Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
While you plan your big green day there are three words to remember: reduce, reuse, and recycle. Incorporate these three words into your wedding planning to help make it fabulously green.
The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that Americans discard 220 million tons of garbage every year. Each person produces 4.4pounds of rubbish per day. That's down from a high of 4.5 pounds in the early 1990s, but it's significantly higher than the 2.7 pounds of trash each person generated each day in 1960.
Reduce
You want to reduce the impact your wedding will have on the environment as much as possible. By reducing the amount of waste you produce, from the garbage left behind to the carbon emissions you create, you cause less damage. Understand that there is no way to have zero impact; the key is to making your impact as small as possible. You can do this in many ways.
You could have a smaller wedding, which means fewer resources are used and less waste is created. You could make sure your ceremony and reception are close to home so you travel less. Another possibility is to keep traveling guests to a minimum to keep carbon emissions as low as possible. Little details count; consider using fewer decorations and forgoing favors. It all depends on what you are comfortable with and what can easily be accommodated.
Reuse
By reusing objects, you keep trash out of overflowing landfills and save energy because you are sending fewer items through the recycling process. You are also lessening the need for new products to be made. Reusing what is available is the greenest solution possible. Reusing is often confused with or used interchangeably with recycling. Reuse lengthens the life of an item; recycling reprocesses the material into a new form to create a completely new product, such as tires that are recycled into belts or shoes.
There are many reasons why reusing is the best choice, including the following:
Reuse keeps items out of landfills.
Reuse preserves energy by reducing the need for new items to be produced.
Reuse reduces the need for resources such as fuel, energy, water, and wood.
Reuse causes less pollution.
Reuse can conserve financial resources.
The concept of reusing is fun and creative, and you can incorporate it into your wedding in many ways. You can buy a gently used wedding gown, reuse decorations and centerpieces found at yard sales and thrift stores, and wear heirloom jewelry. Purchase items that you can reuse in your home after the wedding: Baskets found at a thrift store can be reused as storage containers in your home, tablecloths made from organic fibers can always be reused, toasting goblets made from recycled glass will do double duty as wineglasses, and unique centerpieces can be recreated as art or trendy storage solutions.
One great way to use the reuse concept is to have an era-theme wedding: the roaring '20s, the fabulous '30s, the glamorous '50s, the psychedelic '70s, or the awesome '80s. Pick a theme and search for treasures from that era that can be reused in your wedding; from clothing to jewelry to crafty decorations, you'll create a memorable wedding while being green as can be.
Recycle
The third concept — recycling — is easy to include in your green wedding. Make an effort to purchase recycled products or products made from recycled materials. You could use invitations made from recycled paper, rings and jewelry made from reclaimed and recycled gold, or glassware made from recycled glass.
In the past fifteen years the amount of recycling in the United States has almost doubled. Today Americans recycle about 32.5 percent of their waste. However, landfills are still rapidly filling with goods that can be reused or recycled. More and more companies are embracing the recycling concept by purchasing recycled goods or by recycling the manufacturing waste materials that once would have been discarded. Currently the materials that are recycled the most are aluminum, plastic bottles, newspaper, corrugated cardboard, steel cans, glass containers, magazines, and mixed paper.
To learn more about what and where to recycle check out www.recyclingmarkets.net. There you can look up information according to product or material.
Some eco-experts argue the value of recycling, saying that it takes more energy and resources to recycle than it would to make something new. The problem is that resources are dwindling and landfills are overfull. Recycling is a necessity.
You might be surprised at the wide variety of items that can be made from recycled materials. There's a lot more than paper, glass, and plastic items. Shoes can be made from recycled tires and other fibers, belts made from recycled bicycle tires, bowls and art made from old records, and photo frames made from recycled bike chains. Any of these items can be creatively used on your special day. The Green Glass Company (www.greenglass.com) and Fire & Light (www.fireandlight.com) have beautiful recycled glassware, and Eco-Artware.com (www.eco-artware.com) turns reused and recycled items into useful objects of art.
