my speech for oration

THE 3Rs OF SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT: REDUCE,
REUSE, AND RECYCLE
Across the country, many individuals, communities, and businesses have found creative ways to reduce and better manage their trash through a coordinated mix of practices that includes the 3Rs of solid waste management: reduce, reuse and recycle.
Reduce
Source reduction, or waste prevention, means consuming and throwing away less. Source reduction can conserve resources, reduce pollution, help cut waste disposal and handling costs, and go a long way toward protecting human health and the environment.
Source reduction includes:
• Purchasing durable, long-lasting goods.
• Seeking products and packaging that are as free of toxics as possible.
• Redesigning products that use less raw material in production, have a longer life, can be used again after original use, or can be recycled. Buying Recycled
There is more to recycling than setting out recyclables at the curb. To make recycling economically feasible, consumers must buy recycled products and packaging. Consumers “close the loop” when they purchase products made from recycled materials.
Recycled-content products are made from materials that would otherwise have been discarded. Items in this category are made totally or partially from material destined for disposal or recovered from industrial activities - like aluminum soda cans or newspaper. Recycled-content products also can be items that are rebuilt or remanufactured from used products, such as toner cartridges or computers.
There are more than 4,500 recycled-content products available, and this number continues to grow. In fact, many of the products people regularly purchase contain recycled-content.
Roman oratory is a multidimensional concept. Speeches consist of six main parts (this system is still used by most modern speakers) employing memorization and improvisation. The problem for me was appearing convincing as well as non-offensive to a room full of fellow tenth-graders. Thankfully, the Roman format for speeches is very straightforward and fact-based. The exordium, or introduction, proves the speaker’s reliability and shows the audience how strongly the issue at hand affects them and contributes to the greater good of the community. Not a problem--the meat industry is an often conveniently-overlooked factor in environmental destruction and a major source of deforestation, wasted natural resources, pollution, and climate change.

The narratio, partitio, and confirmatio all set forth the thesis of the case and supportive arguments. I split my oration into three sections--rainforest destruction, land and water pollution, and world hunger issues--and discussed how a reliance on meat intensified these problems. The refutatio is a rebuttal section and proves why counter-arguments are inaccurate. Getting material for this section was also not an issue--I had my pick of myths ranging from “if we were all vegetarian, cows would overpopulate the planet...” to “humans consuming soy is just as bad as cattle consuming soy!” Speeches traditionally end with a summary of points and an emotional outburst, or the peroratio. However, for the sake of connecting more with my audience, I ended the speech in a more balanced and moderate way than Cicero might have suggested. “Don’t worry,” I said, “there is no need to swear off meat all at once! By simply reducing your meat consumption (especially beef) you can take steps to help save the environment and stop global warming. Refrain from eating that hamburger – our earth will thank you for it!”

My class was more receptive to the speech than I had anticipated, although I did hear a typical goofball “bacon, bacon, bacon!” chant after I had finished. A few people looked slightly betrayed by the lunches they were carrying, and others seemed interested and willing to learn more. I can only hope to have raised awareness of issues surrounding vegetarianism that might lead to a slightly more environmentally responsible population in the future--and I thank Roman oratory for helping me do it!