How Little Trash Do You Produce?

Monday is trash day in my neighborhood, and as I take my morning walk and look at all the garbage cans, it always amazes and upsets me that we produce so much trash. When you think about the fact that most of what we put out for the sanitation collectors ends up in a landfill where much of it will NEVER decompose, the enormity of the problem hits you, or at least it hits me. So how do we reduce the amount of trash? I will give you some simple tips. I know some of them you've heard before, but this is such a daunting problem it bears repeating.

Ditch the bottles. I know many of us are addicted to the water bottle, but in most cases your home bottle with filtered water is just fine. Can you imagine how many of those bottles are sitting in landfills? If each of us reduced our consumption of bottled water by 50%, and used our own bottle and filtered water the rest of the time, imagine what a difference that would make.

Dispose of disposables. Don't use paper and plastic dishes, containers and silverware. It's a little less convenient to have a party and use real dishes, but think about the paper and plastic you are saving, not to mention the money you're saving

Banish excess packaging. Whenever possible, buy items with the least amount of packaging. This includes bulk items like cereal, rice, dried fruits and dried nuts from health stores. There is no reason to buy food with excessive packaging.

Cook. This will obviously save you money, be more healthy, and reduce unnecessary packaging. If you plan ahead you can make several meals at one time. I know, this means you have to be organized!

Remember when Ed Begley, back in the 1970's, used to make sure that his weekly trash could fit in the glove box of his Volkswagen? We all thought he was a little crazy at the time, but mainstream America is catching up with him. I don't know if that goal is achievable, but I do know I'm down to less than one small trash can per week. If you keep these tips in mind, I guarantee you will reduce your addition to the landfill.