My first target is disposables, simply because they're plain wasteful and expensive. I've got hold of or bought the following:

Reusable shopping bags
Boxes for carrying food to places like work
Battery charger
Hankies
Reusable/washable cleaning cloths

These few items have drastically cut the amount of rubbish we generate, but I feel we could do a lot more still. I'm wondering what everyone else is doing to reduce waste?

First and foremost, I try to buy things in bigger packages/less packaging - no single serves. This makes a very big difference, IMO, especially in households with kids. Instead of single-serve yogurts, juices, applesauces and fruits, I buy larger containers. This holds true to a lesser extent for other snacks - I try to buy, say a big box of ritz bits (and then compost the box) instead of buying the single serve packets. It really ticks me off that so many of these small, single-serve containers are #5 & #6 plastics - and these are not widely recyclable in most communities. Also, in addition to being less packaging, it seems the larger containers are more often #1 & #2, which is recyclable.

Also, no individual water bottles. I buy one, and then refill it from the tap for at least a month or so.

I also cringe when I see those cleaning commercials that have a smiling person saying, "Just use, and throw away!" So I also use reuseable/washable cloths. Just today I was looking for reusable mop cloths.

Also, just today, I bought a few more reusable shopping bags. The problem here is remembering to put them in the car when I go shopping, lol!

I also wash and reuse plastic ziploc-type bags, although I don't buy them too often to begin with, and we don't use them too often, but sometimes it seems to be the best thing.

It does seem like there is more I can do. I recycle everything I possibly can (including collecting the recyclables from work and bringing them home to put in my bin) and I also compost, as well as reuse everything I can, but you're right - there's got to be more ways we can cut back. I'm hoping someone gives some other ways I can use in this thread (great thread, by the way - thanks!)

:)
Dee

The dump here allows people (with prior permission) to scavenge clean wood for burning, leaves and grass clippings for composting, old nets for fishing, and for use for other things (keeping eagles off the chickens, for one!) and also windows, doors, sinks, etc. may be salvaged for free for re-use. There are people who have built cabins out of recycled materials from the dump.

This thread is a great idea, what else do people do?!

I produce a good deal of our food from my gardens and can it. Nearly all of my fruits and vegetables, actually. So, there isn't much packaging to throw away on them, save the narrow little lid and it's recyclable. I buy most of my household products in containers I can re-use and then buy those brands who offer refills in large sizes. I don't buy a lot of household chemicals because I find a good all purpose soap like octagon fulfills a variety of uses from scrubbing floors to washing walls. A product like window cleaner is also good for my kitchen counters/stainless appliances. Like a previous poster, I prefer my mop and pail to fancy gadgets with disposable pads.

Of course I recycle and thankfully the collection point is now closer than it used to be. Mostly I recycle food tins, soda cans, glass and newspaper.

Nothing in the way of fabric is thrown out. I make rag-rugs and quilts out of anything appropriate. I also make my own hand-dipped candles using the remains of any body elses candles who will save them for me. LOL.

I buy those energy efficient bulbs because not only do they use less electricity, they last for years!

I have large canvas shopping bags I take to the market and keep in my car, so they are always handy. You have to practically insult most cashiers in markets not to get everything wrapped in plastic bags, so if I end up with a lot of them, they get used for at least one other job before being discarded.

I plan my menus so that left overs are hardly ever pitched. Those scraps like peelings and outer lettuce leaves go to my chickens. I also use the paper from the office paper shredder to line my chickens laying boxes. When I clean them the dirty litter goes to the pile of straw bedding I age overwinter and is used as fertiliser for my garden.

There is no such thing as yard waste on our property. Branches and twigs go to the periphery as cover for birds and small animals, and grass clippings are returned to the soil from where they came.

I've declined paper catalogues and use online paperless options where ever I can. I shop at resale shops for utilitarian items, instead of just buying new "stuff". We are also big in this household for repairing items, instead of just replacing them. Sometimes we pay more for the quality needed to do this, but they pay for themselves over time. Neither husband nor I automatically replace good furniture or housewares out of boredom or because they have "gone out of style".

