New R's

R’s

Growing up, I was raised being taught to rehearse the three R’s. REDUCE REUSE RECYCLE, everybody has heard it. The book Zero Waste Solution helps with the clarification of what each one individually means and how they are interlocked. Without going much further with the definitions and such, I would like to talk about the introduction of the 4th R: redesign. This one happens to be my favorite. Redesign should get people excited about going green. People that are interested in becoming more sustainable are able to use this 4th R; this is the creative side in all of us. With many people reshaping their daily habits to fit a more sustainable footprint, people are voluntarily redesigning their own habits. As education begins to push kids to grow up in a “green” movement, I believe teachers are going to be pushed to challenge kids to redesign products, habits, the way people interact, the way people eat (local vs. supermarket import), to how people plan their next step in life. At a personal level, the R lifestyle makes me push to minimize my physical impact on everything; I want to eliminate the unneeded clutter in my life. A recurring theme happens for me throughout the discussion for this class: Tiny House Movement. Everytime I think of recycling and making more ethical decisions, my imagination immediately jumps to the tiny house life: a much more minimalist lifestyle, completely redesigned. With very little space for physical materials, the tiny house makes a perfect model for sustainable people. Every object is designed to do more than one objective. With experimental communities already testing out the tiny house life, a portion of society is figuring out the pride and opportunities this lifestyle brings. There is a chance to support local business, reuse materials, buy healthy food that can be recycled/ composted of as priorities are focused minimal waste as well.

In our simple Living Learning Community class experiment, we are realizing how enjoyable this opportunity to be sustainable can be. The waffle party we had this morning with everyone can definitely be labeled a success. We celebrated the compost we created with picture taking and we had a real feel of togetherness. Seems cheesy, but we did have fun and I personally felt happy about our meal. Us students barely know each other but we are becoming more comfortable with one another and I’m really starting to enjoy it! Many more meals and laugh yet to come!