Every day every person in the United States creates 4.4 pounds of household waste. And while that might not seem like a lot, if you take into account that there are about 307 million people living in the United States that's 1.4 billion pounds of waste created every day in the United States alone.
What can we do about that?
A lot actually. The good news is that we already recycle and compost about 32% of our household waste. But we can do better than that. There are many ways to reduce our waste and plenty of good ways to dispose of it.
Reduce It!
1 Bring your shopping bag everywhere you go, not just the grocery store.
2 Pack a lunch and bring a cloth napkin.
3 Take a BPA free water bottle on the go.
4 Take your BPA free coffee mug on the go.
Reuse It!
5 Pack a lunch and use reusable containers, Snack Taxi's, and silverware.
6 Sell or donate old clothing, toys, and books.
7 Buy them too! Check out Goodwill, Salvation Army and your local consignment store.
8 Use the library.
Compost It!
9 You can buy a compost bin or make your own. Now you can purchase enzymes to help with decomposition, instead of relying soley on turning the compost yourself.
10 No room for a compost bin? Get a worm bin and put it under your sink.
11 Can't do that either? Use Bio Bags and Poopbags that biodegrade so at least you aren't sealing your waste in plastic for hundreds of years.
Recycle It!
Glass and Aluminum recycling is very energy and cost efficient.
12 Check with your local government for information on how to recycle where you live.
UPcycle It!
13 Have wrappers and other items that you can't recycle? Check out Terra Cycle. They have collected over 1 billion units of waste and turned it into 29 different products!
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