Prudent and Practical

Spring is HERE and with that, the inevitable spring cleaning.  Before you throw everything away, remember this: each day Americans alone produce about 4.6 pounds of waste per day.  While you may know what to do with certain items – items with the recyclable symbol can go to the recycle bin and spare items can go to Goodwill or Salvation Army.

Reduce

One important way to reduce is to stop drinking bottled water!  Most bottled water containers end up in the landfill even though they can be recycled.  They also take quite a few resources to create and research has shown that many companies falsely state their water is “pure” – meaning you can get comparable water from your kitchen sink.  Invest in a BPA free water bottle or metal bottle and a water filter attachment for your sink.  Many fridges now come with water filters already built in.  This not only helps ease the environmental impact, but also the financial impact on you.  For more ways to recycle based on the different rooms in your home, check out Reduce.Org.

Another big thing is to stop using plastic bags when you get groceries.  You can purchase the cheap reusable bags or reuse the plastic bags you already have at home.  You may also be able to find alternatives at Goodwill, Salvation Army, garage sales, or consignment shops.  I’m more interested in this option – many of the cheap reusable bags are “Made in China” which kind of defeats the purpose.  If you’re decent with a sewing machine, you can sew your own.

Reuse

I like to reuse stuff because I like to come up with new ways to use it.  Towels you’re not using could be turned into a beach bag and clean jars (think peanut butter and jelly, pill canisters) can be made into small item storage.  In fact, I reused my parents living room set – they didn’t have room for it and I had a new apartment, so I used them.  The set they purchased to replace the previous is now ours too.  Now that D and I have a house, one set is downstairs and one set is upstairs – it worked out great for everyone.

Gallon milk containers are reused during Christmas-time around here.  A string of C9 bulbs are placed on the perimeter of the lawn and driveway.  Holes are cut in the bottom of the containers and placed over the lights for a cool glowing effect similar to luminaries. This is a popular and cheap thing to do, especially if you drink a lot of milk!

My favorite is composting!  There are a couple different ways to do this.  Traditional compost can be created by throwing in leaves, grass clippings, fresh produce scraps, and napkins.  The bin can be created easily by screwing together a few spare pallets or you can use a spare garbage can.  Vermicompost is composting with worms.  You can either buy a specialized worm bin or create your own from a common closet storage bin.  The worm colony can eat up to two pounds of scraps (fresh produce, but no citrus, and paper) per day!  Plus compost and worm “castings” (aka: poo) are fantastic for your yard and gardening needs.

Recycle

Ok, we all pretty much know about recycling, but what about big items?  If you have mattresses or carpet in very good condition, you could donate to Habitat for Humanity.  Other options would be to list the items on Freecycle or Craigslist.

If you have “technotrash” such as computer-related items, cell phones, rechargeable batteries, and printer cartridges, go to GreenDisk to find out where you can recycle them safely.

To get rid of hazardous waste or recycling, visit Earth 911 for the place nearest to you that can help out.

Resources (hm, a 4th “R”)

A couple of my favorite places to visit for RRR help are the MN Pollution Control Agency and IdealBite.  IdealBite has an option to sign up for a daily tip – it’s a short and sweet email I enjoy every morning.  Sam Champion’s Just One Thing on the Good Morning America website has many ideas for reducing, reusing, and recycling.