So many of our everyday products are designed to have a short useful life. Cut plastic and single-use items out of your daily routine. “People love when I wrap presents in maps,” Hoover says. Need wrapping paper? Use pages torn from catalogs, the Sunday comics, or even an old road atlas. And as items are outgrown, pass them on or resell them.īefore you purchase anything, ask: Is this (say, a garlic press) a thing I need? Or is there another item I can use or repurpose for the same task (like that kitchen knife)? Get creative. If you have kids, always say yes to hand-me-downs. Tap friends, neighbors, consignment shops, garage sales, flea markets, and secondhand e-commerce sites first-especially for things like Halloween costumes or that power washer you’ll use just once or twice. Even better, when possible, borrow or buy used goods. When you purchase long-lasting clothes, housewares, and electronics, you’ll trash them less often. Laura Carlin Buy well-made products, and borrow the items that you rarely use. Here are some places where you can start. How? Think more conscientiously about your everyday habits and develop new routines. “ Reduce should always be the number-one priority,” Hoover says. However, waste prevention is even better.” So start by cutting down on what you use in the first place. And we toss about 40 percent of all our food, composting only about 5 percent of that load, according to the EPA.Īlthough even recycling comes with environmental costs, NRDC’s Senior Resource Specialist Darby Hoover says that “compared to landfilling, recycling is the clear environmental winner. For example, we recycle only 14 percent of all plastic packaging.
In 2014 this saved carbon emissions equivalent to the yearly output of 38 million passenger cars. Environmental Protection Agency’s most recent available data, we collectively tossed 258.5 million tons of stuff.įortunately, not all the items we discard end up in landfills we recycle or compost more than one-third of our trash. And it adds up quickly: In 2014 alone, according to the U.S. That’s the amount of trash-banana peels, frayed toothbrushes, busted electronics, plastic wrappers, greasy pizza boxes-that the average American generates every day.
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