Today's 3 R's - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
By JOAN CROTHERS Sentinel Editor

Instead of the three R's we think about for school children, we need to think about saving our tax dollars at the Transfer Station by thinking and doing something about three different R's-Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

Reduce by changing your lifestyle in very simple ways. Reduction of the things we "throw away" is the first item to consider. Many older residents in Towns County grew up during the depression and lived by the rule, "Use it up. Wear it out. Make it do, or do without." So we didn't buy anything we didn't absolutely need. Here's a short list to help reduce: .Avoid buying items that have superfluous packaging. The grocery is one big place we all can check packaging. Even some packages of cookies have extra plastic trays that take up room in your garbage.

.Choose paper rather than plastic bags at the grocery, brown paper bags with handles are as easy as plastic bags to handle and then store your paper recycling in them; one store in town already carries paper bags with handles. Shop at that store or ask the manager of the store where you shop to carry these convenient recyclable bags;

.Buy "refills" of products rather than a complete dispensing unit, it doesn't take long to refill your original container;

.Purchase soft drinks in aluminum cans or plastic bottles that can be recycled;

.Much of our household waste-soft paper like towels, wipes, napkins, etc. can be put into the backyard compost pile. Being high in carbon elements, they can be mixed with high nitrogen materials like fruit and vegetable peelings, grass clippings, and small shrubbery trimmings to provide a workable balance of carbon to nitrogen. Put crumbled egg shells in your flower beds as well as coffee grounds for your acid-loving azaleas, rhododendrons, etc.

If we can Reuse an item, it does two things, 1. eliminates the need to buy a new item to do a job and 2. postpones the time when we must throw it away. An example would be: you have changed the oil in your car and you're left holding the empty quart-size plastic containers. Everyone needs a funnel to put gas in the lawnmower without spilling it on the lawn. Now just cut the empty can in half, turn the top half over, and you have a funnel big enough to pour the gas into that fits the opening of the fuel tank better than most funnels.

What about the oil you drained out of the car? you can reuse one or two plastic milk jugs to store it until you get to the recycling center. The oil is accepted across from the garbage section. You may think this is petty stuff, but use a little arithmetic and multiply the number of times you put fuel in your lawn mower by the number of people using lawn mowers. Most lawns are mowed about 30 time in a season. How many mowers are there in your county-1,000, 2,000 or more! How about the number of small engines in use in the US? Millions. How much gasoline is wasted through spillage? Still think that answer is petty stuff?!!

Recycling can be done at the area just past the garbage dumping at the transfer station. They take cardboard, aluminum (cans only), clear plastic, colored plastic, and any and all kinds of paper, newspaper, junk mail, magazines, shredded, etc. Aluminum cans can also be dropped off at any of Towns County's six fire stations if that is more convenient. They use the money they get for the cans to donate to two burn charities for children.

The biggest users of cardboard and paper are businesses. Recycle what you use. None of the garbage pickup companies now in operation in Towns do any recycling. It isn't that far to the Recycling Center on Sunnyside and your household garbage, with all the recycling out of it, may be cheaper. The Transfer station charges $1.50 for a big black bag, $1 for a 13 gallon bag on household garbage.

Landfills can only hold so much, then they build new ones- if they can find the land. Do you want one in your backyard? It's up to each person to do what they can and all that they can to

Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. You will know you are helping the environment for yourself and future generations.