Starting back in the early 1970s, we often heard the adage reduce, reuse, recycle. The incredibly catchy phrase has reached new heights over the last 45+ years as sustainability and going green has come further into the limelight. As we launch ourselves into the 2020s, some new additions have been made to that original adage. Refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle and rot are now the standard for introducing sustainability in our day to day lives.

As The Shop focuses on all things sustainability this month, we are going to start with a deep dive into the first new ‘R’ – refuse.

Typically defined as to indicate or show that one is not willing to do something, it is not far off from this new goal. To refuse within a sustainability lens is to just say no when offered single use items when unnecessary. Here are some easy ways to incorporate refusing in your day to day life:

• Bring personal Tupperware when eating out at your favorite place with notoriously large portion sizes
• Packing a reusable bag for shopping and ditch plastic shopping bags
• Say no to printed receipts and get them emailed or texted instead (bonus points for ditching the BPAs on most thermal paper)
• Travel with a reusable water bottle (and/or coffee cup, depending on those caffeine priorities of yours)

Within a coworking environment, you can find your own acts of refuse rebellion! Some ideas while at The Shop include:

• Saying no to unnecessary swag items (down with stress balls!)
• Starting your own personal junk mail war (ahem, ULINE catalogues)
• Use available dish ware and silverware for your happy desk lunch
• Connect through The Shop app instead of exchanging physical business cards

We find it easiest to think of sustainability as a funnel with refuse at the top. Each time you say no to something you don’t need, one less things makes it way into the universe and into our landfills or oceans.