Trashing the Throwaway Mindset for a Reusable One

Dawn Gough
2 min readAug 4, 2020

From the BroadCAST

This month I wanted to shed some light on one of the 3R’s of the well-known “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” trifecta — Reuse. I have been hearing more and more stories in the news and from friends about inventive ways that people are reusing items that would otherwise go into the trash, such as a local hardware store in Conception Bay South having reusable glass jars available for customers who are purchasing nails and screws. It is refreshing to see so many people wanting to achieve zero waste!

I have also invented many uses for glass jars, especially since glass is not accepted for curbside recycling on the Avalon peninsula where I live. You can hand paint larger glass jars to make beautiful vases for flowers, make homemade fridge pickles, or use them for storing leftover soup. Glass does not see the garbage bin at my house.

I think that in previous generations, we had no choice but to reuse everything; it was a necessity of survival. Over time as a society we developed a disposable mindset, especially with the introduction of single-use products. I would love for us to get back to a reusable mindset, where we are making purchasing decisions based on reusability, and thinking twice before throwing something away.

I would love to hear about ways that you are reusing items that would otherwise be put in the trash. Use your creativity to find ways to make our world a greener one, because collectively we can have an impact!

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Dawn Gough

Dawn believes tangible change that improves workplace safety and prevents harm to the environment starts with policy.