for Reuse. This strategy allows a material to cycle within a system longer before being disposed of. Sometimes, reuse requires repairing of an existing object, costing time, labor, energy, and materials. However, the energy required to do all these is still less than the amount of energy needed to dispose of the items. The third and final R stands for Recycle. This strategy is a process where materials that are to be municipal solid waste are collected and then converted into raw materials that are then used to produce new items. There are two types of recycling systems, the closed-loop recycling and open-loop recycling. The closed-loop recycling involves recycling of a product into the same product. The open-loop recycling involves recycling of one product into a different product. Not only can the three Rs help reduce waste generation, but it can also help reduce greenhouse gases by reducing emissions from energy consumption, reduce emissions from incinerators, reduce methane emissions from landfills, and increase storage of carbon in forests.
Organic materials that end up in landfills not only take up space but because of the lack of oxygen in landfills, the organic waste decomposes and produces methane gas which is a prominent greenhouse gas. A way to treat organic waste is through a process called composting. Compost is organic matter that has decomposed under controlled conditions to produce an organic-rich material that enhances soil structure, cation exchange capacity, and fertility. In order for compost to have a rapid decomposition, there must be a ratio of carbon to nitrogen of 30 to 1. Frequent turning of the compost is necessary to ensure that the decomposition processes are aerobic and to maintain the appropriate moisture levels or the compost pile will produce methane gas. If the compost pile gets too dry, water must be added to it. It is often a misconception that compost piles smell bad; with proper aeration and not too much moisture, there will be no odor.
Word Count: (436 words)
Works Cited
EPA. "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle." Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. EPA, 21 Mar. 2014. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.
jFriedland, Andrew J., Rick Relyea, and David Courard-Hauri. "Chapter 16." Environmental Science for AP*. New York: W. H. Freeman, 2012. 442-46. Print.