It's time to learn the three R's of the environment: reduce, reuse, and recycle.

“Reduce” means reducing the amount of waste we produce. This is the best way to help the environment. There are lots of ways to do this. We’d better buy products that don't have a lot of packaging. Instead of buying something we're not going to use very often, see if we can borrow it. Cars use up energy and cause pollution. We can carpool with friends, walk, take the bus, or ride bike instead of driving. We can reduce waste by using a computer! Instead of buying the paper versions, we can find them on the Internet. We also can save energy by turning off lights that we are not using, and save water by turning off the faucet while we brush our teeth.

“Reuse” means, instead of throwing things away, trying to find ways to use them again! Bring cloth sacks to the store with us instead of taking home new paper or plastic bags. We can use these sacks again and again. Coffee cans, shoe boxes, and other types of containers people throw away can be used to store things or can become fun arts and crafts projects. Don't throw out clothes, toys, furniture, and other things that we don't want anymore. Somebody else can probably use them. We can bring them to a center that collects donations, give them to friends, or even have a yard sale. Use all writing paper on both sides. Use dishes instead of disposable plastic utensils and plates.

“Recycle” means that many of the things we use every day, like paper bags, soda cans, and milk cartons, are made out of materials that can be recycled. Recycled items are put through a process that makes it possible to create new products out of the materials from the old ones. We can leave your recyclables in classified bins outside our home; or sell them to recycling centers.

It's important to remember to reduce, reuse and recycle whatever you can.