We live in an age where nearly everything is disposable. From our phones to what our food is packaged in, we throw a lot into the trash. The trash gets picked up once a week and then it's out of sight and out of mind for most people. However, it ends up in landfills and sometimes even the ocean. We just have too much waste being produced way too rapidly. Here are some tips to help you reduce the amount of trash you throw away.
1. Recycle
This is an obvious one and sometimes mandatory in states. The most common things we think of when we hear "recycling" are cans, paper, and water bottles, but you can also recycle other household items. These include your laundry detergent bottles, your old televisions, and other electronics such as phones and computers.
2. BYOB (Bring Your Own Bowls)
Many of us, when we go to a restaurant, don't always eat all of our food. We are given styrofoam or plastic boxes to take our leftovers home. After we heat these up, we toss the boxes out. Styrofoam is a polymer known as polystyrene. It is not biodegradable and thus accumulates in our oceans and landfills with almost no hope of decomposing. To help alleviate this problem, you can bring your own take out bowls with you! This is such an easy way to reduce waste.
3. Sanitary Products
So, if you're a woman, you realize how much waste a pad or tampon creates. The box, the wrapper, the applicator, and the actual sanitary product, there is just a lot of plastic being used for one thing you can use for 6 hours until you need a new one. Now, most people chose these products because there's the least amount of "handling" involved. However, next to the amount to waste produced, these products are also toxic to your body. The FDA does not require pad and tampon companies to list what chemicals they use! These are things that go inside your body! But do not worry, because there are alternatives. There are many companies with reusable pads and "period underwear." They're very easy to wash and use. There are also cups to replace the tampon. Cups are normally silicone and can last longer than a tampon. All of these are easy to use. They're also not as messy as you are imagining. Plus you never have to worry about running out!
4. Buying In Bulk/Reusable Bags
These are grouped together due to the fact they both involve grocery shopping. If you have the chance to buy in bulk, you should take the opportunity to. It is normally cheaper. Also, when buying in bulk, you can use reusable bags as well as mason jars if you're buying things such as rice. Using reusable bags also help reduce the waste in our environment as well as in our home. We all have that plastic bag filled with plastic bags, right?
