[hammock]

>This is an important issue. People keep talking about recycling, but much more important than recycling is just being able to use a thing for longer before you are even thinking about recycling it.

Reduce, reuse, recycle. In that order

[ajkjk]

Well perhaps "retain" should be added. Making something last longer isn't quite "reduce" or "reuse".

[mattnewton]

Isn’t it reuse?

Reduce - don’t buy another car, reuse - keep using your car, or buy a used car, recycle - sell your old car for scrap.

[ajkjk]

Well I think of reuse as.. use it again after you've used it once. As opposed to, keep using it the first time and make its initial use last longer.

[justinator]

Perhaps we should add, "Reconsider" as in, "Reconsider purchasing the item, when it's not needed, or a better alternative exists".

[game-of-throws]

Is there a difference between "reconsider" and "reduce"?

[capableweb]

"Reduce" would imply "Do less of" while "reconsider" would imply "Maybe something else fits better". Instead of reducing your usage of plastic bags, reconsider if maybe paper bags works as well?

[bradstewart]

Which would reduce your use of plastic bags.

[justinator]

There would be a difference between reducing your use of motor vehicles and reconsidering using them at all if our lifestyle allows us to use an alternative, like an ebike.

[justinator]

Thanks for the downvotes for simply openly suggesting something fairly benign. A real vibrant and healthy community we have here.

[mikebco]

And repair. Repairing always uses fewer resources than making new.

While I personally and professionally select use repairable items in lieu of non-repairable ones, I believe that this is not entirely a personal issue. Another r-word to add should be regulation. Without some degree of enforcement, the present set of incentives will continue to worsen the situation.

[nradov]

That's only true if you don't count skilled labor as a "resource". Repairing badly corroded vehicles isn't economically viable because it takes so much work to cut and weld the corroded body and frame parts. So that kind of repair is only done for collector items. Regular cars just get junked and replaced.

[ClumsyPilot]

recycling is an issue of material consumption and pollution - if you are optimising for time and convenience, single use plastic is the best thing ever.

And labour is expensove because rent is expensive. Countries with cheap rent have enough labour to repair things, countries with expensive rent are throwing away perfectly good dishwasher because 1 motor must be replaced and there is noone to do it.

I was just listening to an economic analyst bleating how a potential fall in house prices would be terrible. Noone is reflecting on the fact that housing shortage has done more economic damage than the Plague.

[schroeding]

Reduce trash by retaining things for longer. :D

But you're right, IMO. Maybe it should be retain, if you can't retain try to reduce, if you can't reduce reuse, if you can't reuse recycle

[adastra22]

I think the idea is reducing consumption and it falls under that.

[ByThyGrace]

There is also a 0th R-word in that truism, which is "Refuse".

[carlmr]

Refuse is funny because depending on how you pronounce it, it might not fit well.

[robertlagrant]

Exactly. Reducing is the exact opposite of oxidising. Don't let your car rust!