Reduce, Reuse, & Recycle
Reduce Video
Reduce Tips
Tips to Reduce Wasting
Waste reduction in your work space
- Make double sided copies whenever possible.
- Reuse envelopes or use two-way envelopes.
- Make scratch pads from used paper.
- Use narrow ruled notebooks.
- Save documents on external media rather than make hard copies.
- Print more words on each page (margins and font size reduction).
- Proof documents on screen before printing.
- Print drafts on paper already printed on one side.
- Donate old magazines and journals to charity.
- Reduce advertising mail by writing to:
Direct Marketing Assn., Mail Preference Service,
PO Box 3861, NY, NY 10163-3861.
Request that your business be deleted from their list.
Waste reduction in your garden
- Use a mulching mower or retrofit your mower and leave grass clippings on the lawn.
- Compost grass clipping and other yard trimmings onsite or your landscaper to send such green matter to a composting facility.
- Use compost as a topsoil amendment or request your landscaper to use it.
- Choose a landscape design that needs low maintenance and generates little waste such as evergreens, perennials or xeriscaping.
- Buy a chipper and turn tree and shrub clippings into mulch.
Waste reduction in your kitchen
- Use durable towels, tablecloths, napkins, dishes, flatware, cups and glasses.
- Bring your own cup(s) and utensil(s) wherever you go.
- Ask food vendors to offer discounts on beverages served in your own mug.
- Encourage your guests to take home extra food (unless they just hated it oops!).
- Offer smaller portions to your family Ð they may even thank you for it!
- Arrange for food bank pick-up of your un-served food if having large parties, and be sure to provide recycling containers for your guests for cans/bottles to recycle and also for organics to compost
- Set up a compost container to capture your compostable food wastes or coffee grounds, and then compost them into soil amendment.
- Use reusable coffee filters or unbleached disposable filters.
- Reuse trash can liners or eliminate them where possible.
- Avoid buying condiments in individual packets.
Waste reduction at the store
- Buy beverages in returnable or recyclable containers. Most beverages are packaged in recyclable materials, which include glass, plastic milk and water jugs (HPDE), plastic soda bottles (PET), and aluminum.
- Buy concentrated products to reduce packaging. Examples are concentrated fruit juice, laundry detergent, fabric softener and window cleaner.
- Avoid buying packaged foods with disposable, nonreheatable microwave dishes. If you must buy them, the dishes can be re-used as picnic plates, plant saucers or pet dishes.
- Carry a canvas or net tote bag when you shop. It's not only a safe, convenient way to carry purchases, it eliminates the need for the merchants' disposable paper or plastic bags.
- Letters and other correspondence that are printed on one side only can be cut along the folds and re-used to make shopping lists.
- Cancel subscriptions to magazines or newspapers you don't actually read, especially if you could read them at the local library. Give old issues to friends, co-workers, nursing homes, laundromats or libraries.
- Buy products that are durable, well-made and repairable. Check warranties, repair services and availability of parts and accessories. Read consumer magazines (your library probably carries copies) to learn which products are more durable and have longer warranties.
- Bar soap generates less packaging waste and is less expensive than liquid soap in plastic bottles with pump dispensers.
- Don't discard usable clothing or household items. Hold a yard sale or donate the items to charitable organizations. Worn clothing and other textiles can be used as rags or for craft projects.
- List all the things you can recycle through your city's curbside program or your local recycling center. Then list the things in your trash that are nonrecyclable. Next time you go shopping, look for recyclable substitutes.
Waste reduction for your holiday (gift wrapping)
- Design your own gift-wrap by using a paper grocery or department store bag and adding decorations such as drawings, stamped patterns, or pictures cut from magazines. Let the kids do the designing. It will keep them busy on stormy days.
- Spruce up brown paper wrapping with pretty bows, which can be saved and used for many years.
- Purchase sturdier gift bags (or save the ones that you receive) that can be used again for another present.
- For large, hard to wrap gifts, just add a large fancy bow.
- Or hide the large, unwieldy gift somewhere in the house or yard, and give the person a card with a clue, or a series of clue cards, to lead them to the present.
- Save those gift boxes and use them again. Many gift boxes fold down and take little room to store in a closet or cabinet.
- Start a tradition of Christmas stockings for each person. Little gifts can be put in the stocking without being wrapped. The stockings can be used year after year.
- Some gifts come in decorated gift boxes. Just add a bow and a gift tag, and the present is ready to be displayed.
- Wrap gifts in the funny pages or old posters.
- If you do use store-bought wrapping paper, buy the kind with recycled content (the more post-consumer content, the better).
