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Becoming A "Trash Stingy" Family!
This April, why not have the whole family work together to make powerful changes for the planet, and have fun doing it! This month, make a game out of reducing your trash. Did you know that most of what we put into the waste stream could be either recycled, reused, composted or avoided altogether?
The EPA's Municipal Solid Waste Fact Book provides these statistics about an average household's trash profile:
- 35% of what we throw away is packaging and containers.
- 27.4% is what we call 'nondurable goods', things we use once and throw away, like disposable diapers, paper goods, magazines and newspapers.
- 15% is durable goods: things that are meant to last a long time, from big things, like cars, refrigerators, and last year's computer, to tiny ones, like batteries.
- 14.3% is yard trimmings,
- 8.3% is food waste.
Here are some solutions you can do together!
Taming the "Packaging Monster":
- Go to your store's bulk section and look for produces that your family enjoys. By buying your cereal, nuts, and dried fruit in this manner, you can save pounds of trash.
- Also, ask your neighbors and friends about food cooperatives. These are groups that allow you to take advantage of buying food, recycled paper goods, and sometimes even organic clothing which is very lightly packaged and at much lower prices - often close to wholesale!
- Look into joining a local Community Supported Agriculture group (CSA.) In this is program, local farms offer produce subscriptions, where buyers receive a weekly or monthly basket of produce, flowers, fruits, eggs, milk, meats, or any sort of different farm products. To find a farm in your area go to: http://www.localharvest.org/csa/
Non durable...think twice.
Did you know that organic cloth napkins, dish cloths, and diapers can not only reduce your family's waste stream, but reduce soil, water and air pollution too?
- Look at the newspapers and magazines that you currently subscribe to and look for alternatives. Could some of them become on-line subscriptions? In some neighborhoods, neighbors have even begun sharing newspaper subscriptions. This can cut your newspaper waste in half!
- Use both sides of the paper from your computer printer. If the paper can only be used once, use the back as a scratch paper. Go to the September issue of Spirit Living and adapt the memory book directions to make your own pads and sketch books from waste paper
- Choose healthier paper! Did you know that hemp, kenaf, flax, recycled jeans, and even sanitized elephant poop - http://sweetorganicsandnaturals.com/ -elpopabo.html can be used for making paper and boxes? Here is a source list for many useful tree-free solutions. http://www.conservatree.com/treefree.html.
Durable means sharable!
- Many of the durable goods we throw away can be either recycled or used by someone else. Just because you don't want it anymore, doesn't mean someone else might not be thrilled to have it!
- Before you toss clothing, electronics, furniture, toys, books or other durables, call your municipal waste center, agencies like Goodwill Industries, The Salvation Army or your local charity thrift shop. They may be either take the items to share with other people or have ideas about who can recycle them. (We have two very fashionable, professional friends that buy a majority of their clothing from Goodwill and thrift shops. They are savvy shoppers who get amazing bargains - like gorgeous cashmere sweaters for eight dollars and brand new Italian wool slacks for seven dollars - and also spread the wealth by bringing their new goodies to these shops for other shopper to find!)
Start using recyclable batteries!
Every year, nearly 3 billion batteries are thrown away by households across the country. Many of these batteries could have been replaced with rechargeables. Dangerous and harmful chemicals and metals can be found in batteries, such as nickel, mercury and lead acid, and if they are thrown away with the regular trash these can have a harmful effect on our environment. If the batteries are thrown away, they can potentially pollute lakes and streams as the metals vaporize into the air, when burned the batteries will exposing the environment and water to lead and acid. Time has proven that rechargeable batteries are cheaper in the long run and much easier on the environment.
- Buy a charger and rechargeable batteries in the sizes that you use most often.
- Get rechargeable or crank-powered flashlights for every area of the house. You'll have a flashlight handy when the power goes out and will have save a bunch of batteries from going to the landfill. These lights are available from many sources and will assure that you'll never get stuck with a dead flashlight ever again!
- The same kind of crank-powered technology has recently been applied to LED lanterns. These are bright enough to read by and are perfect for camping, tenting or power outages, too!
- Invest in a crank-powered AM/FM NOAA radio. (They are priced from about $29.99 - $59.99.) These are fabulous for the beach, at poolside, on camping trips and invaluable during a power outage. Some of the new varieties even will charge your cell phone! With only a minute of turning the crank handle, you'll get a full hour of music or weather reports. Your family will be prepared when you lose electricity during summer storms and be saving the environment!
Let's make dirt!
Lawn clippings, food waste and coffee grounds can be composted into clean, healthy food for your yard and garden.
- Composting involves mixing yard and household organic waste in a pile or bin and providing conditions that encourage decomposition. The decomposition process is fueled by millions of microscopic organisms (bacteria, fungi) that take up residence inside your compost pile, continuously devouring and recycling it to produce a rich organic fertilizer and valuable soil amendment.
- There is nothing cooler that realizing that your family can "make dirt" from garbage. Finished compost can help to feed your lawn, trees and garden plants with a rich, organic matter that they will LOVE!
- Home made compost reduces your waste stream and also your costs as it is a free alternative to many plant foods and commercial soil amendments!
- This website has all you need to know to get started and to improve your composting if you already do it! http://www.composting101.com/composting-tips.html.
A family focused on the planet can do a world of good!-- Editors.
Let us know how you reduced your trash! editors@spiritliving.org.
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