The Zero Garbage Challenge

REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE

Reduce

There are many ways to reduce your waste stream, if you are so inclined. Here are just a few:

• Purchase power: I have had lots of success by changing two habits:  I buy used items in place of new, and I purposefully buy less stuff (it helps that I don’t have a television, so I don’t have to contend with commercials that tell me I need more stuff). 
• Shrink your garbage can: (This tip comes from one of my workshop participants)  Diet websites recommend that if you want to eat less, use a smaller plate. Similarly, if you want to throw less away, get a smaller bin.
• Throw less away: recycle more, build a compost pile, donate unused items.

Reuse

There is a way to reuse just about anything.  One quick search online will reveal ways to reuse anything from plastic bags (my friend knits with them!) to silica gel packets to wooden pallets.  Use your imagination and make some garbage art!

Here is one creative use for plastic bottles: Indra’s Cloud.

Here is a cute way to reuse credit cards:

Recycle

Oberlin College recycling facts.

How and where to recycle almost anything.

A striking slideshow about waste management at a recycling facility.

A huge private recycling facility opened near Charlottesville.  To learn more, click here. To read an article, click here.