Living Green, One Tip at a Time - (a weekly feature)

# 4 Reduce-Reuse-Recycle

Part 1 - Reduce

The critical first step of waste prevention has been overshadowed by a focus on recycling. Please help to promote a greater awareness of the importance of the "Reduce" part of the Reduce-Reuse-Recycle mantra.

• Simplify: Simplify your life as much as possible. Only keep belongings that you use/enjoy on a regular basis.  By making the effort to reduce what you own, you will naturally purchase less/create less waste in the future.
• Reduce Purchases: In general, think before you buy any product - do you really need it? How did the production of this product impact the environment and what further impacts will there be with the disposal of the product (and associated packaging materials)?
• Replace Disposables: Wherever possible, replace disposable products with reusable ones (i.e., razor, food storage, batteries, ink cartridges (buy refill ink), coffee filters, furnace or air conditioner filters, etc.).
• Buy Used: Buy used products whenever possible. Some sources:

                            - local thrift stores 
                            - Kijiji  http://www.kijiji.ca/
                            - eBay  http://www.ebay.ca/
                            - Craigslist  http://geo.craigslist.org/iso/ca
                            - Amazon  http://www.amazon.ca/
                            - Freecycle  http://www.freecycle.org/
                            - local newspaper listings
                            - local garage sales
                            - local used furniture stores
                            - local consignment stores

• Borrow From Friends: If you only need something temporarily, ask if a friend or neighbor would loan it to you. 
• Share With Friends: Share things like books, magazines, movies, games, and newspapers between friends and neighbors.

...There is a lot of information on this topic and the post is getting very long, so I'll continue it next Saturday!!

Much of the information contained in this post was obtained, with permission, from the following site -

http://www.globalstewards.org/ecotips.htm#reduce

Monica