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Yesterday, we went through how to reduce the amount of stuff coming into our homes, so we don't have the problem of knowing what to do with it later.
But now it's too late, our homes are already full of stuff. What do we do about that? The rest of the series will be about what to do with the stuff we already have once it's no longer useful or wanted.
We'll start today with an other R: recycling. It may not be the next R to tackle, that would be Reuse (and repurpose), but since reusing is so incredibly vast and that it spans pretty much the rest of the month, I thought we'd get recycling out of the way first.
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Recycling is what stands between reusing and just plain throwing something out. These days, we are blessed to have the means to recycle so many different materials, yet still 80% of recyclable material ends up in the landfill. That is just unacceptable.
Take a moment now to visit your municipality's recycling website, you might just learn a thing or two! Go ahead, open an other tab (or window) so you don't loose this page, and google recycling and your city/municipality, I'll wait for you right here :) There's also usually a list of things that are NOT recyclable that may fall into one of the recyclable categories (confusing a little- I know).
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While you're on that website (hope you didn't close it yet!), check what types of plastics your city recycles, as this can change from city to city. The only plastic not accepted here is #6 plastic. That includes individual yogourt cups, mushroom containers and styrofoam, amongst others, so I try as much as possible to reuse those things. Always look for the little recycling symbol with a number in the center, usually located on the underside of the item, to see if that plastic can be put in the recycling. And you should rinse everything that is soiled.
For example, by visiting Montreal's recycling website when I moved here a couple years ago, I learned that plastic bags are recyclable here, but they ask you to put all bags within one bag instead of all of them loose.
So I've stuck a little hook beside my recycling garbage to hang a bag, then I put all other bags in there until it's full. I also keep an other supply of plastic bags that we use for lunches.
Also, we don't need to separate plastics, glass and metal from paper and cardbaord here, unlike in Ottawa, where I'm from. That does make it a lot easier, though I never really minded separating before. Also Ottawa recycled individual yogourt cups, but not Montreal :(
As for glass, it's pretty much all recyclable, except drinking glasses and windows. Same for metal. Aluminium containers, cans, lids can be recycled. Aluminium foil may or may not be recyclable, so check. Other types of aluminum, such as siding, gutters, car components, storm window frames, and lawn furniture can also be recycled.
And of course cardboard and paper of any kind, as long as it is clean, so no pizza boxes. Juice and milk cartons also fall in this category and are recyclable.
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Don't forget the packaging when you buy something! At least the cardboard/cardstock type. I'm not entirely sure about the plastic packaging though... Can't find that information. Sometimes there'll be the recycle triangle with a number on it to help you out here. I've found recently that a lot of bags have the #4 plastic sign on it, which makes me really happy!
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Alright, now that we know what we can recycle, let's make it easier for everyone to recycle. You recycling bins are just as important as your trash cans! If your city requires you to separate your recycling, this might be a bit trickier, but it's still doable!
First, place a recycling bin near where you drop off your mail, that way you can recycle all junk mail and such. It's also a good idea to have one near your desk or office (mine is by my computer desk, below), so that you can recycle paper. We'll cover more in depth how to minimize paper waste tomorrow.
Next, identify those areas that would benefit from a recycling can and add one. You should have a recycling station at least on every floor, if not more. Making recycling accessible is the key to making it easy!
An alternative to having many different bins, is to split one trash can in 2 with a simple cardboard divider (pictured below as an example). Half the trash can for trash, and the other for recycling! Would work great in the kids' bedroom, I think. (Not tested, though... thoughts?)
If you do need to separate your recycling, then I think the best option is to do it while emptying the bins into the bigger bins, the ones you usually keep outside or in the garage and bring out to the curb every week. It takes a few more seconds, but it's manageable, especially when it's just one or twice a week.
Then you just have to haul your recycling bins along with your trash can to the curb side where the trucks will take care of the rest. Of course that's for those who have recycling pick-up.
Cities that do have it also will provide you with the recycling bins, so if you don't have one but your neighbours do, call up the city and ask for some. Sometimes they'll give you new bins if the old ones are lost or badly damaged (in which case you can recycle the bins themselves!).
The one in the left picture below is the bins they give every household here, and then they have the bigger ones by the side of the road(right picture). It might not be very pretty, but with the dense population and the majority living in apartments in Montreal, it's the best solution.
If you are unlucky and don't have recycling pick-up, I feel for you. You can still recycle, you do have the option to bring recyclable material to a nearby recycling facility, you just need to google the nearest one. You'll make me proud if you do!
Were any of these tips useful for you? Do you already have recycling stations throughout your home? Any other tips to make recycling easier for you and your kids?
Already, by following these simple steps, you should see the amount of trash in your garbage cans greatly reduced! And that makes me so happy!! Don't worry, I didn't forget food scraps and organics, that'll be covered next week, so stay tuned!
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The simplest and most effective way to be greener is to reduce our consumption. It's simple in its principle, but may not be as easy to actually do, because we live in a world that tells us we need to buy, buy, buy to be happy and to stimulate the economy, and who constantly bombards us with new products (iPad anyone?).
