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10 Realistic Things YOU can do to Reduce Waste

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These top 10 hints are furnished by the Washington County Cooperative Recycling Program

Planning Ahead
Smart Shopping
Product Life
Reused Shopping
Rent It
Reuse
Donate/Trade
Recycle
Compost
Use a Smaller Garbage Can

When you use less stuff, you use fewer natural resources and make less garbage. Discover the most powerful tools in waste reduction! These tips lead you from the shopping cart to the garbage can, providing snippets of ideas to divert or avoid waste along the way. Try one to two of these ideas in your household and see if you can make a difference in reducing waste.

Tip #1: Planning Ahead
It may sound very simple, however a little planning prior to shopping may be one of the most powerful tools to reduce waste.

Make a List
A shopping list helps to keep your shopping on track and reduces those impulse buying temptations. Sticking to your shopping list may actually get you through the store faster, and may help you avoid those products that later your realize you do not want or will not use.

Check It Twice
Consider the products on your shopping list carefully: Check the list for frequently purchased items that could be replaced by durable, reusable, or bulk items; verify the quantities of the product you need; and, look for safer alternatives to pesticides, herbicides, and other toxic household chemicals.

Tip #2: Smart Shopping
The decisions your family makes while shopping determines how full your garbage can (and recycling bin) will be on collection day.

Packaging
Are you buying packaging just to go home and throw it away? Fancy, excessive packaging may look terrific and catch our attention, however, it also can fill a garbage can quickly. Look for products with minimal packaging, or at least look for products packaged in materials you can easily recycle in your local recycling program.

Buy What You Need, and Use What You Buy
An excellent example of avoiding waste can be found in the foods that we buy. It is the food we use the most that are the foods we waste the least. Unfamiliar foods and hectic schedules can create unwanted waste. Purchase foods that you will realistically have time to prepare in your busy day, in quantities that will realistically get eaten, and foods that you will know how to prepare.

Tip #3: Product Life
Many common household appliances can provide longer and more efficient services with just a little upkeep.

Purchase With Product Life in Mind
When shopping for an appliance or durable goods, consider the total life of that product, the warranty, the maintenance needs, and how long you can expect before replacing it again. Also find out what reuse, recycle, and disposal options are available for that product and the costs. An inexpensive, disposal product that only lasts a short time may actually cost more in replacement, transportation, and disposal than a longer lasting model. So check your choices carefully.

Repair and Upkeep
Check your appliance maintenance manuals or contact your local repair center for instructions on proper upkeep for your appliances. Often a little routine maintenance and cleaning can add years to the life of a product. This means you get more life from the product, avoid the costs of frequently replacing that product, and save on disposal costs.

Tip #4: Reused Shopping
What do antique stores, thrift shops, garage sales, and "experienced products" shops have in common? They are places where you can get products that are "new to you" and shopping there supports reuse. Buying a reused product rather than a new product: reduces the need to consume the natural resources used to make the new products, helps to keep those resources from being sent to the landfill, and usually costs less.

Tip #5: Rent It
If you intend to use a product only once or only for a limited time, why buy it? Rent it! Renting reduces waste because many people are able to share that same resource. Check the Yellow Pages under "Rental" for the products, tools, and equipment available.

Tip #6: Reuse
Once you have purchased a product, use it, reuse it, and reuse it again! When you use and reuse a product wisely, you get the most value out of that resource; and, you help to keep that resource in action and out of the garbage can. Then, when you are finished with a product that is still in good condition, you can sell, trade or donate it!

Stretch Your Resources
Get the most from products you use. Products represent your hard earned dollars - so make them work for you!

Finding Alternative Uses
Here is your opportunity to become creative, imaginative, and inventive. Before tossing something out or recycling it, try thinking beyond the product itself and into the resources that product represents. Often those metals, plastics, and fibers in products are resources that you can reuse. Before discarding or recycling a product, you may want to ask yourself: can I find value in this resource? Often with a little ingenuity you can put to use resources that moments earlier were considered unwanted junk. With reuse, broken broom handles become garden stakes, old socks become shop rags, and plastic tubs become seed planting cups.

Tip #7: Donate/Trade
From trash to treasure. When you are finished with a product that is still in good condition, you may still be able to find value from that product. Non-profit donation centers, garage sales, and resale shops are opportunities for you to capture value from that product and prolong the useful life of the product.

Tip #8: Recycle
Put the resources in your products back on the shelf, recycle! Your recyclables are the "raw materials" that manufacturers use to make new products. By recycling you conserve natural resources and preserve expensive landfill space.

Recycling Questions?
Please call the Washington County Cooperative Recycling Program: (503) 846-8609

Tip #9: Compost (recycle yard debris)
Turn your yard debris into valuable garden nutrients - Recycle it or compost it, just please keep your yard debris out of the garbage can.

Curbside Yard Debris Recycling
Do It Yourself - Backyard Composting
Yard Debris Depots

Tip #10: Use a Smaller Garbage Can
On incentive to reduce, reuse, and recycle is to make your garbage can a limited resource, one that requires forethought before using.

For more information on the best garbage and collection and recycling program for your household, please contact your hauler.

Bonus Tip: STOP Unwanted Mail
If you are interested in reducing the amount of unwanted mail you receive, take a few steps to stop your name from being sold:

Whenever you fill out information cards, surveys, warranty cards, or contests - clearly write "Please Do Not Sell My Name or Address."

When you receive unwanted first class mail, you can cross out the address and bar code, circle the first class postage and write "refused: return to sender." Then, drop the letter into any mailbox.
When you receive unwanted catalogs, write that company and request to have your name removed from their mailing list.
Write to the following companies to remove your name from national marketing lists. This will stop unwanted mail as well as catalogs and promotions from their member organizations.

Direct Marketing Association
Mail Preference Service
P.O. Box 9008
Farmingdale, NY 11735-9008

Experian
Attn: Consumer Services Department
901 W. Bond
Lincoln, NE 68521
1 (800) 407-1088