10 Easy Ways To Reduce Household Waste

Published by Hubert Den Draak under Kitchen, Reuse/Recycle

Large amounts of waste to landfill Turning the World from Dumpster into Oyster

Things were so simple when we still lived in town: every Thursday night we’d place our full garbage cans on the curb and next morning they had magically emptied themselves. Sometimes we’d hear the raccoons having a midnight party in them. Other than that, getting rid of our garbage was a pretty simple and sanitary procedure — until we moved out to the country.

Out here where we live you are responsible for getting rid of your own garbage. You throw it in your pickup truck (you’re not really part of the community until you’ve got yourself a rusty pickup with duct tape to keep the fenders in place) and take it to the dump. And that’s where things suddenly get a lot less sanitary.

If you’ve never been to your city dump I can recommend visiting one for an educational experience. We live near a medium-sized city, and its official dumpsite stretches from horizon to horizon. A complete network of ramps, lanes, traffic signs and roads criss-crosses the entire area.

Computer waste Subdivisions are dedicated to computers and electronics, plastics, household appliances, tires and so on. An endless stream of city garbage trucks files in to dump loads.

To create more room, bulldozers spread mutilated garbage into freshly dug trenches, then cover the stuff with dirt. Layer upon layer upon layer of garbage.

You get out of your truck and your gag reflex kicks in, triggered by the potent stench of decay and a soup of mixed chemicals oozing into the soil. It won’t take you long to realize that this is not an environmentally sustainable situation. In fact, this is a toxic time bomb waiting to go off. And covering it up with dirt won’t make it go away.

We went home and decided to seriously cut back on our household waste. Turns out, it’s easy. That summer we cut our 2 garbage cans-a-week routine cut back to 1 small garbage bag every two weeks. That amounts to about an 80% reduction of garbage production! And it wasn’t a Herculean effort and didn’t require an IQ of 110 (not with me around). This is what we did:

Bulk bins

Bulk Stores rule! No wrapping, no packaging, no frills – just about anything you may need sits in large bins, ready to scoop. From pasta to peanut butter (self-ground) and anything in between. Just go easy on those chocolate chips.
BYOB (Bring Your Own Bag). Bring a cool-looking tote to take your groceries away in, and forgo those plastic carrier bags that stay around for the next few millennia.
Recycle. Most cities and towns have a recycling program in place for paper, glass, tin, even kitchen waste. Garages will take your old car batteries and tires. Many hardware stores will take your old paint, batteries and old CFLs.
Compost your kitchen scraps. Your flower beds will be happy
Lug Your Mug for take-out coffee; many places will even give you a discount for it.
Avoid take-out food. I know, that can be a challenge on a Friday night. But all those plastic and foam take-out boxes produce a big stream of toxic garbage.
Eat home-cooked meals. Okay, another potential mine field here, but let’s face it: all those plastic and aluminum trays that those frozen dinners and prepackaged meals come in don’t really compensate for their overload of sodium, saturated fats and missing vitamins.
Drink tap water instead of bottled water. Evian and Perrier are no longer cool.
Repair, don’t throw out. Need I say more?
Buy durable. Sure, it may be a little bit more to get the better quality product, but it will last much longer and always pays for itself in the long run.

The best thing about cutting back on garbage: the instant results and savings.

And I’m sure those raccoons will find another place to party.

18 Responses to “10 Easy Ways To Reduce Household Waste”

Rishad Omar says:

March 3, 2009 at 8:00 am

Ideally, we should all be conscience of the waste and devastation we are causing. Unfortunately, I think that we will only become more environmentally friendly when it affects our pockets. So, I believe government regulation is probably the way to go.
Examples: Cars and electronics must be returned to manufacturers who then have to dispose/recycle. It will be easier to monitor the few manufacturers then to monitor the general public.

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Lory says:

March 3, 2009 at 8:17 am

Another way to reduce waste in landfills is to DONATE you unwanted items to a thrift store. I am a Store Manager for SAVERS or Value Village depending on what part of the country you live in. We take almost anything except for liquids and large appliances. Anything we can not sell or do not sell, gets recycled. So you can feel GREAT when you DONATE!

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Sukhendu Roy Chowdhury says:

March 3, 2009 at 9:44 am

We must, first of all, accept the fact that we do waste a lot of things. The second step is how to reduce this wasteage through recycling.

This article helps us identify the ways how it can be done.

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Shilpa says:

March 3, 2009 at 10:28 am

Great tips! The 10 golden points should be followed by everyone in order to make a genuine effort to transform our world from a dumpster to an oyester. Adding my own 2 cents to the already great list for reducing garbage: use of kitchen towels to wipe hands.