- I can't remember the last time I served food cooked in my house on a paper plate. It's real plates or nothing. Ditto for table utensils. My dishwasher takes only about four gallons per load and it can hold a lot. I have to think that's less energy consumed (on both my part and the earth's!) than producing and then putting in a landfill paper or plastic plates and utensils.
- Think "re-usable elsewhere". I treat myself to a latte once a week and try to show up with my travel mug. Not only does it keep one more plastic cup and lid out of the landfill; it also gets me a ten-cent discount. I usually use reusable bags for groceries at the co-op, but if I do end up with paper bags, they hold the recycling (which only goes out when I have a full bag to go out; they collect weekly here). Plastic bags, if unusable, are recycled; if usable, I keep a few to hold on to muddy shoes or other items I need to sequester temporarily; any other bags are folded neatly and given to Goodwill (which loves to see bags they can use for purchases). BTW, my grocery list is on the back of a paper envelope that I will recycle once I'm done shopping.
- I have purchased items with recyclability in mind. Eventually that jar of jelly will be consumed. If it's a glass jar, though, it will be easier to recycle than a plastic one that they may not take.
- No one has mentioned it in this thread, but it helps to cut off waste at the source. I get very few paper bills anymore; most of them arrive electronically and are paid that way. You can sign up to not get junk mail or even to not get credit offered through the mail. Don't even have it sent to you and you don't have to recycle or toss it!
- Use your local craigslist/FreeCycle/whatever to pass on items that may be worthwhile to someone else. I had a bunch of clothes collected that were not good enough to give to Goodwill (frayed cuffs, holes, small stains I could not get out), but they were fine for someone who wanted to make patchwork quilts or toy stuffing or even their own art paper. Ditto with a very old garage door opener (no electric eye; didn't feel safe with it around kids); it went to an elderly man who'd never had one before and delighted in being able to open his garage door without getting out of the car in the ice and snow and rain.
- Don't forget that waste is not just the tangible stuff that goes in the trash or recycling bin. You also (unavoidably) waste some heating or cooking fuel, electricity, and so on. Consider set-back thermostats, compact-fluorescent bulbs, Energy Star appliances, setting computers and other items to "sleep" when possible, line drying your wash outside in the summer, parking your car in the garage so it stays cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter.

And I have plastic utensils in my drawer that are several years old - washed and reused a hundred times.

Those plastic grocery bags are the bane of my existence, lol! I don't know how many times I've had a clerk at the store give me four bags when I'm only buying five items! It's always a race to get to the paper bags before the clerk starts bagging in plastic. And even if you ask for paper, why do they insist on putting your meat in plastic? The meat just spent half an hour sitting in the cart with my other items, so it should survive the ride home without contamination. And besides, will chicken wrapped in plastic wrap really contaminate my canned vegetables? Sheesh.

(Which reminds me, I stopped by the store today and as soon as I got to the checkout line I realize I left my brand-new canvas totes at home! But I beat the clerk so I got paper, lol, which I will shred and use as mulch)

I try to use freecycle often also. I even offered a bunch of old Christmas cards that I didn't want to just toss, so I found someone who could use them for crafts. As they say, one man's trash...

:)
Dee

I'm considering an electric razor, that would mean no more throw away razors and cans of shaving foam in the bin. I just have had bad experiences with electric razors in the past.

I've also started shopping at the market, they sell fruit and vegetables from reusable crates without any plastic wrapping. I use my reusable shopping bags too.

Another thing I'm looking at is refilling my laser printer cartridge instead of replacing it when it runs out. Laser printing is already much more environmentally friendly.

I also use a refillable fountain pen, rather than those disposable pen/cartridge systems that make a huge amount of plastic waste. Considering it's the ink which is the product, then pens are perhaps the most over-packaged product we use every day. Buying just the ink makes more sense, and the ratio of ink to packaging is so much lower with a glass bottle. They also last a long time and are completely recyclable or refillable when empty.

I'm also pleased that all of these things are saving me money :)

Diggerdee .. If you haven't located the mop cloths, look for microfiber. I found some at WalMart (I know, but it's convenient). They were cheap, like maybe $1/ea, they fit perfectly on the Swiffer head that I somehow inherited, and they're machine washable. I, too, refuse to use once-n-toss products. A roll of paper towels will last me at least a couple of months. I have a whole separate soapbox about antibacterial everything, but I won't go there now.

Keep the good ideas coming!

There is one local chain at which the bags contain what must be the minimum amount of plastic allowed by law. There is no way in the world a bag from that store would carry all you could fit in it unless you were buying smooshy white bread.

And besides, will chicken wrapped in plastic wrap really contaminate my canned vegetables? Sheesh.

It won't, though it might leave juices which could soak the paper labels and attract vermin in storage. But the main reason it's done, IMHO, is that bagging groceries is considered a mindless task. I notice that the frozen food usually is spread out among several bags, like items are placed in separate bags, and only sometimes is attention paid to the fragile stuff so it gets packed on top. No offense to grocery people here, but most baggers seem to want to get the job done as quickly as it can be. :-(

I'm considering an electric razor, that would mean no more throw away razors and cans of shaving foam in the bin. I just have had bad experiences with electric razors in the past.

