Today’s trash day?
You’re laying in bed when all of a sudden you hear the garbage truck. It’s trash day and you forgot to put your cans, again.
What do you do? If you’re like the rest of us, you scramble to get out of bed, because you can’t afford to let your garbage pile build-up anymore.
Every year Americans contribute over 250 million tons of garbage to the world. If you’re tired of looking at growing trash mounds in your house, or you want to help the planet, you have to learn how to manage waste at home.
Imagine how different your life would be if you could reduce the trash in your home by 50% or more. Instead of rushing to beat the garbage truck, you could lay back in bed, knowing you can afford to wait until next week.
Are you ready to be less trashy? Read on to learn about the simplest ways to manage trash.
How to Manage Waste at Home
Learning how to manage waste, is all about finding simple ways you can cut down on your trash contribution right now. For instance, do you use plastic bags for your grocery shopping?
A small, and easy step you can take, is to start using cloth bags instead of plastic. You’ll soon find that you’ll begin using your bags for all sorts of things that aren’t even related to grocery shopping. Clothes, household items, pet needs, all can benefit from cloth bags.
When you cut plastic bags out of your life, you’ll instantly reduce the amount of garbage you bring it to your home. We suggest buying more than one reusable cloth bag, or insulated bag, and storing them in your kitchen. After you get comfortable using the new bags, you can begin composting at home too.
Less Packaging Is Better
Ready for another easy way to reduce waste that you probably didn’t think about? Start paying attention to the packaging on your food.
Here are a few tips to buy food with less packaging:
- Buy food in bulk
- Choose brands that use less packaging
- Buy household items in bulk
- Avoid microwave dinners
- Find dairy items with returnable containers
- Go to the farmer’s market
The next time you go grocery shopping, pay close attention to the packaging your food is in. When you open a food item at home, notice how many bags within bags there are. For example, a lot of food items that have single-serving sizes will individually wrap each serving.
Cutout Microwave Dinners
If you notice that a lot of your food has access to packaging materials, try to find alternative products. If you’re a fan of microwave dinners, you’re using a lot of access packaging just for a tiny meal. Instead, consider trading in some of your instant meals for delicious homemade options.
Dairy Containers
Next, you can also find dairy companies that allow you to bring back the containers. Finally, when all else fails, try buying the majority of your groceries at local farmer’s markets. You’ll be supporting your community, while also cutting down on the amount of packaging for your food.
Reuse Durable Containers
A big part of reducing waste is finding multipurpose uses for everyday items. Durable containers are a great place to start. When you’re throwing things away, keep the sturdy containers that are durable enough to reuse.
Here’s a shortlist of containers you should consider reusing:
- Bottles
- Boxes
- Bags
- Glass containers
- Plastic containers
- Paper bags
Paper bags can be a lifesaver if you don’t have a recycling bin. Now, you can easily store all of your plastic, and other recyclables, in the corner of your kitchen, in an upright paper bag. Paper bags also work great if you need to make a cover to protect one of your favorite books.
Print on Both Sides
If you have a printer, you should be reusing the paper by printing things on both sides. For kids, have them do their arts and crafts on the back of any printed paper that you don’t need.
Food Containers
Anytime you come into contact with a sturdy glass container that doesn’t contain any dangerous chemicals, keep it for storing food. Plastic containers also work great for storing food, however, they’ll have less shelf life. Over time, plastic does start to break down and can leak chemicals into your food.
Avoid Bottled Drinks
Bottled water, energy drinks, and all sorts of bottled drinks are bad for the environment. These bottles end up piling up and becoming a huge source of waste for planet Earth. If you live in the area that doesn’t have tap water that’s safe to drink, consider buying a filter for the home.
However, if the tap water is safe for you to drink at home, start using a reusable container to transport your water in. If you want to take things to the next level, go ahead and stop drinking things that come in a can as well. For instance, instead of buying a 12 pack of lemonade, or soda, try making mixed drinks.
Buy in Bulk
If you still need to get filtered water, or you have a favorite soda brand you can’t live without, buy large containers instead of individual sizes. For example, get a gallon of water instead of a tiny water bottle. this way, you’ll buy less plastic, while still getting the filtered water you need.
Cut Down on Paper Use
Paper waste is easy to have, and you probably don’t even notice that you’re doing it. Bills piling up on the kitchen counters, unread newspapers laying around, and magazines, are all normal to find in someone’s house. However, all of these items cause an excess of paper waste.
Instead, try to find ways to go paperless with all the company’s you have business with. Bills, bank statements, health insurance, are all notices you can have sent electronically by email. If you like reading the newspaper or magazines, consider reading them online.
Do you get a lot of junk mail? If so, take the necessary steps to unsubscribe yourself from their mailing list.
If you have all of your updates come in the paperless form, you won’t have to worry about wasting trees, and you’ll be cutting down on your paper waste. You’ll most likely find it easier to keep track of your records when they’re all digital.
Feel Good About Your Trash
You should be proud of yourself for taking the time to learn how to manage waste in your home. The world needs environmentally savvy people like you to help keep things beautiful.
Are you looking for more ways to do your part with the environment? Going green is easier than you think. Go ahead and check out the rest of this site.