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Lucas says:

March 3, 2009 at 11:48 am

Thank you for making people aware of our throw-a-way society. The manufacturers and retailers doing a good job on keeping our focus on buying and wasting, that’s how they make their profits. I feel, we the society are “so stupid” and don’t stand up for us and the planet. Government legislation and community effort is needed to bring about a serious change.
Another tip, before you buy ask yourself “Do I really need this”?
Lucas

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Ilona says:

March 3, 2009 at 12:47 pm

Great Article! Everyone should visit a landfill. More tips:

- Go paperless for bill-paying, newsletters etc.
- Rethink gift-giving; we all give and get a lot of unneeded, unwanted stuff.
- Try the new generation of wines out of a box.
- You can haul your tap water around in the new hip healthy durable aluminum water bottles that can be found everywhere now.
- Buy from used/thrift/yard-sale places or look for products that are made from all the materials everyone is recycling to complete the positive loop.

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surya says:

March 3, 2009 at 8:16 pm

Great information and tips. the point is how we take the action in our daily life. take part to fight those waste, then our environment and world will lasting longer.

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Asha says:

March 3, 2009 at 11:49 pm

Really really a serious problem which requires an immediate addressal, and YES it is not difficult at all WE ALL can do it and SAVE the mother earth.

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Tracy says:

March 4, 2009 at 1:41 am

As a blog topic, somebody should investigate The Great Garbage Patch in the Pacific.
http://www.sciam.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=the-great-garbage-patch-09-02-26

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Sudarshan Bharatiya says:

March 4, 2009 at 3:45 am

Ah! what a coincidence !!
Just a couple of minutes ago I was visualising a paperless (Truly) Office . With tall claims all these years, we could not reduce the consumption of paper by 50% , So establishing a paperfree environment has remained a mirage.
It’s time every small and big organisation, state & central Administartion shoukld implement in action to reduce the garbage and help recycle the wastes, time and again. Bravo !

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Jacquie says:

March 4, 2009 at 10:06 am

Every effort to stem the tide of waste is a valiant individual effort, and community service. It should be a given that we each invest our personal energy to help modify the bulk of waste out there. However, with all due respect, if the corporations keep manufacturing the plastic, most people push their lazy button, and go with the flow. The bottom line is profit, not human sustainability. I would rather not think this way, but I believe the waste civilization produces will be our ultimate calling card. Horrifying.

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Jay An says:

March 4, 2009 at 4:38 pm

Great read. I will add this too
Reduce paper towel. Wash and reuse kitchen towels. Even if you have to kitchen paper rolls, tear them and use a small piece

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Mahak Sachdev says:

March 6, 2009 at 1:15 pm

Great and some Easy ways to reduce your garbage.
We just need to be aware towards our degrading environment.
Save Environment . . Save EARTH . . Save LIFE..

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harish volam says:

March 8, 2009 at 3:27 am

i’m on the track of maintaining cleanliness. but i don’t think that will foster the community to do the same. because it is the responsibility of every citizen to think of the deleterious effects of using plastic.for example, we and i too shoppe for garments or something under need.to carry that we get a plastic bag and not a Eco-friendly bag instead. so i request everybody to promote literacy regarding this aspect wherever you are involved in. thank you.

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Patrizia Iacino says:

March 25, 2009 at 10:35 am

Support artists who use recycled material in their art instead of buying objects produced industrially.
I mostly use things that cannot be recycled like rubber bands from vegetables, contact lens cases, caps from milk and water, I am always looking for more, please save them for us.

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Hubert Den Draak says:

March 25, 2009 at 5:50 pm

Patricia, your comment on using “unrecycleables” for art made made me very happy. Not only would it help replace mass-produced “art” (a contradition in terms and boooring at best), it would also help local artists AND divert stuff from landfills! We have 2 art pieces created like this in our home, and they’re always a pleasure to look at for those three reasons.

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Nancy says:

April 7, 2009 at 5:27 pm

Wow, we do almost all of these. We also save all food jars (i.e. pasta sauce, pickles, etc) and store our bulk purchases in at home as well.

Coffee cans can be used as planters, especially this time of year

Magazines can be recycled into gorgeous collages or paper beads..especially fun with the kids.

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Ganesha says:

August 11, 2009 at 1:47 pm

We have a great incentive in our town for people to recycle: Trash tags and curbside recycling. Here’s how it works:
You buy trash tags at the local grocery store or City Hall, $13.55 per sheet of five. One sticker per 33 gallon, 50 lb can of trash, more for bigger cans or bulk stuff. Our city uses this instead of monthly trash bills.
Curbside recycling is FREE, and as much as you want to put out (obviously it must be base items, not stuff that has to be deconstructed).
We put out one can of trash every two to three weeks… So one month’s worth of “trash bill” actually stretches two to four months!
Here’s our city’s trash site: http://tinyurl.com/m88gdq

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