There is another alternative. There still are companies out there making non-disposable metal double-edge safety razors and blades. Shaving cream does not have to come in a can -- it can come in a tube or a tub (the tub can be reused; neither uses propellant). The blades? They're just metal; they can be recycled if stored safely. I've been shaving this way for several months now and don't miss my old (expensive) cartridge razor or canned foam at all.

Don't ya love it when you get a bag stuffed with every five-pound can of tomatoes/vegetables you bought that day, and then another full of toilet paper and bread? In the old days, when I was a kid and we bagged our own groceries, my mom showed me how to put a few heavy things in the bottom, and then lighter stuff on top, making the bags evenly weighted. Maybe my mom should do some supermarket training, lol!

Oh well, I'll stop now before I turn this thread into a list of pet peeves, lol!

More on topic, thanks aok, for the tip on the microfiber. I just happened to see some microfiber cloths last night I may buy. What I'm really looking for is one of those old-fashioned "dust-mops" - all I can find by way of mops is the flat kind. I'm looking for the kind that you can reach into ceiling corners and behind furniture with. Not that I do that kind of intensive house-cleaning all that much to begin with...

bry84, Tom's of Maine makes a nice shaving cream in a tube. Not foamy, and takes a bit of getting used to, but kind of nice when you do get used to it (although the tube is not recyclable, I believe). Just be careful you don't get it mixed up with your toothpaste, lol!

:)
Dee

We also use those plastic grocery bags to line our garbage cans. I have never bought garbage bags to use in the house.

I collect all milk jugs, juice jugs and any large plastic containers and use them to sow seeds.

I compost all food scraps or bury them in the garden.

My son is almost 18 y old now, but I saved all his cloth diapers and use them as rags around the house. My husband likes to throw them away---making me mad about that. :-( We don't see eye to eye re recycling everything possible.

My DH doesn't see things the same way as I do either - although I have sold him completely on composting now. He just doesn't do things as second nature as I do. Just this morning he was making homefries and I followed him and picked onion peelings out of the garbage and put them in the compost bucket.

That was kind of surprising, since he's really good with food scraps. But I am constantly taking out recyclable things from the garbage can. He always says, sheesh, it's one can, and I always say, if every person in this country took just one can out of a garbage can today and recycled it, just think of the difference it would make.

It is my life goal to get him to stop using those %$#&*! plastic grocery bags! My first step, though, is to stop getting him to throw them away, at least, and put them in the recycle bag. Out local store does take them back to recycle, but I would prefer he not use them at all.

Gee, my kids are much more trainable than he is, lol!
:)
Dee

A little philosophical reflection: our society seems based on a 'throw-away' mentality. After all, if you buy new stuff all the time, use stuff once, throw it out, replace it, redecorate, etc. that means people have jobs and the economy grows. And no one seems to think (apart from us inveterate recyclers, reusers, refusers) that economic growth at the expense of the environment isn't worth it, and is in fact, bad! I can't get past this and it gets me down sometimes.

I also use cotton shopping bags and refuse plastic bags at the checkout. I have not yet had the courage to leave packaging at the checkout. I get my vegetables delivered by the local market gardener, but that is a very lucky break as I have taught all his kids. What about a veg box scheme?

Things like rice I get loose at the local long-haired hippy shop at a fraction of the price of the supermarket.They also take any plastic bags back that I inadvertently get given.

I compost all food prep debris and use all leftover food in meals. Not there are many if you have a teenage son.

I also cultivate a non-interventionist approach to houswifery. If it's not a health hazard I tend to leave it. Saves a huge amount on cleaning products. I most certainly do not live in a tip but cleaning can become silly.

I presume you already put out everything your local authority will take for recycling. Here that includes paper, glass, cans, foil, cardboard, plastic bottles, garden rubbish, batteries, spectacles, shoes, clothing, oil, mobiles, printer cartridges and books. Old clothes go to a charity shop.Old furniture I put out on the pavement with an invitation to 'help yourself'. It always disappears in a day or two.

The three of us barely fill 1/3 a bin bag a week now.

LOL, Flora! My kind of gal! I actually take the same approach - I just never thought of it as "taking an approach" in an environmental sense, lol. Now I won't feel guilty about not cleaning the house!

Sounds like you've got a great recycling program in your area. That list of what your city/town takes is amazing. We had to wait several years just to get them to take cardboard and junk mail here.

