I recently read a book about reducing waste which inspired me to make small but achievable changes to reduce waste at home. My family of four seems to produce an endless amount of waste- every day I am emptying the trash cans and the recycling bins every other day. That seems a lot to me for four people. While zero waste would be amazing to achieve, I do not think it is exactly achievable for me (which I will explain why I think in this post). But I want to reduce waste at home and want to challenge myself in June to take some serious steps to reduce waste at home.
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Reducing Waste at Home
The book I read was Zero Waste: Simple Life Hacks to Drastically Reduce Your Trash by Shia Shu. According to her book, the average American disposes of 4.4 pounds of garbage per day- that is an insane statistic. But, when I started to think about it, my trash in my house is more than just my kitchen trash can- but also the diapers from my toddler, the bathroom trash from three bathrooms, all of the receipts, junk mail, the office trash and all the stuff that accumulates in my car.I realized how much trash my household makes a day and realized this number of 4.4 pounds is probably very realistic. The book gives a ton of examples of how to get to zero waste. I think for me that would be hard right now. I do not have local stores that sell bulk items package free, my little one is still in diapers for now, and snack packs for one the go with little ones is beyond conveniant for me- but I do think I could make changes that could make a big impact on the waste my house produces.
This book really inspired me to make changes on the waste my house produces. So I wanted to challenge myself to produce less waste in June based, so keep reading for my challenge. Here is a link to the book on Amazon.
Reduce Waste at Home: My June Challenge
1. Use my reusable bags everywhere.
Here in NJ, there is a ban on plastic bags, so we have been using reusable bags for grocery shopping for a year already. I have started taking my reusable bags everywhere now and keep a dozen or so bags in my car at all times. On a recent trip to the mall, I took a reusable bag and placed whatever I purchased the bag. I only had to carry one bag throughout the mall and did not come home with any paper shopping bags which I would just have to throw out.
So in June, I want to bring bags everywhere to ensure that I do not take a bag from any store.
2. Shop local for fruit and vegetables.
Local farmers markets are opening up again in June and I want to take more advantage of these markets to purchase locally grown fruits and veggies. The fruits and vegetables are always an amazing quality and have not been transported hundred of miles before they get to my home. I also want to support these local small farms in NJ. So I will be able to support local farms, reduce emissions and create less waste since these fruits/veggies will have limited/no packaging or bags. This small change to buying from farmers market actually makes a big impact!
Of course I have my garden producing fruit and vegetables soon, but it we go through a lot of fruits and vegetables soon.
3. Reduce use of tin foil and plastic wrap.
This one is going to be hard to do for me- I reach for tin foil and plastic wrap all the time when my kids take a bite of something and then do not want it. I refuse to throw out half of an apple or a yogurt they took one spoonful out of, so I save it for later by covering in tin foil or plastic wrap. I have reusable plastic and glass containers I need to use in place of tin foil and plastic wrap. I know that reusable plastic bags and plastic wrap exists, but I do not want to buy more things right now to help me reduce waste, seems a little counterproductive right now.
Limiting my use of tin foil and plastic wrap is going to be a bug adjustment for me in June.
4. Compost every single day.
I have been slacking on collecting items to compost. With the weather getting more beautiful out, I have no excuse for not taking a trip out to the compost bin every single day. I collect my kitchen waste that can be composted in mason jars on my kitchen counter. Keeping these mason jars on the counter is a daily reminder to put my waste in the jars and it is amazing how easy it is to fill up these mason jars. It is not unusual to fill up 2 jars of kitchen waste that can go in the compost bin. When my kids are home, we can easily collect 3 or 4 banana peels a day, a few apple cores, and an endless amount of egg shells (my kids love, love, love eggs right now). I wrote an entire post about how I compost, which you can find here.
5. Clean my house.
My house is cluttered. I know it and I know I need to spend some substantial time cleaning and decluttering. Working full time with two kids left little time to organize and I know I bought items I already had because I couldn’t find the original item or wasn’t sure if I had it because I had no organization. I was working so much that when I was in a store, I just bought whatever I though I might need or wasn’t sure if I needed because I wasn’t sure when I would be back at the store because I was so busy working all the time.
Also, kid “stuff” just seems to pile up quicker than any other item in my house. Kid “stuff” is kid clothes, books and toys. My kids are growing like weeds, so we are constantly changes into bigger clothes and trying to figure out what to keep for my younger child or what to give to family members. Same for toys, my older child is outgrowing toys, but my younger child isn’t ready to play with those toys- and then certain toys I think they have outgrown seem to become the favorite toy again a week later. And don’t get me started on the array of books floating around my house.
I need to really declutter my house this month. The decluttering I need to do could fill up 5 posts I have so much to do. I just know I will feel better about my home when it has less stuff in it. And more importantly for this challenge I am setting, I am sure I will find things I forgot about or items that I can reuse in different ways rather than buying new things right now.
I already have a great example of how decluttering will help me use less. Probably 3 years ago I purchased dryer balls to use in place of dryer sheets. Unfortunately, these balls are easy to lose in your clean laundry and eventually I lost all the balls. I knew the balls were in the house but couldn’t locate them- I most likely had the balls in a clean laundry bin that when upstairs and never found their way back to the laundry room. Well, I was cleaning out my kids play room and found the balls in a toy chest. I put then in the laundry room a week ago and have been using in dryer since. I probably do 8-10 loads of laundry a week, so I already reduced the use of dryer sheets this last week! Check out the dryer balls I have used here.
I will also hopefully find a lot of items to donate or give to family members, so items will get a second use, which helps reduce waste.
Reduce Waste at Home: My June Challenge
My June challenge is 5 small steps I can take in June to reduce waste. These small steps I think are easy ways to make a huge impact on the waste my house produced.
Have you taken any steps to reduce your household waste?
Disclaimer: Links in this post are Amazon affiliate links, I earn a commission from qualifying purchases.
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