Stopping Waste in Our Home

Waste is something I try to avoid at all costs.  I guess we all have our own unique and sometimes quirky ways to deal with it.  Today I am going to tell you a few of the ways we stopped wasting material in our home over the years, laughing allowed.

First and foremost – we try not to waste natural resources and recycle everything we can.  Lots of times that means a quick wash and then into the recycle bin.  At our house we have a recycle bin the size of our trash bin – and most weeks it’s fuller than the actual garbage.   I would say about of 75% is either recycled or fed to the wild animals who live with us on our 5 heavily wooded acres.

We reuse jars for things like homemade jellies and jams, and other canning.  The Ball® canning jar lids fit the quart mayonnaise jars perfectly.  We store nails, screws, buttons, anything small and in need of some organization so that there isn’t a drawer full of junk.  The huge jars we use as sort of a greenhouse when planting seedlings outside. They protect them from light frost and animals as well as storing heat right around the plant itself.  And as our last example, we use them for materials that need a container they cannot penetrate. Think of this as just a small jar of paint from the gallon for touch-ups, or some stain where you don’t need the entire container.  Or if you need to transport a small amount of anything to another location – glass is great for that.

We also recycle all our plastic containers, paper, newspapers, foil, used oil, wood, etc. and I hope you do too!  But do you actually reuse your Dixie® type paper plates.  Well, we do.  Anything that doesn’t really compromise the plate, we dust off the crumbs and pile them up to use again.  There’s also nothing wrong I understand with hanging up your teabags to dry and then reusing them either.  Sometimes you do have to use more than one “recycled bag” though to get a good cup of tea!

More on waste tomorrow, but I’ll leave with some things you might not think are reuseable or recycleable, but are!  How about metal hangers, dentures (for the precious metals they contain), cell phones,  phone books, hair, golf balls, bicycles, trophies, old computer parts, floppy disks, christmas lights, and keys.

Others in the Waste Series

Stopping Waste in Our Home Part 2 ~ Click here‎
The Goverment Wastes Your Tax Dollars ~ Click here
Stop Wasting Your Money ~ Click here