How to Reduce Waste at Home

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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How to Reduce Waste at Home and a Toms of Maine Less Waste Challenge

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:

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!

Toms of Maine Less Waste Challenge and How to Reduce Waste at Home

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Take the #LessWasteChallenge Pledge!

More than 250 million tons of waste is generated every year in the United States, but YOU  can help change that number. Tom’s of Maine and TerraCycle®, a recycling leader, are teaming up to decrease the amount of trash ending up in landfills by launching the #LessWasteChallenge.
 
Toms of Maine Natural Body Care Products
By taking a simple online pledge at www.tomsofmaine.com/lesswaste, you can give your support by making the commitment to reduce your family’s household waste by one pound per week.
 
I encourage you to get involved, get your children involved, and get your followers involved by sharing tips on social media using #LessWasteChallenge. Tom’s of Maine has a goal of zero waste to landfills by 2020 at its manufacturing facility in Maine. It’s a lofty goal and I applaud their efforts!
 

48 thoughts on “How to Reduce Waste at Home”

  1. 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!!

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  2. 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. 🙂

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  3. I’ll reuse my daily coffee ground I would otherwise throw away in the compost pile or to make a rejuvenating facial scrub!

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  4. 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.

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  5. 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.

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  6. 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.

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  7. I will reduce my household waste this month by donating my gently used items to the needy instead of disposing of them.

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  8. 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!

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  9. We recycle all of our paper, glass bottles and any plastics. I also buy products which are packaged in eco-friendly packaging.

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  10. We use refillable stainless steel / glass water bottles at our place, haven’t purchased pre-filled plastic water bottles for 10+ years !

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  11. This month my daughter’s class is learning about repurposing. I’m helping her create bracelets out of water bottles.

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