Stephanie suggests finding three practical ways to reduce waste. She gives a great list of ideas. Here are the three I will start with:
1. Learn what can be recycled in our curbside program and develop an easy system for recycling.
Here is what can be recycled in my area:
#1 Plastic, #2 Plastic (clear), #2 Plastic (colored) #3 Plastic, #4 Plastic, #5 Plastic, #7 (Other), Aerosol cans, aluminum cans, aluminum foil, bi-metal cans, book recycling, brown glass, brown paper bags, cardboard, catalogs, chipboard, clear glass, computer paper, cookware, gift boxes, green glass, greeting cards, magazines, mixed paper, newspaper, paperboard, phonebooks, plastic bags, scrap metal, shredded paper, tin or steel cans, toys, white office paper. (Source: earth911.com)
We have a recycling container in our kitchen; I need to add one to our bathroom in the back part of the house for toiletry items. So I put a box under our bathroom cupboard. Voila.
2. Utilize cloth rags and cloth napkins instead of paper towels. Make this easily accessible. I bought a large glass jar and filled it with pretty white washcloths (I bought both new- is that irony? Oh well, baby steps.). I keep this on my kitchen counter right next to the paper towels. It looks pretty and is an easy replacement for paper towels.
3. Reduce/Reuse ziploc bags, tin foil, etc. Every time I throw away a ziploc bag I think "oh I could wash this and reuse it" but I don't. I'm just "plain old" lazy. Gah. Well, this is easy to change. I'm going to start reusing ziplocs. Not only will this help reduce waste but it will also save money. I'm also going to use tupperware, glass jars and other reusable food storage more frequently.
Ooh. Here is an idea. We often use ziploc bags for kid snacks. Usually these snacks are crackers or nuts or some other dry type of food. At the end of the day I will take the empty bags and refill them with snack-sized portions of the same snack. That way, I will have easy "on the go" snacks for the kids and will be less likely to buy something while we are out. Many birds. One stone.
That's all for now.
This is the first in a series of posts about my journey through the ebook "Healthy Homemaking: One Step at a Time".
1 comment:
Those are great steps to take! My article on how to wash plastic bags for reuse might be helpful to you. Of course, for dry snacks you can just shake out the crumbs and use the bags many times without needing to wash them and wait for them to dry. I like your idea of refilling the bags daily; it keeps you from needing anyplace to store "gently used" bags!
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