Society & Culture & Entertainment Environmental

Reducing Your Waste

So by now, we've nearly all heard of the 3 Rs - reduce, reuse, recycle and yet so much of what many of us do is focus on the recycling.
Don't get me wrong, this definitely helps, but we need to try and do more to reduce what we use in the first place.
If we focus on reducing what we use, we use less energy.
Although recycling helps, we still need to use energy to convert our recycled waste into whatever it becomes in its new life.
The following articles shows some pretty easy ways in which we can reduce our waste and often even save ourselves a bit is cash in the process.
Firstly, before you go out and buy something, ask yourself if you really need it.
If you know you can live without it, don't buy it.
Firstly you'll save yourself some of that hard earned cash and you won't end up having to deal with all of the packaging that today's products are usually wrapped in.
If you really don't need, there's a pretty good chance that you won't even use it.
If this is the case then, it will just clutter up your home until you throw it away or send it off to the charity shop requiring yet more of your precious time and money to get it to the shop in the first place.
Where do you buy your vegetables? Using your local greengrocer of vegetable shop is likely to save you a heap in unwanted packaging waste as they are less likely to be pre-packed in Styrofoam trays and cellophane.
Unless you shop at an ethical supermarket, you have a greater chance of buying locally sourced products at the green grocer.
Think about the energy that's gone into making these packaging materials.
(You can always be a little bit cheeky and hand the packaging to the teller at the checkout, but the waste is still there!) What about all those old clothes that your kids have grown out of? Do you have a friend or neighbour that has young kids that would be grateful to receive a load of clothes? Many of us are happy not to have to spend a fortune on clothes that are just going to get grubby and worn through.
If you don't know anyone personally, get them down to the local charity shop if they are still fit to wear.
If they are on the grubby side, what about using them as household cloths.
Saves you from having to buy cloths to clean your floors, windows or cars and you are prolonging the life of the use of the fabric.
(Did you know that it takes about 800 litres of water to make a single T-shirt?) Carry out small repairs on clothing.
Modern society has gotten so used to throwing out really good clothes that simply need a button sewing on or a seam re-stitched.
A great idea for old jumpers is to unravel the wool (into a ball) and reuse the wool to make another garment.
Even if you have a single hole in your knitwear, the chances are that the rest of the item of clothing is more than serviceable, just waiting to take on a new life.
Apparently knitting is hot right now, so get that creativity going.
So before you rush out and buy it, or bin it, think about how important it is to own in the first place or get creative about a second life for the stuff you already own.

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