The best way to reduce waste is to not produce it in the first place. A lot of this is plain-old frugality: It pays to examine your purchases from time to time and determine which ones you really needed. See how you can parlay the next purchase into less waste. Find out if other people might get further use out of items you are planning to discard.
Many of the products we buy – from household cleaners to prepared meals – are conveniences that replace things we could make for ourselves. Preparing your own cleaning supplies and making home-cooked meals reduce packaging waste and bring other benefits. Many household cleaners contain toxic chemicals which pose a health threat to people, plants and animals when they are produced, used and thrown away. Prepared foods are often higher in salt, sugar and fat and lower in nutritional value than meals you make yourself.
Society moves at a fast clip, and we all don’t have the time or skills to make our own soap or can our own tomatoes, but almost anyone can mix vinegar and water for window cleaner or bite into an apple instead of unwrapping a chocolate-apple-granola power bar.
Often we replace clothing because we’re tired of looking at it, appliances because they’re broken, electronics because we’re eager to move on to the next upgrade. If we can’t always resist the call to spend, we still can prevent waste. Take clean, undamaged clothing and appliances needing minor repairs to secondhand stores. Several nonprofit agencies in Ohio will refurbish your old computer for use by Ohio schools and nonprofit agencies and recycle what they can’t put back in circulation.