:)
Dee

I have to admit this is the one glaring problem in our house. It's painstakingly restored with original & reproduction lights, I just haven't brought myself to put high-tech bulbs in the pendants & sconces... Are there newer, gentler bulbs for me to try? (Luckily we have few lights & use them cautiously. Still, that's not good enough.)

As to the original question, we do all the obvious things here but the most difficult is questioning packaging before purchase. Many items are over-packaged, even simple basics. (ie TP wrapped individually inside a big plastic wrap)

BTW, the places I buy groceries assume I have my own bag or simply don't need one. A nice sign of the times, I think.

In the Mpls area, there is a disposal site where you can take your bulbs, but it's about 10-15 miles from my home. They also take any garden chemicals and other hazardous stuff you may want to get rid of. I don't go through many fluorescent bulbs in a year, so right now I'm been storing my used ones in the basement. Since these can be so hazardous, I wish there was an easier solution to getting rid of them. I know most people simply break them up and toss them in the trash because it's too inconvenient to dispose of them the right way.

K

Interesting, aachenelf. In St. Paul (just across the river from Minneapolis for you non-Twin-Citians), there is a central disposal site for the county, as you mention. But in summer, there are temporary satellite collection sites as well. They are open to neighborhood residents for specified times (weekends for one month, for example) and will accept most of what the central site will accept. It makes it easier to recycle when you don't have to travel so far.

I really like my Swiffer and my Clorox Ready Mop. Now, hear me out ... I had to buy them with the full complement of worthless disposable cloths and disgusting cleaning liquid, but now I use pieces of old towel and refill the Ready Mop with a solution of Dr Bronner's and water.

Plus, the regular Swiffer cloths (never tried the mopping-type ones) can be washed in your machine, line dried and reused up to 5 times each!

Composting is too much trouble for me so I keep a gallon coffee can in the kitchen for my scraps and then bury them in empty spots in the garden to feed the worms -- vermicomposting in situ.

I learned to wintersow and save/trade for seeds, which reduces the resources used to grow, package and transport nursery plants and seeds.

One last thing, you may think I'm nuts, but we use cloth toilet paper. It was the logical next step once we cloth diapered our second baby. I cut old flannel sheets into 8" squares with pinking shears and they go in a wastebasket after they're used and we wash them in hot water (we have a frontloading washer that's very water efficient) and anyway, a thorough trip through the dryer or a thorough drying in the sun both kill most any beasties you can imagine.

Kristin

And yes, I recycle everything that I can recycle locally. It does help a lot, but part of the problem is even if we recycled 100% of our waste in this country, the amount we produce is just not sustainable.

Anyway, I have found a few new ways to reduce waste around our house.

I'm going to start buying coffee in the big round card tins, the paper/card part can be composted and the metal ends recycled. I'm also sure these packets use less resources and energy than making glass jars.

I also use bar soaps around the house for hand washing and bathing. The liquid products contain a lot of water so run out fast, and they're mostly synthetic ingredients that aren't very biodegradable, not to mention the large amounts of plastic packaging. Bar soaps are much more biodegradable, they're solid soap so last a long time, and they come wrapped in a small piece of recyclable paper.

Another useful way to reduce packaging, water pollution and save money is to quit using those special toilet cleaner liquids. Again, they're full of water so waste packaging and energy in transport, not to mention the vast amount you have to pour down the toilet each time you use them. I've found that cheap store brand washing up liquid works really well, perhaps half a tablespoon full scrubbed around. Soda crystals are also excellent and reasonably environmentally benign too.

However, we still need to find more ways to reduce waste as we're still throwing away plenty of it.

I don't usually have enough of darks/lights to separate the wash so I just put everything together and wash in cold. Looks okay to me!

We flush the toilet as little as possible - a drought habit that stuck. (Also have a big old rock in the tank to reduce water use.)

I have an old vacuum that uses bages. Although it says "Do Not Re-Use Bags" on them, I always empty the bag into the compost and use it again - I've had them last for six months. Then the bag goes in the compost too!

I use Dr. Bronner's soap (usually greatly diluted) for just about everything (hands, dishes, clothes, general cleaning.) Eucalyptus is my favorite. I can get in bulk and just keep reusing the bottle.

I have a few LED nightlights throughout the house - that way we can navigate around the house at night without switching on all the lights along our path.

Hardest part is getting dh NOT to buy the "handi-pack" things for dd's lunch box. He's a fan of convenience foods :-(

So recently I was saying to a young saleslady that it used to be easier to buy clothes and who has the time (and water!) to do all that separate washing and handwashing. She said helpfully that she throws everything in the machine, some things in a delicates bag, and although they do wear out fast it's okay because for the price she can regularly replace them. Wow, I had clothes I used regularly for twenty years!