LEARN MORE
Tips to Reduce Wasting
Waste reduction in your work space
- Make double sided copies whenever possible.
- Reuse envelopes or use two-way envelopes.
- Make scratch pads from used paper.
- Use narrow ruled notebooks.
- Save documents on external media rather than make hard copies.
- Print more words on each page (margins and font size reduction).
- Proof documents on screen before printing.
- Print drafts on paper already printed on one side.
- Donate old magazines and journals to charity.
- Reduce advertising mail by writing to:
Direct Marketing Assn., Mail Preference Service,
PO Box 3861, NY, NY 10163-3861.
Request that your business be deleted from their list.
Waste reduction in your garden
- Use a mulching mower or retrofit your mower and leave grass clippings on the lawn.
- Compost grass clipping and other yard trimmings onsite or your landscaper to send such green matter to a composting facility.
- Use compost as a topsoil amendment or request your landscaper to use it.
- Choose a landscape design that needs low maintenance and generates little waste such as evergreens, perennials or xeriscaping.
- Buy a chipper and turn tree and shrub clippings into mulch.
Waste reduction in your kitchen
- Use durable towels, tablecloths, napkins, dishes, flatware, cups and glasses.
- Bring your own cup(s) and utensil(s) wherever you go.
- Ask food vendors to offer discounts on beverages served in your own mug.
- Encourage your guests to take home extra food (unless they just hated it oops!).
- Offer smaller portions to your family Ð they may even thank you for it!
- Arrange for food bank pick-up of your un-served food if having large parties, and be sure to provide recycling containers for your guests for cans/bottles to recycle and also for organics to compost
- Set up a compost container to capture your compostable food wastes or coffee grounds, and then compost them into soil amendment.
- Use reusable coffee filters or unbleached disposable filters.
- Reuse trash can liners or eliminate them where possible.
- Avoid buying condiments in individual packets.
Waste reduction at the store
- Buy beverages in returnable or recyclable containers. Most beverages are packaged in recyclable materials, which include glass, plastic milk and water jugs (HPDE), plastic soda bottles (PET), and aluminum.
- Buy concentrated products to reduce packaging. Examples are concentrated fruit juice, laundry detergent, fabric softener and window cleaner.
- Avoid buying packaged foods with disposable, nonreheatable microwave dishes. If you must buy them, the dishes can be re-used as picnic plates, plant saucers or pet dishes.
- Carry a canvas or net tote bag when you shop. It's not only a safe, convenient way to carry purchases, it eliminates the need for the merchants' disposable paper or plastic bags.
- Letters and other correspondence that are printed on one side only can be cut along the folds and re-used to make shopping lists.
- Cancel subscriptions to magazines or newspapers you don't actually read, especially if you could read them at the local library. Give old issues to friends, co-workers, nursing homes, laundromats or libraries.
- Buy products that are durable, well-made and repairable. Check warranties, repair services and availability of parts and accessories. Read consumer magazines (your library probably carries copies) to learn which products are more durable and have longer warranties.
- Bar soap generates less packaging waste and is less expensive than liquid soap in plastic bottles with pump dispensers.
- Don't discard usable clothing or household items. Hold a yard sale or donate the items to charitable organizations. Worn clothing and other textiles can be used as rags or for craft projects.
- List all the things you can recycle through your city's curbside program or your local recycling center. Then list the things in your trash that are nonrecyclable. Next time you go shopping, look for recyclable substitutes.
Waste reduction for your holiday (gift wrapping)
- Design your own gift-wrap by using a paper grocery or department store bag and adding decorations such as drawings, stamped patterns, or pictures cut from magazines. Let the kids do the designing. It will keep them busy on stormy days.
- Spruce up brown paper wrapping with pretty bows, which can be saved and used for many years.
- Purchase sturdier gift bags (or save the ones that you receive) that can be used again for another present.
- For large, hard to wrap gifts, just add a large fancy bow.
- Or hide the large, unwieldy gift somewhere in the house or yard, and give the person a card with a clue, or a series of clue cards, to lead them to the present.
- Save those gift boxes and use them again. Many gift boxes fold down and take little room to store in a closet or cabinet.
- Start a tradition of Christmas stockings for each person. Little gifts can be put in the stocking without being wrapped. The stockings can be used year after year.
- Some gifts come in decorated gift boxes. Just add a bow and a gift tag, and the present is ready to be displayed.
- Wrap gifts in the funny pages or old posters.
- If you do use store-bought wrapping paper, buy the kind with recycled content (the more post-consumer content, the better).
LEARN MORE
