Trash has a habit of building up in the home, car, school or work bag, desk, and other places. In a throwaway society, packaging is abundant and yet so little used once removed. In this article, share your ideas for how to reduce trash in everyday living, to help everyone think about the ways they can keep trash amounts low.
Refuse
As much as you can, refuse packaging. Choose items that don't have packaging or that can be placed into your long-term carry bag. Bring along recycled bags to put food and objects into instead of taking more bags from the point-of-sale. Where possible, hand back the packaging to the retailer to deal with, sending a message that they need to reduce the packaging or reuse it.
Send companies Facebook messages, emails or other messages to let them know that you would like them to reduce their packaging and to provide better recycling possibilities by taking back their packaging and reusing it.
Simplify your needs
Don't seek to own so much. Look around and appreciate what you already have, so that you don't need to bring yet more into your house and life. Repair what you can and do without that which you really don't need.
Aim to buy quality over cheaper items. If the quality item is durable and easily repairable, it's the better choice as it'll last you longer and allow you to make the most of what you have.
Where possible, choose multi-purpose items that save you from having to buy a range of items along with their packaging and potential for additional landfill.
Composting
Whatever can be composted should be composted. This includes food, tea leaves, coffee grounds, some cloths/fabric, paper towels, etc. If you have a worm farm, ensure that you keep plenty of food scraps back for feeding the worms. It's great when none of this sort of "trash" gets thrown out.
Making things from scratch
From meals to clothing, learn to make things from scratch that you enjoy making this way. Cooking and baking from scratch enables you to buy foods in simple packaging instead of the packaging layers often found around processed items.
Recycling, Repurposing and Reusing
Know what can be recycled and make sure to recycle it. Prefer items that can be recycled over things that can only be thrown away. Make use of your imagination for repurposing and hacking items to do things they weren't originally intended for, to give them a longer lease of life. For example, turn an old computer monitor into a shelf or cans into containers.