Reducing waste in your home and that you use on a regular basis, including reusing and recycling, is a great way to live more naturally. It lets you be kinder to the environment, reduce your carbon footprint, and make use of as many materials as possible.
Start Meal Planning and Cooking at Home
A simple way to start reducing waste in your home is to do meal planning and cook more meals at home. This helps you to reduce waste from processed foods and frozen food containers. Think about how many food containers you end up throwing away and not recycling just from eating out. Fast food restaurants wrap every single food item, plus most leftover containers are not recyclable.
When you use a lot of processed ingredients, all that plastic and glass is just using precious resources that end up getting thrown away. The more you cook from home with fresh, whole ingredients, the less waste you are going to use.
Reuse Your Containers
There are likely many containers you purchase that hold different foods and ingredients, that you currently just throw out. But before you put anything in the trash, consider if it can be reused for something else.
For example, those plastic butter or margarine containers are a good size for smaller amounts of leftovers. You can reuse glass jars as jars to hold salads or other meal prepping ingredients. Often times, deli meats come in a plastic container that works great for bringing your lunch to work.
Learn How to Compost
Compost is the practice of taking much of what you would have thrown away, and instead returning it to the earth. All you really need is a good-sized compost bin where you will throw items like egg shells, banana peels, potato peels, coffee grounds, avocado skin, and vegetable scraps. You can also compost other items like grass clippings, printer paper, newspaper, and yard waste. Compost is great to add to your garden as natural fertilizer.
Reduce Waste in the Kitchen
A lot of the waste you go through in your home happens in the kitchen. Think of some more ways you can reduce waste in this area of your home.
Use microfiber cloths instead of paper towels. Stop buying single-use paper towels! These are such a waste and can’t be recycled. Microfiber cloths works just as well, if not better, to soak up liquids, clean, dry your hands, and so much more.
Get reusable baggies for lunches and snacks. Those plastic storage bags are not necessary when you can get reusable ones that are easy to rinse and keep using over and over again.