Give Your Landfill A Trimmer Wasteline!

The holy mantra for the past few decades among those who care has been ‘Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle,’ which can be applied to industrial, commercial, and consumer waste alike. Reduction of packaging materials, more efficient means of manufacture, and making products with the absolute minimum of potential waste products are common methods of reduction in the volume of waste generation. Some consumption-waste products can be eliminated completely by consumer choices, such as bottled water and single serving packaging. Other items, such as plastic bags, are being made thinner to reduce the amount of non-biodegradable plastic in use. More efficient methods of manufacture waste less energy and resources, thereby reducing the amount of greenhouse gasses unleashed into our fragile atmosphere. Reduction is the first key step in the march to a cleaner and greener environment.

Heyyyyyy! I Still Got It!

Thank you Fonzie. The best thing about reduction is keeping waste out of the cycle, and saving resources that can be used otherwise. Simply put, if we have it, and we don’t use it, we still got it. In the world of electrical power generation, electricity is all potential energy until we find a use for it. If we can reduce the amount of power NEEDED to run our appliances, hot water heater, air conditioners, Roombas, and electric baby monitors, this will result in electricity that will not be needed, and this reduces the burden on the raw resources used to generate the electricity, the level of pollution created to generate electricity, and the costs of buying the potential electricity will go down because demand has dropped.
This next idea is a bit more of a conceptual stretch, but we are going to walk through it. Reduce also means instead of purchasing books, music and video in standard use forms to purchase them in E-format. Ebooks, mp3, and all of the available video download programs available to the average consumer with a 2004 Compaq Presario mean books, CD’s, and DVD’s are quickly going out of vogue and for good reason: these are all high waste items for packaging and resources. The reduction of waste on these items becomes close to nil when used in downloadable format. We need to make sure we are upgrading our computers instead of just tossing them on the street corners, because 1 computer monitor is worse than 1200 CD’s and DVD’s because of the toxic metals and PCB’s involved in it’s manufacture.
Reduction is also complimented by maintaining what we already have. High use durable goods like refrigerators and washing machines DO require some occasional maintenence, so every 4 months or so clean off the refrigerator coils and make sure that good drainage and air flow is getting to your refrigerator. The more durable a piece of equipment is and the better it is taken care of greatly affect its shelf life. If you can take care of an automobile, drive carefully, have the scheduled maintenence completed on a regular basis, a modern automobile can last 25 years. Instead of buying a new car every 5 years for $20,000, imagine if we could just keep the one we have for 25 years. The savings in money and waste pay form themselves.

So What Can I Do To Help?

Reduction is the minimalist movement in becoming eco-aware. We can carry plastic bags and bottles and glass and cardboard to the curb every day, but it would actually be better if we skipped the walk of eco-shame and reduced the amount of recyclables in our trash. 1/3rd to 1/2 of all waste we generate as consumers is food packaging waste. This should be our first target to make those trips to the recycle bin more infrequent. Some other reduction ideas are :

* The whole purpose of a refrigerator is to keep food cold. Buy fresh vegetables and fruit and keep an ample stock for 3-5 days instead of filling up the pantry with single use packets of applesauce.
* When having a baby shower, make it a green shower, and tell your guests that you would prefer ‘gently used’ toys and baby items. Use your best judgment. If the toy is in the shape of a bone, it was probably a dog’s toy, not a baby’s.
* When making out the weekly ‘Honey-Do list for your husband/wife, add check tire pressure and check car fluids to the list. Once a week, for about 10 minutes, acknowledge your car/truck/motorcycle and take care of it. If you have a teenage son, you might want to make this more frequent.
* Read the owner’s manual that comes with a new durable good purchase BEFORE plugging it in. Highlight the toll free maintenence hot line numbers, and put all owner’s manuals in a safe place. If you are going to spend $1000 on a refrigerator, you want it to last a LONG time.
* Invite your friends to join a local recycling group, even the Repubilcan ones.
* If you go to a church that celebrates Communion every week, see if they will switch to actual wine instead of grape juice. Glass wine bottles are more easily recycled and do not add to your church’s carbon footprint.
* Vote for the same candidate twice in a row without replacing the bumper stickers, signs, buttons, pins and other campaign memorabilia, or explain to the candidate that you would prefer to give him a donation without the consumption-waste items.
* If you find a song you enjoy, don’t waste money purchasing the entire CD. Just download the song. Album Oriented Music has been going downhill anyhow, so you are better off purchasing the songs you like instead of wasting the money on the packaging for a CD that is mostly going to SUCK. The last decent full album was probably ‘Operation: Mindcrime’ by Queensryche, and that was 20 plus years ago.
* If you are a fan of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, encourage them to have babies instead of flying all over the world adopting them. The jet fuel saved alone is worth thousands of trees.

video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs2g2T0fUlI

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Video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzJY2qV4f3k
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