Everything we bring into our homes has the potential to eventually become trash. Except maybe what we actually eat, but then again most of the time the food's packaging is a waste.
This is why I hate throwing things away! I hate the idea that it's just gonna go to the landfill. So I hold onto them in the hopes that maybe I can reuse it in some way.
But what if we controlled what goes into our homes? We would ultimately be controlling what comes out, ie trash, too.
In order to reduce what comes into our homes, here are a few tips; a list called To Buy or Not To Buy.
What NOT to do
1. Never buy something the first time you see it. You are more likely to buy it on impulse, without thinking about whether you really need it, or even want it. Think about it a few days, if you can justify it's need, or if you REALLY want it still, then you can get it.
The exception here is if it's actually on a list of things you've been looking for, you can get it when you see it. You should still ask yourself if you really want it, though, if it meets all your criterias, and don't settle for something that is just good enough! Cuz when the perfect model comes along, you'll regret settling.
2. Just because something is on sale doesn't automatically justify you buying it!! The previous point still applies here. I'd love to actually have a stat for this one, I am sure that what we buy on sale we use even less than if it was full price.
And often times, you can't return sale items, so you really do need to think extra hard on whether you need the item or not. Which brings me to...
3. You can (almost) always return an item within a certain period of time. Because sometimes we still get wrapped up in the item and can't say no, but when we get home we are double guessing our purchase. Put the item "on probation", don't open it right away, or if it's still returnable after opening then it's ok. If you haven't used it within the month or don't love it anymore, return it.
4. Control yourself in the dollar store. This one is my weakness, I must admit. I'm trying to be better though. Even if something was 1$, if it breaks within 1 week, a month, a year, then it's effectively useless and worthless. Sometimes waiting out and spending a little more on a better quality item will ensure that said item will not end up in the dump sooner than it should.
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In the same train of thought, you don't need to bring home something even if it was free. If you got no use for it, let it go, someone else might have a better use for it. Of course, this isn't set it stone, I've seen some people come up with some very useful ways to utilize an item that they had no idea what to do with at first. But know yourself, if you got more stuff than creativity to know what to do with them, pass it up.
5. When considering purchasing an item, think about whether something you already have could do the job. If you are trying to decorate your home, shop you home and see if you can rearrange things, or pull things out of the closet to decorate with. Use what you already have!!
6. You don't need to upgrade your electronic devices every year (or couple of years). You just don't. Use electronics until the end of their life. Do you really need to upgrade your iPhone 4 to an iPhone 5, really? Again, point #1 is the golden "rule" and applies to most everything!
You don't NEED to upgrade to the iPhone5, they just change the size and the placement of the headphone jack but the difference doesn't justify upgrading (source)
For computers, this is where a bit a knowledge comes in handy. If you know how to maintain your computer, they can last you a long time.
Anyway, I'm dedication a day in the series for electronics, so I'll cover this more in details then.
7. Put a cap on the amount of toys your kids can have: 3-4 bins, or whatever is best for your family. Do a toy exchange with friends, family, neighbours, if the kids get bored of their toys. But a toy must be donated or exchanged before a new one can come in.
(source:The Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking) Also a great article about toy rotation and how you don't need that many toys to make your kids happy!
Which brings me to:
8. Don't buy if you don't have the space for it. While taking those few days to think about whether you really need/want that item (or in the store if you can't wait that long), think about where it will go. If you don't have the space for it, and can't make the space for it, don't buy it.
9. If you think you need to replace something, first think whether you can give the item new life. Spray paint can do wonders and most anything! Sometimes a little bit of super glue can mend a broken item, or a bit of sewing can fix a small hole in a piece of clothing.
Entirely Smitten spray painted her old faucet, giving new life to an old thing and bypassing the dump at the same time!
10. Is there a reusable, made from recycled, or organic alternative? It's amazing the stuff they make reusable these days. Seriously, you'll see what I mean as I elaborate on this throughout the month.
Items made from recycled materials ensures that we are not taking more resources than we already have. Yes there is added pollution while making the new item from old material, so you should still try and reuse as much as you can, but it's still favorable to making from new materials.
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11. Borrow from a neighbour. When you need a power tool for a project that you don't have, consider asking your neighbour to borrow theirs, especially if it's not something you see yourself using very often. Also consider purchasing the item with a neighbour, which splits the cost. Good excuse to get friendly with the neighbours ;)
My dad co-bought a snow-blower and a pressure washer with our neighbour. They are both things that are not used every day so they are easy to share. Well, for the snow-blower, they alternate who does both driveways, which works out good.
12. Be mindful of packaging and opt for the one with less packaging when you can Packaging can be so wasteful, especially when it's not recyclable.
There you go, 11 ways you can reduce the amount of stuff you buy and the waste buying creates. Reducing what we buy is the first line of defense! Who's with me?!
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Welcome to the very first official day of the 31 Days to Greener, Sustainable Living!! I'm so glad that you are here and want to find new creative ways to live a greener sustainable life!
Today is a little introduction, to give you some food for thought. I'm hoping that by the end of the series, you will have a new and improved mentality when it comes to consumption and waste. Being greener can be fun, frugal and easy!
