What are some good ways to become less wasteful?

Question

Do you try and only make just enough food to eat without leftovers? Do you try to buy things that have minimal packaging? What are some other practices to have?

Answer 1

It's actually not that hard to be less wasteful if you just make little changes in your life.  You don't have drastically makeover your lifestyle to be less wasteful.  

Usually, I recycle everything I can and use reusable plastics to store things.  I turn off lights when I leave a room.  I turn off the water when I'm soaping up during showers and when I'm brushing my teeth.

Answer 2

Well, since it's just me and 4 cats, I try not to waste food. I sometimes share overages with my neighbors, as they do with me. Probably 1/3 of the food I consume comes in a package or container, which I recycle if it's recyclable. Food scraps and egg shells get composted.

I try not to buy things that I don't need, and what I buy tends to be of good quality, and doesn't need to be replaced frequently.

I've stopped a good portion of junk mail by registering my name with the Direct Marketing Association. What does arrive gets recycled.

What I can't use, I sell or give away. And I renew or reuse whenever possible.

I take the bus to and from work, unless I work before or after regular bus hours (my schedule varies daily).

When I drink beer at the bar, I usually drink draft, so no bottle :)

I help operate a recycling program at work, and ensure more goes into the recycling bins than the garbage. I encourage others to do the same.

When I go shopping, I use reusable canvas bags instead of plastic bags.

I'm now using compact fluorescent bulbs to reduce my energy consumption and conserve as much as possible.

Just a few ways, my man. Happy Earth week!

Answer 3

Drive less, turn off lights etc. when you're not using them. In terms of food, I would do the opposite -- make a huge pot of soup or something, then stick it in the fridge or freezer and east it when you feel like it. It's more efficient than making a little bit of something over and over.

Answer 4

Best way to be less wasteful is to use less power.  Ride a bike or walk instead of driving a car, or use a motor bike or moped.  Change your home and work light bulbs to compact fluorescents - they really work and are getting cheaper to buy. There are gadgets available at home centers that will decrease your tv's or appliances' use of electricity when they are not being used.  Invest now for long term savings.

Think ahead.  Instead of getting left-overs at a restaurant in a styrofoam box, ask for aluminum foil, which can be reused and then recycled.   Don't get a new car every 4 years.  Wait until your car gets too expensive for upkeep and then replace it with a hybrid.  If you build a house, make sure you put the maximum insulation in it.  Use deep well heat pumps for HVAC.  Consider solar or wind turbines to power your new house.

If you have the space in your yard, plant a garden to use solar energy to grow your own vegetables.  Then recycle the scraps in a composter.  This keeps you from complaining about the high price of vegetables too!

There are so many more ways.  I wish I had done the solar power on this house when I built it 8 years ago.  I am thinking about a retro-fit.  Maybe ... someday ...

Answer 5

Here are three ideas from my homefront:

**Don't throw food away.  Have a leftovers night or make a casserole out of last night's leftovers.

**Don't use disposable grocery bags.  Take your own bags and use something that you can reuse each time.  I carry burlap bags to the grocery or dept store.

**Conserve your trips in car.  Due to rising gas prices I was forced to do this one and I hope I never return to my old wasteful days even when gas prices decrease.  It just feels good to conserve.

Answer 6

I try to buy locally as much as I can.

I don't own a car, and the only reason why I will ever buy one is to take a crash pad (for climbing), and a sea kayak.

I bike everywhere, and rarely take public transit.

I'm also vegetarian - so it somewhat lowers my overall footprint, depending on where my food is coming from.

And I share a home with four other people. I live in a big city so everything is close by.

But I'm also in my early 20s, so I know my lifestyle doesn't suit everyone.

Answer 7

Before you go out and buy ANYTHING stop and carefully think if you really really need that thing and most likely the answer will be no.  We buy sooo many useless things simply because we have been programmed to and we have to start de-programming ourselves because advertising sure isn't going to start telling you to buy less of their products.

Answer 8

I try to do most of these, at least what I can afford. Great question for today (or any day really) to reassess what you do and see what others do that you can start implementing as well. I like some of the other suggestions here.

1) Walk or bike instead of driving when you are going relatively short distances (or even longer distances if you have time).

2) Turn off lights when you aren't in the room.

3) Try to get used to turning the AC down a few notches, or the Heat up a few notches depending on the season.

4) RECYCLE

5) Reuse grocery bags on subsequent trips, or buy the reusable washable grocery bags now available at most grocery stores.

6) When you go on walks, bring a bag with you and if you come directly across litter (especially non-biodegradable), pick it up.

7) Which leads to: Don't litter

8) Use florescent light bulbs in rooms where the lights stay on longer and regular bulbs in areas where you usually only turn the lights on for a bit and then turn them back off again. (Recently an electrician told me that the reason some of my florescent bulbs were burning out so fast was because I was using them in areas where the lights were only on for short periods. Turns out, this isn't conducive to the long life of these bulbs and I was adding to waste in this case.) Also make sure you are using the correct Watts and Voltage of lightbulb in each socket. (I found wrong ones in some of mine.) If the watts/voltage are too high it will burn hotter and consume more energy as well as significantly shortening the life of the bulbs.

9) For those who have the money you can invest in any or all of the following: Environmentally friendly vehicle, solar panels, wind turbines, energy efficient appliances, new energy saving windows/doors/insulation to save you money and conserve the energy you do use and update your sprinkler system to better use the water you put out and waste less (I recently found that sprinkler water waste in the US is excessive and most people don't realize that updating it will provide a better watered healthier lawn, lower their water bill AND help the environment).

Answer 9

Will anyone please answer my question????

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

Answer 10

I turned down my water-heater in the house as low as it goes, now i don't add any cold water while bathing and it's still Plenty Hot...... I also cook so that i have leftovers, it works.....,,I try to drive less....

Answer 11

There is a series of books called The Tightwad Gazette (i think they may have been combined into one huge book). Check it out from the library. The purpose is to save money, but most of the ways are great for the environment.

Here are my favorite ways:

1) clothesline instead of dryer

2) solar cooker

3) rinse dishes in a dishpan of water and pour on plants (there's not enough soap residue to hurt the plants)

4) Put a filter on the water tap and get filtered water that way rather than buying bottled water. Saves on trips to the store as well as the plastic used in making bottles.

5) Eat low on the food chain.

6) Reuse a bath towel. You can use the same towel several times. If you don't like the idea of a used towel on your face, use a small bath cloth to dry your face.

7) Sew up a small bathcloth into a mitt and drop the little slivers of soap into it--the kind that are too small to hold in your hand. They will foam up fine inside the wet mitt

8) Try and get samples of something to see if you like it before buying a full size of the product.

9) Use the library more.

10) Freecycle. It's a Yahoo group where you find people in your area that want to give away stuff they don't need any more or request things.