Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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The slogan “Reduce, reuse, recycle” does not put those three options on an equal plane. It lists them in the sequential order of which one is best, starting with “reduce”, then “reuse” and then “recycle”. It is a waste hierarchy and it is part of the European waste hierarchy that we follow. The best thing to do is to reduce, that is, do not buy a bottle of fizzy drink, the second is to refill your bottle, and the third option, after the others, is to bring it back and put it in the machine to get it recycled and turned into another bottle. That is the waste hierarchy. They are not all equal.