Another thought - I have hear that items that run on remote control (TV, DVD, video, etc.) suck up energy even when they are turned off. it is recommended to put these on a power strip and turn the whole strip off after use.

I haven't done this yet, and it means buying another power strip. I often wonder about the trade off of buying something "green" - I mean, does the energy (and $$) saved from putting in the power strip excede the amount expended? What if you have a perfectly good non-Energy Star fridge? SHould you get rid of it? I really don't know. I've heard that it is is "greener" to throw out your old light bulbs and replace them immediately with CFC...but I have to admit that I wait for them to burn out before replacing.
Maybe I'll start a new thread on this...

Dee

Thanks!!

I don't know anything about new appliances, but if you can justify getting something new (because I need/want/deserve it) and the old is still good, I'll bet there are plenty of people who would take it. Craig's List, Freecycle, Salvation Army. I know when I was first on my own (lo, these 100 years ago), I would have given my eye teeth for a functional washer!

Yes, I would most likely offer it on Freecycle, but my question is, if it's good enough to let someone else use it, should *I* continue to use it? I guess what I'm trying to ask is, what's better environmentally, to let the old washer continue to run at its old inefficient level,(whether in my house or someone else's, lol) or to buy a new one?

BTW, I'm pretty darn cheap, (or so my husband is always telling me, lol) so I probably *can't* justify buying a new one till the old one completely dies! Unless, of course, someone could convince me that a new one is sooooo much better for the environment. Of course, then I would not want to junk the old one, and if I'm going to let someone else use it, then why don't *I* just keep it...

Boy, I drive myself crazy, lol!
:)
Dee

One of these days I will have to turn everything else off and run the machine on our normal cycle, which is just 30 degrees and lasts about 40 minutes to see how much the electric meter advances. I would doubt it consumes a large amount of energy however, and we only ever wash when it's full.

I don't have the exact maths, but I'm planning on keeping the old machine, it cleans perfectly and doesn't seem to be consuming that much energy. I also fear that a new machine won't be as reliable or easily repaired, so we may end up getting on the replacement after replacement train that so many people are on these days. Making new things consumes a lot of energy, and so does throwing them away, not to mention the landfill space. When I visit the local dump I see huge piles of broken appliances, and over 90% of it is much newer than the stuff I use daily at home.

I honestly can't remember the last time I threw anything big away. The only appliance in here that is much newer than the early 90's is my computer, and even that has been upgraded rather than totally replaced over the years. I'm still typing on my first keyboard from 1993, and using my monitor from 2001 (but it's a 19" CRT, so not low energy). However, throwing things away is a bigger threat to our environment and personal finances than keeping things we've already invested money and resources in.

I'm definitely going to have to start composting my old vacuum cleaner bags now. I've also had good results from composting cotton clothing that is worn out. I did a t-shirt a while ago, and when I emptied the compost bin there was no trace of it.

Another discovery, which may have been mentioned before in this thread (kind of long for me to just check now, although I intend to re-read it all soon) is super concentrate products. Combined with larger packet sizes these can really cut back on packaging. I have also found that the more expensive items can normally justify their greater expense by actually providing more useful product. For example, I buy the large 500 ml dermalogica face wash bottles. They're not cheap and it's a high quality product, but the final cost is very reasonable as a little goes a long way and that bottle will last about a year.

Anyway, thank you all again for your excellent suggestions, do keep sharing them!

I would recommend doing a bit of research, though, on the product to make sure it will be "good" for as long as you'll have it around. Products like dishwasher detergents can become less effective over several months; if you've laid in a year's supply, you may end up using more of it, getting a poorer cleaning job, or disposing of it because it no longer works. It's a great idea -- one I use myself -- but I'm careful to only buy in such sizes products which are relatively inert.

Someone who doesn't have room for a compost pile or has awful winters might want to look into having a worm bin. If you're into fishing the worms make good bait too.

At our house we don't rake up the grass clippings we leave them lay. As they break down they help the lawn fertilze itself. Saves us time too not raking.

Proper landscaping not only makes your home look good but it can help keep cooling and heating cost down. THINK before you plant or cut down a tree about the effect of it on your heating or cooling bill.

We use the water from our dehumidifier to water my indoor plants. We have to use the dehumidifier to keep the basement dry. The water is good seems silly to let it just go down the drain.

I drink alot of tea during the day. I make enough hot water at one time to fill a thermos. Usually keeps it hot enough to make several hot cups of tea thru out the day. Saves gas and time.

Denise in FL

Kristin