When you avoid garbage in the first place, you're almost sure to save money, and you don't have to worry about disposing or recycling later.
- Use reusables instead of disposables.
- Repair to ReUse.
- Choose products that have no package when possible.
- Most importantly, avoid getting something that goes in the trash.
- Click here to see a fun 20-minute film called The Story of Stuff. It gives the big picture of why watching our waste is so important.
Check out this graphic illustration of the impacts of buying your water in bottles rather than getting it from the tap. You pay up to $10 per gallon for the bottled water. The environmental benefits of recycling that bottle are clearly better than trashing it – recycling reduces emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) by 16%. But the environmental benefits of not buying the bottle and instead saving your money are much better – this reduces GHG emissions by 79%.
This Life Cycle Assessment Study on Water Delivery Systems, published by Oregon DEQ, provides study results comparing 48 different water-delivery scenarios likely for Oregon consumers, including purchase of bottled, tap, and office delivery systems.
Changing your habits is the key – think about ways you can reduce your waste when you shop, work and play. Consumer choices have direct impacts on global evironmental management, not only the size of our local landfill.There are tons of ways for you to reduce waste, save yourself some time and money, and be good to the Earth at the same time.
Check out some of our "Less Is Best" tips on how you can reduce your daily garbage generation by clicking the links to the left.