WEDNESDAY PUZZLE — Congratulations to Hoang-Kim Vu on his 13th puzzle for The New York Times. One of my favorite things about his puzzles is that they often feature themes that are ambitious, well-executed and approachable. The same is true of today’s offering, which is, in my view, his best yet. Here are some of his other puzzles for you to solve:

Today’s Theme

Normally this would be where I’d tally the theme answers before diving into an explanation of the theme. But there is such a wealth of theme material here that it will be easier to just break it down.

There are three core elements of this theme, which starts at 11-Down: [With 31- and 43-Down, an environmentalist motto … as suggested elsewhere in different ways in this puzzle]. That motto is REDUCE (at 11-Down), REUSE (at 31-Down), RECYCLE (at 43-Down). But the theme goes further than that: There are additional answers with sub-themes that are related to each word in the phrase.

For REDUCE, there are three answers with circled squares (at 17-, 36- and 60-Across). The letters in each of the circled squares form a shorter word that is a synonym of the longer answer. For example, at 36-Across the answer is DAUBS, and the circled letters form the word DABS.

For REUSE, the answer CAN appears four times in the grid, at 35-Across, 37-Across, 42-Down and 59-Down.

For RECYCLE, there are four answers with shaded squares at 21-, 28-, 31- and 44-Across. Each answer is a word on its own, but the letters in the shaded squares are an anagram of the letters in the unshaded squares. For example, at 31-Across, [Emerge once more] is REAPPEAR, but REAP and PEAR are also anagrams of each other.

This is without a doubt one of the most complex themes I’ve ever seen in a puzzle without a rebus. It took me a fair bit of time to get going, but once I got one or two parts of the theme, I was able to fill in the rest of the rest of the puzzle fairly swiftly. It took me about three minutes longer to solve this puzzle than it usually does on a Wednesday.Despite that complexity, the fill in this puzzle is fairly approachable. I found very few crunchy or otherwise unusual phrases here as well.

Tricky Clues

26A. I hadn’t seen this word before. [Rakish] here is LOUCHE, which means “morally loose or questionable,” according to Webster’s New World College Dictionary.

58A. This is a type of clue that I frequently see people get tripped up on. The [Apple on a desk?] is an IMAC. The first letter of a crossword clue is always capitalized, proper noun or not.

7D. The clue [It’s going downhill fast!] solves to LUGE.

9D. No royals here. The [Supporters of a king or queen?] are BED SLATS.

Constructor Notes

As I’m sure was the case for many readers over these last few weeks, I found myself absorbed by the Artemis II mission, and heartened by having such an inspiration for my space-obsessed daughters. Yet, even as the crew journeyed onward, indeed farther than any humans had ever been from Earth, the mission also served as a welcome reminder of how rare this planet truly is among the cosmos.

So, on this Earth Day, I know I’m taking a little time to feel gratitude for a world that provides such abundance for humanity; that serves as a launching pad for our intrepid aspirations; and, most importantly, that needs our help to sustain it for generations to come. I hope you all choose to do the same.

Improve Your Crossword Solving

Work your way through our guide “How to Solve the New York Times Crossword.” It contains an explanation of most of the types of clues you will see in the puzzles and a practice Mini at the end of each section.

Need a little more help? Subscribers can take a peek at the answer key.