While we were in school, in the midst of all the history lessons and the lessons about the mitochondria in our bodies, most of us may have been told briefly about the three R’s. If you were in a school that taught you these, even briefly, you should consider yourself lucky because most schools will not take the time to explain to you about Reduce, Recycle and Reuse policies that may have the potential to save the earth to some extent or another. The concept is simple really. It encourages children and adults alike to make an effort to reduce their use of non-biodegradable products, reuse as many of your clothing, bottles and any other thing you might have as much as possible and of course, to recycle whenever and wherever possible.

Supermarkets and cafes

Sadly, most supermarkets in the world do not implement reduce, recycle and reuse policies at all. In fact, with every shop, customers are seen to take home up to seven or more plastic non bio degradable bags which will be almost impossible to get rid of as opposed to eco friendly shopping bags that would be far more environmentally friendly and strangely a lot cheaper for the company and thus, it is shocking that more supermarkets and cafes do not employ such policies.

There are many things we use every day that contribute to severe pollution of the earth such as shampoo bottle, food containers and even tooth brushes. Like reusable produce bags, these products too could easily be made in ways that would impact the environment less and yet, no one takes the initiative to do so.

If we were to consider the example of the plastic tooth brush, an item that we have in every one of our households. A tooth brush, that tiny strip of plastic can take up to a whopping five hundred years to degrade. Each human being uses up to four tooth brushes a year and therefore it is not difficult to imagine just how much of pollution just our toothbrush would cause. What then about our plastic shopping bags, our temporary food containers, our one time use spoons, forks, plates and everything else we purchase for our homes on a daily basis.

The truth is that many young people are becoming aware of these situations and are certainly on board for change however, it will take the supermarket chains, the fast food chains and other such establishments to start implementing these rules to save the planet and to reduce their own expenditure, money that could be given to the employees themselves.