How to Reduce the Amount of Garbage You Create

With a little fore thought and determination, you can reduce the amount of garbage you create by as much as 40 to 60 percent. Read on to learn more.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Be observant
• Know what can be recycled
• Recycling containers

How to Reduce the Amount of Garbage You Create

1. Buy products with minimal packaging. The choices you make when buying items will send a message to manufacturers.

2. Look for products packaged in recycled or recyclable material. If you have to deal with packaging, make sure it can be recycled.

3. Recycle as much as you can. Things that couldn't be recycled a few years ago, are finding new life today. New technology an processing techniques are paving the way for more materials to be reused.

4. If you have something you can't recycle, reuse it. Can you store something in it, or use it in another way. Be creative; maybe it can be used in making crafts or a school project.

5. Call your local Solid Waste District office. They can offer ideas that will help you in recycling and reducing waste.

6. Build a compost bin for yard trimmings and food waste. Do not put any yard clippings in that have pesticides or weed killers on them. Do not put any meat products, cooking oils or fats into your compost materials.

Tips & Warnings

• Be aware of what you're buying.
• Call or write the manufacturer's of your favorite products and ask that they use less packaging.
• Properly dispose of things you can't reuse or recycle.
• Don't litter.

[thndrstrck63]

on 7/14/2008 FIXED!! Thanks for catching that! After you have looked at them for hours, you tend to miss the most blatant mistakes!
Thanks again!

[vallain]

on 7/14/2008 Good article. (you left out the word "not" in the last sentence of step 6)