The recycling centre
The three 'R's
Rubbish is dirty, ugly, smelly and sometimes even dangerous. That is why we dump it in dustbins outside our houses. Then refuse collectors can collect it from our homes and throw it on rubbish tips for us.
But if by rubbish, what we really mean is “useless” – like the expression “What a load of rubbish!” –then most rubbish is not rubbish, at all.
In fact, if it is used in the correct way, most rubbish can be very “useful”.
The best way to make good use of rubbish is by recycling. To recycle means to use a material in another way - sometimes over and over again.
In rich countries like Britain, we spend, spend, spend, and almost everything we buy, buy, buy creates rubbish, rubbish, rubbish. Amazingly, 60% of rubbish is packaging like plastic bags and cardboard boxes.
Every single one of us consumes huge quantities of items manufactured from paper, plastics, glass, fabrics and textiles–almost every day. Then at the end of their “useful” life they are thrown away as rubbish, as something unwanted or “useless”.
In Quarryville, we try and tackle one very big ‘R’ – Rubbish – with three more ‘R’s, and no, we are not talking about reading, writing, and arithmetic; we mean:
- Recycling
- Reuse
- Repair
