4 Ways to Reduce Household Waste

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the average American produces 5.91 pounds of trash each day- and only 1.5 pounds of that is recycled! There are many types of waste that can gradually accumulate in your house. You can recycle more than your average glass bottle. If you are trying to create a greener household and lessen the footprint you leave on the environment, the reduction of waste is a great place to start. Below, we discuss 4 ways to reduce your waste collection from your household processes. These are easy steps everyone can take to reduce, reuse, and recycle.

1. Combat Food Waste

A huge amount of household waste is food, so combating food scraps is a great place to start on your waste reduction journey. To start combating food waste, reduce the amount of food you buy. If you seem to always throw out food at the end of the week, buy less food and shop more often. Make appropriate quantities of food, or deliver leftovers to friends and family if you know you won’t be able to finish. Also, consider freezing items when possible so that they can be consumed later.

Recovery of food waste is also important. Composting is a great way to ensure your food waste is fully recycled back into the earth. If you don’t have a garden, see if your city offers composting pick up or if there is a local farm interested in your compost. This is a simple way to reduce the amount of food waste that would otherwise end up in a landfill.

2. Unsubscribe from Junk Mail

Did you know that you can unsubscribe from paper junk mail just the same way you unsubscribe from pesky email junk mail? That’s correct. With over 100 million pieces of junk mail sent to U.S. homes each year, and most of it ending up straight in the trash can, this is a great way to reduce your impact. Every piece of junk mail should have a contact number or email to remove yourself from the list. It will take a couple of months to get through all the big offenders, but it will feel great to finally stop getting all that junk clogging up your mailbox (and trash can).

3. Say Goodbye to Single Use Items in the Home

Single-use items are exactly as their name implies: items you use once and then throw away. Single-use items are a huge part of the household waste, so cutting them out of your routine can significantly lessen your waste. Plastic/paper plates, plastic cutlery, plastic grocery bags, paper towels, and straws are commonly found in household waste. These items all have alternatives that can be utilized more than once to help you live more sustainably. For example, you can purchase reusable grocery bags and never have to deal with a plastic bag again! You can also invest in cloth towels for wiping up spills rather than filling your garbage can with paper towels.

4. Buy Items with Less or No Packaging

Do you ever look at the packaging of the items you buy for your home? Is your food packed in a ton of unnecessary plastic? Is there waste surrounding common household items? The next time you are at the store, look around to see if there are alternatives to the items you regularly buy that are wrapped in plastic. Is there another brand that uses less packaging? Is there an alternative product with no waste at all? Changing these buying habits is an awesome way to reduce waste in your home.

Make Recycling a Habit With the Help of Cali Carting

Waste management and recycling can be powerful if you make them a habit, and adopting more eco-friendly habits can have a huge impact on your environmental footprint. Cali Carting is proud to help communities in New Jersey manage their solid waste and recycling through education and a variety of waste management services. We believe in the power of recycling and do everything in our power to make recycling easy for you and your household or business. Learn more about our municipal contracts and check out our blog for more tips for reducing and managing waste in New Jersey, and feel free to contact us with any questions you may have! We look forward to working with you.