Refuse
One often has a choice. Conscious rejection and avoidance allow us to make a statement and consciously buy plastic-free items. For example, unpackaged vegetables and fruit, crates instead of disposable bags. Glass bottles in the deposit system instead of one-way.
Reduce
The reduction concerns items in hotel rooms, spas and restaurants: If you go through the inventory and then discover that there are things there that you haven’t used for a long time, what do you do with them? These things represent resources which, if not used, are missing from the cycle. Better to sort out, sell, give away and exchange on exchange exchanges and platforms. Unused things must come back into the cycle and reduce unnecessary production elsewhere.
Reuse
Reuse stands for reuse. We are talking about reusable items instead of single-use items. Single-use or disposable items generate tons of waste. The most extreme example is the to-go mug, which has an average lifespan of 10 minutes. According to the consumer advice centre, “the number of all on-the-go cups for hot and cold drinks has doubled in the last 25 years. If you only look at the hot drinks, the increase is a whopping 500 per cent. Including accessories such as lids, straws and stirring rods, the to-go cups alone generate around 55,000 tons of waste every year in Germany. This means that the mug has overtaken the plastic bag as a waste generator in everyday life.” Instead, everyone can have an insulated coffee mug with them, and many cafés even offer coffee at a lower price. The breakfast buffet’s idea is to replace disposable packaging such as jams, butter, chocolate cream, tea packaging, and coffee capsules with sustainable alternatives.