The average American sends about 2.5 pounds of garbage to a landfill every day. This week’s “Change the World Wednesdays” challenge concerns recycling and composting, which are two ways of shrinking your garbage footprint. Check out our new Blog Catalog group, too. Now let’s see what you can do to walk lightly through the rubbish of the world…
Reduce
The first step in shrinking your garbage is to reduce what you bring into your home in the first place.
- Don’t buy things unless you really need to. First make sure you don’t already have something that will do the job. Organize crafts, tools, clothes, foods, and other items so you can easily see what you have. Buying organizers can help, but you can also make your own storage with reused jars, boxes, or other containers.
- Buy foods, craft supplies, and other mass materials in bulk to avoid bringing home containers. Buy items such as liquid soap or laundry detergent in refillable dispensers, then buy a huge refill. Natural food cooperatives make this a convenient and affordable way to shop.
- Choose products with less packaging. Most packing waste is for aesthetic rather than practical reasons. Ask companies to use less packaging material, and make sure it is Earth-friendly; tell them this is important to you.
Reuse
The next step in shrinking your garbage is to reuse things instead of throwing them away.
- Choose reusable products over disposable products as much as possible. Frex, use cloth towels instead of paper towels to mop up spills. Use a refillable metal lighter instead of a disposable plastic one. Collect reusable shopping bags instead of disposable plastic bags.
- If something is still good but you don’t want it anymore, pass it along to someone else who can. Join Freecycle or another swapping group.
- When something wears out, try to repair it instead of discarding it immediately. Small holes in clothes can be mended easily. Most appliances and devices can be repaired. Study simple repairs to save money and landfill space.
- When something can no longer be used for its original purpose, try to think of another use for it. Rinse jars and plastic tubs for reuse as storage containers. Demote clothing to “grubbies” for yardwork and then to rags for messy cleanups or for scrap fabric. Do crafts with reused or recycled materials.
Recycle
Recycling is a way to keep glass, metal, plastic, paper, and certain other items out of the garbage. These materials can be reprocessed into new products.
- Find a recycling center near you. They will tell you what items to save and how to turn them in. Some places even pay money for materials, particularly glass bottles or aluminum cans!
- Learn about commonly recycled materials. There is also a blog about what can be recycled.
- Promote recycling in your community and around the world. Wear t-shirts about it. Blog about it. Get more people involved.
Decompose
Most organic materials can be decomposed in a compost pile or worm bin. They will break down much faster there than in a landfill.
- Learn how to make your own compost pile. You can build a whole one in a few hours, if you have lots of materials; or you can establish a base and throw things on it a little at a time. Many homemade or commercial containers for compost are available. Food scraps, yard waste, stable sweepings, and garden waste are all great for composting.
- Consider keeping a worm farm. Worms eat food scraps, shredded paper, and other organic matter. They produce rich “castings” for your garden, plus bait if you like to go fishing (or have friends who do). Again, you can choose from various homemade or commercial worm bins.
- Pet waste can also be composted, but requires separate handling and safety precautions. Commercial products for dogs, cats and other pets are available. Another option is plain old pit composting.
How much do you know about your garbage? Here is a terrific multi-step activity for analyzing packaging materials and garbage footprint.
What are some of your ideas to reduce, reuse, recycle, and decompose items so they don’t wind up in a landfill? Leave a comment and share how you shrink your garbage footprint!
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Ratty 08.20.09 at 6:07 am
At one time all of this would have been common practice. Your suggestions are usually a necessity for anyone who doesn’t have easy access to a big town or city. Too many corporations make it much too easy to waste things. I wonder what would happen if one of them came up with a way to make money from recycling and conserving.
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Elizabeth Barrette Reply:
August 21st, 2009 at 7:10 pm
In fact, we got ourselves into the plastic problem by using it to replace glass and aluminum containers: it was presented as a convenience because you didn’t have to return the plastic container, just throw it away. Sometimes a step forward is taken in the wrong direction, and it is necessary to double back to a more sensible path.
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