Four Rs and an M?

What exactly are the Four Rs and an M?  Many of us have heard of the original 3 Rs: reduce, reuse, and recycle.  These are actions that can greatly decrease the harmful effects that human beings have on the environment.  In 2011, 250.4 million tons of trash was produced in the United States alone.  Reducing, reusing, and recycling will help lower that total but the additional R and M will help lower it even more.

But what about the new R?  Well, it stands for repair.  By repairing an object, you can shrink the amount of waste that enters landfills or is recycled.  Often, when an object needs to be fixed, a small component is broken.  The rest of the object works fine.  For example, a few weeks ago, our sliding glass door stopped latching shut.  The door was fine except for the mortise lock.

After a watching a couple of videos on youtube.com, I felt confident that I could repair the door.  All I needed was a new mortise lock.  Twenty-five minutes later, the door latched properly.  What's great is that we did not need to replace the whole door, just the lock.  The old lock was then placed in recycling.  If we had replaced the whole door, that would have created more waste and it also would have required more resources and energy to make a door instead of just a small locking mechanism.

So the fourth R is for repairing.  What does the M represent?   Maintenance, which can prevent repairs from being necessary.  A simple way of thinking of the importance of maintence is with an automobile.  If you don't maintain the car by having the engine oil changed every 3000 to 5000 miles, the engine will eventually stop working properly or even stop working altogether. When that happens, you may have to repair the engine or replace it. Instead, routine maintanence can help the engine last much, much longer.

While we should always try to reduce, reuse, and recycle.  Maintaining and repairing our possessions will reduce the amount of waste generated while simultaneously lowering demand for new objects, all of which require energy and resources.

Do you have any repair or maintence tips?  Please share.