Environmental Protection Agency: "Reduce", "Reuse", and "Recycle"

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Hello and thank you for the opportunity to assist with your answer. Since some of the question is about subjective items (such as what can YOU do in your own household and community), I have led you with some ideas but you will have to select what is actually accurate in your own situation.

First to the EPA RRR: I developed the one you chose, recycle, most completely. I hope this sends you thinking in a new way about the advantages and disadvantages associated with each choice. The question does ask to address all three, so a statement about the advantages and disadvantages of each would be a good preamble to the explanation of why you chose the one you did and how it can be effected in your own daily life. Thanks! - Dr. Wilson

Each one has benefits and disadvantages.
Reduce -
Advantages: saves natural resources; reduces toxic waste leads of both hazardous and nonhazardous materials; economic savings for less waste at the community, business and consumer level. Fewer products have to be manufactured
Disadvantages: Economic ramifications of less consumption may mean that production and distribution facilities suffer from a drop in sales, affecting local, regional or national economies.

Reuse -
Advantages: lessens costs (monetary) of manufacturing a new product; lessens environmental costs of manufacturing a new product from product extraction, to pollution, waste and energy use from the manufacture of the product, energy and pollution from the transportation/distribution of the product, packaging costs and additional waste generated from a product that could be reused. Can also benefit charities that reuse, such as Goodwill or other groups.
Disadvantages:
(many of the same as recycle - false sense of security etc. In some cases, reuse can be dangerous as in the case of something that contained a toxic material.
Reuse differs from recycling:
"Reuse, loosely defined, is the "recovery and distribution of discarded, yet perfectly usable materials" that provides an excellent environmental and economical alternative to exportation and landfilling. Recycling utilizes additional time, money, energy, resources, and an extensive organizational effort to extract, sort, and re-distribute a discarded item's raw materials. Reuse preserves these resources, including the value of the materials, labor, technology, and energy incorporated into the manufacturing process.
Source: Green Living Ideas (http://s.tt/12HHs)"
Advantages
Cost savings. Businesses and consumers save on energy and raw materials ...