With all the junk mail, excessive product packaging and unneeded/unwanted items you simply trash, you generate a great deal of waste from within your own household. You can get a better handle on reducing all this mindless waste … here a few easy tips for you and your family to follow:
- Bring along your own tote bags to the grocery store. Those plastic grocery bags can quickly add up … before I went “green”, I had an entire kitchen cupboard full of these. Yes, I would reuse one every now and then; however, my cupboard was overflowing with plastic bags. With my reusable tote bags, I can easily carry my groceries home with less fear of harming the environment. I am also far more confident that my cloth bags will not split as easily as the plastic ones.
- Buy in larger portions. When perusing the grocery store shelves, select the larger packages over the smaller ones. You may well be charged a few dollars more; however, smaller containers are emptied quicker compared to your larger box or bag. With the smaller containers, more garbage is discarded, more often.
- Buy in bulk. As even a better alternative, buy products in bulk. Stroll down the bulk food aisle in your neighbourhood grocery store and stock up on cereals, dried fruit and so on. This way, you can only take what you may need and reduce excessive waste.
- Replace those rolls of paper towels with washable cleaning rags. Old shirts or towels can be used effectively to quickly clean or mop up a mess. When your rags are dirty, just toss them in the laundry – a far “greener” choice than simply tossing them in the garbage.
- Trade on FreeCycle.com (www.freecycle.org/). While trading doesn’t always mean money exchanges hands, know how much better you could feel by donating your old unwanted items to someone who really needs these.
Thees are just a few easy-to-use tips to limit the number of garbage bags you have to haul to the front curb for pick-up. There are far better choices you can make.
