One of the bonuses of living at home is access to more magazines than I could ever even want.
My ever-supportive parents subscribe to a variety of magazines that I get to sample free of charge every month. Most I only flip through during a seemingly extra long commercial break, but every once in a while I find something interesting. This weekend, I came across an
article in
Ladies' Home Journal written by
Peg Rosen. Her average American family took on the challenge of reducing their weekly waste from three bags of garbage to one. I was really surprised by how easy it was for them and how easy it would be for anyone to take on some of the new practices that they did (one really easy but really effective idea was "creating satellite recycling stations" around their house so recycling was just convenient as throwing something in the trash- smart).
photo courtesy of Ladies' Home Journal
After I finished the article, I couldn't help but think twice about everything that I went to throw away. Those who know me well know that I'm an avid recycler, but everyone can find room to improve. I immediately went to get a paper grocery bag (we alternate cloth bags and disposable grocery bags so that we have something to put recycling in) and started filling it with papers from around the house. I picked up last Sunday's paper, an entire stack of magazines from the summer months and even a few odd receipts and grocery lists that were laying around. When I had a water spill to wipe up, I went for a paper towel, but grabbed a cloth towel instead. And when my mom asked me why I was eating the last piece of homemade zucchini bread over the sink, I told her, "I'm reducing my waste. This way, I don't use a napkin that just gets thrown away, nor do I waste water by washing a dish." (Okay, so this may have been a little overzealous and driven more by laziness than anything else, but I was reducing waste, wasn't I?)
Reducing, reusing and recycling is easy! What was Kermit thinking- it IS easy being green :)
And the best part is, a little can go a long way- although I would still like to find a way to compost ALL of our food scraps...
