These tips on how to reduce waste at home are part of a sponsored conversation with Tom’s of Maine. All opinions are my own.
With the growing amount of trash filling up our landfills, learning how to reduce waste at home should be a key factor in your quest for green living. In my own home, we recycle just about everything we can.
This is made easier by the county through curbside recycling. However, there are always events in the community that don’t offer recycling and it frustrates me.
I see vendors selling bottled water and plenty of trash cans but no recycling bins. One of the biggest generators of recyclable trash in my own neighborhood is the swim/tennis club. With tennis matches and practices almost every day of the week, there are a LOT of bottles and cans being tossed into the trash.
When I was asked to join Toms of Maine in their #LessWasteChallenge, I knew I wanted to bring recycling to the tennis courts to reduce my community’s carbon footprint.
It takes only one simple click to take the pledge so keep reading to learn more!
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Table of Contents
How to Reduce Waste at Home
So, what is the Tom’s of Maine #LessWasteChallenge? This Earth Month, natural personal and oral care brand Tom’s of Maine is challenging Americans to take one small step towards making the Earth a little more green.
How can you do this? By pledging in the #LessWasteChallenge to reduce the waste in your home by one pound per week! Ok, so maybe you are wondering how to reduce waste at home to participate in the challenge with us? Here are a few ideas:
- Buy in bulk: Skip the individually wrapped pretzels, cheese crackers and cookies and buy a large sized container. Invest in some reusable snack containers and save yourself a lot of money while you reduce waste at home.
- Recycle everything: Call your local community recycling program to find out what they will accept. Recycle everything you possibly can!
- Set up an upcycled craft closet: Kids love arts and crafts and upcycling something old into something new is a great way for kids to learn how to reduce waste at home right along with mom or dad.
- Go paperless: Remember to think before you print to reduce paper usage. Request paperless billing for your household bills and recycle junk mail whenever possible.
- Set up a neighborhood swap or garage sale: Remember, one man’s trash may be another man’s treasure. Sell your unwanted items at a garage sale, on eBay, or offer things up for free on Craig’s List. Anything that keeps it out of the landfill is a great solution!
Reduce Household Waste with Upcycled Crafts!
Want to get really creative? Try a few of these upcycled crafts:
- How to Cut a Glass Bottle in Half with String This is a great tutorial for cutting wine bottles in half for crafts.
- DIY Upcycled Cookie Sheet Memo Board Make your own magnetic memo board out of an old cookie sheet.
- Juice Can Lids Pumpkin Craft Save those lids from juice concentrate containers and make this upcycled pumpkin craft.
If you enjoy gardening, check out my zero waste gardening tips to learn how to grow a garden with less plastic.
At Home and In the Community!
I stopped to chat with a few of the players up at the tennis courts last weekend and they all agree that there are way too many cans and bottles ending up in the trash bins.
I have put a request into our neighborhood association to investigate bringing a recycling bin to the clubhouse permanently. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I can find a long-term solution and am grateful to Tom’s of Maine for inspiring me with this project.
They have invested in hundreds of nonprofit efforts by giving 10% of its profits back to organizations that support people and the planet and by encouraging employees to use 5% (12 days) of paid time to volunteer. I bet you can think of a community event in YOUR area that could use a recycling bin!
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Diane is a professional blogger and nationally certified pharmacy technician at Good Pill Pharmacy. She earned her BS in Microbiology at the University of New Hampshire and has worked in cancer research, academics, and biotechnology. Concern over the growing incidence of human disease and the birth of her children led her to begin living a more natural life. She quickly realized that the information she was learning along the way could be beneficial to many others and started blogging and freelance writing to share this knowledge with others. Learn more about her HERE.
I will buy in bulk at my local coop and take my own resuable containers.
I reduce and recycle in my home by literally recycling everything we can. We put put out two 55 gal drums of recyclables almost weekly!!
I am always looking for ways to show my kids how to reduce waste!! It is crazy how easy it is to just toss things out.
Recycling is so important and I love that Toms of Maine has the LessWasteChallenge campaign! These are great tips with a few ideas I’ve never thought of before. I buy in bulk just to save money but now I have more reasons with the reduced waste. 🙂
we only buy what we need.
This is great, I have not thought of these ideas before, appreciate some new insight on ways to reduce waste at home. Thank you!
I’ll reuse my daily coffee ground I would otherwise throw away in the compost pile or to make a rejuvenating facial scrub!
we’ve been recycling for over 30 years and we always try to re-purpose things
recycling is great. my mom had been doing it for years annd i just recently started.
I like the idea of having a craft closet for upcycled items. That is so smart and a great educational thing for kids.
I recycle everything and also compost so have litter actual waste. I also go to flea markets to pick up items I can give a second life to.
I love to recycle. We live on a small farm so no food goes to waste but we are starting to use our old milk jugs to make scoops and bird feeders.
For the last year or so, my family has been making an effort to buy only things we really need and to buy those things second-handed whenever possible. This month, I am also trying to kick a soda addiction (lots of plastic bottles and aluminum cans) by replacing soda with fresh spring water straight from our taps. It’s a tough habit to break, but doing so will help both my health and the environment.
I recycle by putting household waste in the compost and our city has a good recycle pickup.
I always recycle everything possible and use a water filter pitcher.
I try to waste less by using a Brita filter instead of bottled water.
We recycle and buy recycled products
I will reduce my household waste this month by donating my gently used items to the needy instead of disposing of them.
I will try to reuse things as much as possible.
i will stop buying bottled water and use a filter instead
We recycle and compost.
I love to recycle! We all do! We try not to waste and we turn lights off when not needed.
we have recycle bins that we use
We already recycle everything we can.
We like to recycle all that we can.
I will recycle as much as I can.
i recycle as much as i can and reuse shopping bags.
we are recycling and we are working to become vegan that is the most environmentally friendly thing one can
I recycle everything as much as I can
I’m going to stop using paper products.
I always recycle everything possible and bring my own bag to the grocery store.
Free shredding day at our bank!
I recycle whatever I can and we compost.
I will YOU reduce my household waste this month by eating fruits and vegetables.
I willl compost whatever I am able to
We recycle as much as possible (in fact, my daughter told me today that she actually could NOT toss some cardboard in the trash at work–she brought it home to put in the recycle box!). I actively discourage family members buying small containers of things that can be better replaced with either home-made or re-used items. A case in point recently was a granddaughter who purchased a case of small plastic bottles of drinks that were nothing more than Kool-aid type fluid for her children–not happy with her!
I will recycle a lot of things and re use as much things as possible !
WE RECYCLE PAPER, CARDBOARD, PLASTICS AND GLASS EVERY MONDAY MORNING.
We recycle all of our paper, glass bottles and any plastics. I also buy products which are packaged in eco-friendly packaging.
We recycle everything possible and re-use items when possible.
I feed my organic scrapes to my chickens
Recycle more and we put out leftover vegetables out for the wildlife instead of throwing it out.
We are going to start recycling to show the kids it’s important.
We use refillable stainless steel / glass water bottles at our place, haven’t purchased pre-filled plastic water bottles for 10+ years !
I plan to compost for my Spring garden!!
We will recycle whatever we use.
This month my daughter’s class is learning about repurposing. I’m helping her create bracelets out of water bottles.
I recycle everything I can.