Individual Change

Living Waste Free: Guide

Living waste free may seem impossible but it’s not… Trashisfortossers.com gives a great guild to follow:

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ESTABLISH YOUR “WHY?”

This is important so you you ever need some motivation too keep going, think of your why! Trashistossers tells us some reasons could be:

Are you a surfer who hates seeing plastic wash up on the beach?

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Have you experienced a health scare or issue after using a beauty product containing toxins?

Are you tired of spending $6 on a latte every single day?

Are you fed up with our political leaders not giving a damn about climate change?

Write it on your mirror, tattoo it on your bicep – always come back to you WHY.

Assess Your Waste:

Notice where your making the most waste. Notice what it is and how you can prevent this. Take it one step at a time, baby steps are good and won’t overwhelm you.

PRIORITIZE:

Start changing your everyday ways. Maybe instead of going out or buy coffee from a shop, make your lunch and coffee at home with reusable containers. It can be overwhelming to look at the trash you make but focus on one area at a time, it can be possible!

Replace your items as they run out:Image result for dont throw everything away

You don’t need to go out a buy all your products in zero waste right away. It can be very costly. A good idea is to wait until your products run out then replace them with a zero waste product. Throwing away your product that your not finished using up can be just as wasteful.

RESEARCH HOW TO PROPERLY RECYCLE OLD ITEMS, DONATE, SELL OR UP-CYCLE THEM:

 

 

Don’t just throw away all your old items in the trash. There are ways to property depose of them by recycling,

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composting, etc. You can find ways to reuse old items, donate them, or give them as a gift. As long as they don’t end up in landfills that is all that matters. If your really struggling what to do with something, look in to the TerraCycle program. They have come up with a solution to recycle just about everything you could think of!

REMEMBER: IT’S A PROCESS!

This is going to take time. It could take up to a year to fully go waste free. Be patient. And don’t give up!

“Everyone’s zero waste journey is different. So never compare yourself to other people. Get inspiration from them, communicate with other zero waste-ers in the process when you have questions or concerns, be supported by other people – not intimidated.”Image result for live waste free dont give up

 

America's Effort, Global Impact, Individual Change

11 Facts about Recycling

On a previous blog post I talked about what can and cannot be recycled. I can across this neat website! They gave such interesting facts about recycling I had to share!! Image result for recycling

11 Facts about Recycling:

  1. The average person generates over 4 pounds of trash every day and about 1.5 tons of solid waste per year.
  2. Americans make more than 200 million tons of garbage each year, enough to fill Busch Stadium from top to bottom twice a day. Next time you’re at a sporting event or tailgate, host a trash-free tailgate using only recyclable materials sign up for Trash-Free Tailgate.
  3. The EPA estimates that 75% of the American waste stream is recyclable, but we only recycle about 30% of it.
  4. We generate 21.5 million tons of food waste each year. If we composted that food, it would reduce the same amount of greenhouse gas as taking 2 million cars off the road.
  5. Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to listen to a full album on your iPod. Recycling 100 cans could light your bedroom for two whole weeks. Sign up for 5 Cans Challenge to save energy and show off your creative side.
  6. The Container Recycling Institute (CRI) estimates that the 36 billion aluminum cans land filled last year had a scrap value of more than $600 million.
  7. Americans throw away about 28 billion bottles and jars every year.
  8. Over 87% of Americans have access to curbside or drop-off paper recycling programs.
  9. In 2009, Americans threw away almost 9 million tons of glass. That could fill enough tractor trailers to stretch from NYC to LA (and back!).
  10. In 2010, paper recycling had increased over 89% since 1990.
  11. A glass container can go from a recycling bin to a store shelf in as few as 30 days.Image result for recycling the world

Be the change! Recycle! This may be something small that you are doing but it makes a BIG difference!!! Image result for recycling the world

The link is below:

https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-recycling