Not the 'painfully coerced into fitting a twee phrase' 3 R's of Education (Dur - 2 of them don't even start with R - and you're using them as related to Education - frak me you really tried for the irony there huh?) but the rather greener Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
It was only when I read recently that you should also try and do them in this order that this became blindingly obvious to me as well. It
is obvious - I just hadn't ever formed words round that nebulous 'but everyone knows that' concept that
we all like to spout sometimes and probably have 'The Man In The Pub' to thank for. (Let's be honest here - quite often the cry of *'B.E.K.T.' is more out of affronted embarassment and annoyance at oneself for
not ever having put such a blindingly simple concept into a succinct pet phrase that all can easily grasp and moreover, that you can trademark and make a bundle from every time a newspaper uses it, than actually because you had ever devoted any time to thinking deeply about it before. :-) But I digress...)
Reduce - does what it says on the tin. Easy example - take your own shopping bag with you = therefore using less plassy bags = less resources used to make said plassy bags plus less of them being disposed of after they have fulfilled their purpose. (Love
these people's concept of guerilla bagging.)
At this point I will say that I have zero intention of explaining why these should be good things for us to do. If you have made it thus far in life and have no idea what I'm talking about you are either a) approx 3 years old in which case I'm sure Dora the nauseating poppet or someone similar can explain it to you or b) you have been living under a rock for the last few decades in which case much the same answer as a) applies I would imagine.
Reuse - what we are stuck with and can not get rid of under the Reduce principle we should at least try and reuse as much as possible, so the best possible 'value' is got from the energy and raw materials that went into making it.
Recycle - can be pretty energy intensive hence why it should be the last option of the 3 green R's.
It's Reuse I wished to comment (/rant - you know me) on today and some spiffy ideas a bunch of us over on the
Cottage Smallholder site came up with for garden related stuff. If you're not too bothered about the looks of your items all the time, particularly for those
temporary solutions, there is a wealth of stuff out there that can be utilised in the growing process. Plastic food containers of all kinds can be pressed into service as seedling trays or pots (plastic/polystyrene cups), then 'growing on' pots of differing sizes. This is a great re-use as otherwise these containers would be going straight into the recycling (hopefully) bin but are durable things with much life left yet.
I got to thinking - what about a reuse for those odd things that no-one uses but you all seem to be stuck with? Specifically the plastic egg trays that come in new fridge doors have always vexed me with their pathetically hopeful pastel tinted plastic non-usefulness. Chirpily they sit there taunting you with a non-existent 50's 'futuristic' world
where all would be rounded, pastel, and yes - plastic. [Is this only me or is anyone else thinking - 'YES - I too know that vexedness?'] Then it hit me - we all save our old egg boxes to chit potatoes in right? (Ok - that's for a given value of 'all'.) Why not round up your friends and relieve them of their plastic egg trays (unless they're actually using them - I've yet to see any doing the task for which they were spawned) then you have easy clean durable trays for the spuds - chitting thereof, and can pass any cardboard egg boxes onto your chicken owning friends - hopefully in return for an egg or 2. Ta Daa!! (I'm quite pathetically pleased with this flash of inspiration.) I think it may even count as Upcycling; like recycling, but reusing/retasking items to give a finished product of greater use/value than the original constituent parts. I have grand plans for a shed along these lines but they have yet to come to fruition...
For more (and far better as lots are from other people) ideas along the same lines you can download our tips as a
pdf or a
word doc from the
original post here, courtesy of the lovely **CSH people. (Designed to be printed out double sided.)
Anyway - apologies for the many asides in this post but hoping it may sprinkle a little inspiration and please share your top pet ideas.
*B.E.K.T.: But Everyone Knows That
**CSH: Cottage Smallholder
Another 'one good and one bad thing' post. 
d only orders as opposed to T&M who do and take longer to dispatch.)
nd having seen some of the scams operated this way [although to be fair probably less likely around here] I rarely have clothes to go in these and if I am having a clear out I'll take it to the local shop myself. [I tend to favour the PDSA.] Experience has told me that though there's a cheery 'if you've nothing to donate at this time leave the bag outside so we can collect it for reuse' message printed on them they rarely if ever get taken back and you end up with a pile by the front door getting dirty and blown around the street. I use these as bin bags now. Don't get me wrong - I'd rather they went back to the charity but if they're not picked up back they come into the house to be repurposed; and save me money on buying black bin bags. At last count I had 30 of these so I think I'll be alright for a while should the supply suddenly dry up.
areness - loopholes therein. My friend put me on to this one. Things like cotton wool, moisturiser &c - get them from baby ranges! It's VAT free so generally a good saving. I bought Boots own baby moisturiser - 300ml for £1.39 when I got it [It's now £1.42] as opposed to their own brand basic 'adult' moisturiser - 150ml for £1.49 at the time [now £1.52.] 10p more for half the mount of product - go figure!! My friend also gets baby range oatcakes as they're way cheaper than getting them from the regular cracker aisle in the stupormarket she says.
e compost is made from the green rubbish they collect throughout the year then in the spring they'll park up in a local car park and you can fill 4 bags for free. There's also the local campaign against wasted food and other rubbish - don't let Devon go to waste / Love Food Hate Waste. They'll send a free bag, pen, spaghetti measurer, magnetic memo board [really handy for the shopping list], book of tips for leftover food etc etc to local residents for free.
ebies online - I've mentioned this before but it can be worth it. These 2 bags were both freebies I signed up for or heard about online. The jute one was in return for sending in plastic bags for recycling so we can't complain about that!
temporary solutions, there is a wealth of stuff out there that can be utilised in the growing process. Plastic food containers of all kinds can be pressed into service as seedling trays or pots (plastic/polystyrene cups), then 'growing on' pots of differing sizes. This is a great re-use as otherwise these containers would be going straight into the recycling (hopefully) bin but are durable things with much life left yet. 
where all would be rounded, pastel, and yes - plastic. [Is this only me or is anyone else thinking - 'YES - I too know that vexedness?'] Then it hit me - we all save our old egg boxes to chit potatoes in right? (Ok - that's for a given value of 'all'.) Why not round up your friends and relieve them of their plastic egg trays (unless they're actually using them - I've yet to see any doing the task for which they were spawned) then you have easy clean durable trays for the spuds - chitting thereof, and can pass any cardboard egg boxes onto your chicken owning friends - hopefully in return for an egg or 2. Ta Daa!! (I'm quite pathetically pleased with this flash of inspiration.) I think it may even count as Upcycling; like recycling, but reusing/retasking items to give a finished product of greater use/value than the original constituent parts. I have grand plans for a shed along these lines but they have yet to come to fruition...