I'm guessing that most of you, if not all of you, reading this are already conscious of recycling and reusing, so I might not have to explain to you why it is important to be greener, but I will anyway.
Why should you be greener?
Well, first, because it's logical, no? Everything is made of some material that is found on this planet, and there's only so much we can take from our planet before it stops giving out to us. And the end is becoming nearer and nearer with each passing year because we are taking SO much from it.
But I'm a scientist. I like facts (and references; and parenthesis but that's an other story...). So let's look at some facts, shall we?
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We are consuming so fast, and taking so many resources from our planet that it would now take 1.6 years for the planet to regenerate what we use in 1 year. (ref) That's how much we are using up our resources.
As for the actual waste, the average American produced 4.43 lbs of waste every day in 2010(ref). That's 1617 lbs every YEAR. For ONE human being. Now multiply that by the U.S. population, and we have 250 million lbs of trash. A year. And that's just household waste. If we add construction and demolition waste to the mix, we double our solid waste!
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The only thing that makes me feel a {little} better is that 34% of that was recycled.
But the rest of the 66% of that waste needs to go somewhere, it doesn't just magically disappear, unfortunately. So we have landfills. Then those landfills get full and we export our trash elsewhere. Here's where it gets a little personal for me.
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We had an issue a few years ago near where my parents live. There's a landfill about 10 minutes between our little town and the actual city of Ottawa. We pass by it almost every single day when we go to town.
The real issue came when they were trying to get to dump Toronto's trash in our landfill. Toronto was running out of room to dump their trash, so they wanted to drive truckloads of trash 5 hours away to get "rid of the problem". Anyone else see the real problem here? Yeah, it might not be their problem anymore, it would be ours. Thankfully the motion didn't pass, but that landfill did get the permission to expand in 2006.
Sure, they tried to cover up the fact that there's a landfill there by making some hills (pictured below), but there's no fooling what your nose smells... (it smells like rotting eggs and onions) and we are reminded that there is a landfill there. To be honest, it doesn't always smell horrible, but when it does, it smells really horrible.
These images were obtained from Google Street View
And it's not like it's completely in the middle of nowhere, there are people living right in front! So maybe that is where it all started for me, why I became more sustainably conscious.
It's still common for trash to be brought to mega-landfills, though, while smaller local dumps are being closed down. Not to get too much into that, but trash is transported miles away, creating more pollution along the way, because it was cheaper than expanding the current landfills to regulation. I found this article on the subject to be interesting.
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The U.S. is the biggest consumer and trasher (Canada is in 5th place). They make up about 5% of the world's population, use 30% of the resources, and produce 30% of the waste. (ref)
What gives us the right to waste our planet? People have lived on this planet for thousands of years before, but we are the ones who have caused the most damage in so little time. This needs to change.
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There are so many more facts, you could write an encyclopedia. If you want to see more facts you can check out:
This site to see how long it takes for certain materials to decompose. It really puts things into perspective.
From Green-Net World
10 Disturbing Facts on How Much we Waste
Waste, Recycling, Composting Facts, so many facts here!!
Lots of recycling facts! About every type of material.
The purpose of living greener is to make our planet last longer, and make the most of what we have. For our children, grand-children, great-grand-children, and so on. Because the thing is, it's not waste until it's wasted.
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Tired of seeing trash pictures? Yeah, me too. I think you get the picture, right? Just don't let them be out of sight, out of mind. Let's work on making them out of sight for real.
Who and When
It starts right now and it starts with you. Too many people say it's not their problem, and THAT is the problem! Be the change, be the example.
We can do so much better than this!!
How can we practice greener living?
Well, that's what this series is all about!! I'll cover the 3 Rs of greener living: reduce, reuse, recycle. We'll go over everything one day at a time, nice and slow. You can always take more time to read through if you feel overwhelmed. And you don't have to do everything listed, but do what you can, and once you feel like you've mastered that, move on to a new challenge.
And for those that are already into recycling and reusing, I hope to give you challenges and ideas for how you can do even more for the environment!
I don't know where people get the misconception that going green is gonna be costly, but it's really not! Because you are mostly reusing what you already have, making everything go further. In some instances you might have to invest a little to get reusable items, but they will last you a long time, which is the whole point, so you don't have to buy new every year.
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So here's the first challenge for you all: In the next month, take the time to really stop and think about what you are throwing away, and what you are buying. Ask yourself if the item can be used for an other purpose or if it can be recycled when you go to throw it out. When you go out shopping, be conscious of the packaging and whether or not you really need that item. We'll cover that topic more specifically tomorrow.
For right now, I just want you to simply be conscious of it, and we'll discuss how we can improve. Sounds good?
I'll leave you today with this video I found that was very good, in my opinion. Now, I don't want to start a war with it! I know there is controversy surrounding this video, I've read the youtube comments; some will disagree. I think the overall message is good, and I don't take everything said in this video literally. The explanation for the computers is a little exaggerated, but the point is there.
Are you excited to get your green on with me? Where do you stand right now on the green front? Have some problem areas that you especially want me to cover? Let me know in the comments! I'm here to help YOU, and myself along the way, too.
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