This essay by Hannah Cody won first place in the 4th grade recycling essay contest at Berta Weathersbee Elementary School.

Do you remember the three R’s? Yep, they’re still here. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and now is the time to use them.

Things that we throw away take longer than you think to decompose. Plastic and aluminum take 500 years to decompose. Even though some items take less time to break down, they’re still important. Organic materials, cotton, rags, and paper take 6 months. So you can see how fast a landfill will fill up if you don’t recycle.

You can reduce trash that would be taken to the landfills by reusing as many things as you can at your home and school. You can reuse plastic bottles and jugs at your home. You can reuse old books and magazines by recycling them. If you want to reuse household items, then make something out of them that you can use again and again.

Recycling is an important thing that we can do to save our Earth. You can help by taking items like old books and magazines to your local recycle bin or recycling center. You can also sell cans and other things to your buy-back center. If you don’t have a buy-back center, then just recycle. That’s not all you can recycle, you can also take plastic, glass and many other items. You can also buy products like paper towels, napkins, bottles, tissues, egg cartons, and paper that have been made from recycled newspaper, glass or plastic. You can identify these products because they have the recycle symbol on the package.

Do you want to use three R’s now? If you don’t, then too bad we may become extinct because our environment is not doing well. If you have learned how important recycling is, then great! Well I hope this paper has told you how important Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle are for our planet.