Five Steps to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle ~ Household Waste Recycling
Five Steps to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle
Household Waste Recycling...
If you have been looking for a way to deal with
your ever growing home trash bins, there are a few things you can do
which will cut them down to a more reasonable size. Here are five
simple steps anyone can take to reduce, reuse, and recycle their
household and kitchen garbage:
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Step 1 Reduce First The first step
in any household to deal with excess household and kitchen trash is
to look at the packaging all of your foods and other items come in.
When you are at the grocery store, consider the packaging of items
when you are deciding whether or not to buy something. If there is
a comparable option with less packaging, then opt to purchase that
item instead. This will reduce the amount of trash that ever enters
your home.
Step 2 Toss It, Dont Bring It Inside
The second step in eliminating all of the clutter and trash in your
home is to sort your mail outside near your trash can or a shredder.
I would estimate about 80% of the mail received in my home never
enters my house. We tend to get a lot of junk mail and excess
items which we will never look at or use. To help keep the
clutter and trash at bay, I sort and open all of the mail near the
outside trash and recycling container. Anything that does not
absolutely need to come into the house is disposed of before it ever
reaches the front door
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Step 3 Reuse Once items are in your
home, and have been used, look at ways to reuse them before they are
either recycled or thrown in the trash. This can easily include
washing out a Ziplock bag which was used for something other than
meat products and reusing your plastic containers for your leftovers
or lunch box. Look at each item you would normally throw away or
recycle and see if it has another use for you first.
Step 4 Recycle After an item is no
longer of use to you investigate whether or not it can be recycled
in your area. Take a quick visit to your local community recycling
center and find out what items they will accept for recycling. Most
local recycling centers will accept aluminum, plastics, glass and
paper. Find out the specifics in your area and make sure to take
all recyclable items to the recycling center.
Step 5 Compost Most kitchen waste
can be easily composted. It is a myth that composting requires a
large space and special expensive composting equipment. The easy
way to start composting is to find a kitchen compost container.
Your compost container can be something as simple as an old
margarine tub or as fancy as a stainless steel compost pail. Place
all unused foods into your compost container, except for meat
products. Meat products will attract flies and other unwanted pests
to your compost pile! Into your compost bucket you will place
vegetable and fruit trimmings, coffee grounds, coffee filters and
any bread products. Each day simply take your compost container out
and dump it in a pile in your yard. Turn over the pile occasionally
and you will have an amazing quality soil to use in your garden and
around your plants.
I hope
these five steps help you to think about ways that you can reduce,
reuse and recycle in your own home. If everyone does their part the
world will be a much better place to live.
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