Start rolling those Rs: Reduce, reuse, and recycle-and in that order.  Let's face it, we're mired deep in ecological debt because we're consuming more resources than nature can replenish. By gorging on more than our fair share of the world's resources, we're also diverting essentials such as food, clothing, and water from communities in greater need. So let's recap: It's better to reduce your personal consumption than it is to reuse something, and it's less environmentally taxing to reuse a product than to have it recycled. Separating recyclables from your regular trash, which barely takes any effort, is a no-brainer, of course; recycling aluminum, for instance, takes as little as 5 percent of the energy we'd need to manufacture virgin aluminum.