So it's the same document except the second one was modified to be a transcript. It had to follow an outline (omitted), which I then cut down and made more speaker friendly. I ran through this assignment like a fat girl with no morals.
The speech had to be about an important topic we could educate the class on with 3 main points each containing two minor supporting elements with good transitions and shit.
I got a 100% on the outline and a 95% on the presentation.
Understanding the Environmental Principles of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle at a Personal and Industrial Level
Transcription:
If our consumptive practices do not change soon the home, we live in will cease to exist in its current state and our descendants will inherit a landfill to live in. Environmental scientists have long recognized the need to adopt new lifestyle choices at the personal level and push for increased industry regulations in order to prevent the destruction of the environment. The future health of our world depends entirely on our own daily practices and the regulation of the manufacturing sectors by our elected representatives.
By implementing the concepts of reducing, reusing and recycling in both our personal lives and at the industrial level we can preserve the Earth for posterity. The first environmental principle we can examine is reducing, which is the most straightforward in its simplicity.
Reducing the number of products we use and reducing the amount of material used in the manufacturing of new goods limits the amount of pollution produced, trash accumulated, and energy expended by our consumptive lifestyles. In our everyday lives we can greatly reduce much of our environmental pollution by embracing simple changes. We can avoid buying more than we need or will use before it expires, especially as it relates to food. About a third of all food is wasted in the United States which translates to 120 billion pounds annually as reported by KaTravelholic in 2011. Turning off lights when we’re not using them is another simple way to reduce our carbon footprint and eliminate the excess expenditure of energy thereby reducing greenhouse gases related with energy production
Reduction acts and regulations at the industry level can greatly cut down on pollution and waste production related to the making of new goods. Sarah King noted how by passing legislation that allows consumers to repair products and making replacement parts available, known as Right to Repair legislation, the number of products can be mitigated, and the life of products further extended. We can incentivize the reduction of energy use by putting tax incentives for companies that innovate and utilize innovative processes that use less energy while making goods. King also mentions how many countries have begun this process of offering “green tax breaks,” or economic rewards for environmentally friendly processes that work to reduce energy consumption at the manufacturing level.
After considering how we can reduce our pollution and reduce the use of energy, the next concept to understanding the core principles of environmental conservationism is reusing what products we already possess and reusing the materials we have already allotted for the manufacturing process.
The second core principle of environmentalist consumerism and green manufacturing is reusing. Reuse at the personal level is most easily understood as the extension of a product’s life through maintenance and the valuation of continuing to use products after a first use. One of the best examples of how we can reuse items in our personal life is plastic shopping bags. Often plastic bags, also known as grocery bags, are used once and then discarded ending up in bulk landfills. These shopping bags can be reused multiple times or used for other purposes such as trash bags that cuts back on the total amount of bags used noted KaTravelholic in 2011. Reuse by consumers is not limited to plastic bags, many used goods continue to have a long life ahead of them in the hands of another person. This eliminates the need to produce new goods for everyone, a great example of this is secondhand clothing. When we update our wardrobes with new clothes our old clothing can be donated to be further used by other people thereby reducing the amount of trash in landfills while helping other people. Reusing also needs to occur at the industrial level through innovative strategies that reuse waste products generated in the manufacturing process. Many companies recognize the benefits of reusing waste as part of the manufacturing process. Flash, whether plastic or metal, occurs when excess material from a poured mold remains on the product. A modern solution to eliminate manufacturing waste is to remove this excess material and remelt it down for further molds. This is an example of how reuse can be done at the industrial level, by taking excess material and applying it to the next product manufactured.
The most important principle in environmental conservatism is recycling which lays down the foundation for a greener future and contains unlimited potential to reduce waste and mitigate global pollution.
Recycling is the cornerstone for our environment’s longevity and the most important component of the conservation of our planet’s resources and preventing the polluting of the planet. The most important part of recycling is at its source, which begins with us sorting our recycling from the general trash. Jerry Nathanson is quoted as defining recycling as the “separating, recovering and reusing components of solid waste that may still have economic value. He goes on to explain the sorting of recyclable goods, paper, glass, plastic, and aluminum cans at the point of their end of useful life is referred to as source or curbside separation. This is most commonly done at the community level through separate garbage bins; one for collecting trash and the other for recyclable goods. These goods are then taken to a recycling facility where they are sorted, and the materials reused in a variety of ways. Aluminum cans are later smelted into new cans, paper is manufactured into new paper products, and rubber is used in the asphalt industry. ). Recycling also occurs at the industrial level and can be further incentivized by government urging greener manufacturing practices. Manufacturers can be incentivized to engage in green recycling practices by motivating them with tax breaks to use a certain percentage of recycled paper or plastics in their manufacturing of new products explained King in her 2023 article. Many green products already exist and can be further extended with modern novel improvements, examples of this include using broken glass in asphalt, reusing paper into composite cardboard, separating fibers for composite textiles and the most common being smelting old aluminum cans into new aluminum products as reported by Nathanson
In conclusion analyzing the principles of reduce, reuse, and recycling it is easy to see how these principles can be applied both to our everyday lives and the manufacturing industry as a whole. By incorporating the concepts of reducing, reusing and recycling at a personal level and implementing them in regulations for major industries we can prevent the global destruction of the environment. This should be recognized as a call to action, we must implement these core environmental changes in order to maintain the health of the world for future generations. Through mindful changes to our lifestyle and consumptive behavior as well as by regulation in manufacturing we can eliminate the majority of the pollution produced in the world and be better off as a result of these actions.
References
KaTravelholic. (2011, December 16). Reduce, Reuse, Recycle (The Documentary) [video]. YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BkcviD65Bo
King, Sarah. (2022, December 13). Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Why All 3 R's Are Critical to a Circular Economy. Scientific American, January 2023.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/reduce-reuse-recycle-why-all-3-rs-are-critical-to-a-circular-economy/
Nathanson, J. A. (2024, June 19). solid-waste management. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/technology/solid-waste-management[/video]
