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Treading Lightly as a Family
How Curbside Composting Can Help Get us to Zero Waste
Although you may recycle everything you can, your trash may be far from empty. Recycling is a powerful way to protect our environment and conserve resources, but it does not prevent waste entirely. By composting, you can eliminate another 25% of what's currently in your trash. When you recycle and compost, you begin to see what's left in your trash can, and it becomes easier to make different choices to eliminate waste altogether.
What is “Post-Consumer” Paper?
100% Post-consumer Recycled Content
“Warming” Family Ideas
• Lighting – replacing one 75 watt incandescent bulb with a 19-watt compact fluorescent can cut 55 pounds of carbon dioxide per year. Assign your math-loving child the task of determining how many light bulbs you need to replace and the reduction in emissions. Engage children in budgeting for purchases and replacement.
• Power strips – used for computers, televisions, radios or other electronics continually emit power even when turned off. Each night, time your children while they run around the house turning off the strips.
Activity
Keep a log for one week of everything you “toss”—write each item in one of these categories: “garbage,” “recycling,” “reuse” or “compost.” After the week is over, make a plan for the next week to change ways you can put 50% less in the “garbage” category by reusing, recycling, composting or buying things with less or no packaging. For example, did you know a banana has its own natural packaging? You could maybe even challenge your family members or your friends to a waste-free competition for a week.
Pack and Eat a No Waste Lunch
Pack a No Waste Lunch
A “no-waste lunch” is a meal that does not end up in the trash. You can buy food items in bulk, then put them in reusable containers to carry to school or work. Packing your food in reusables is typically less expensive and creates less waste than buying food that comes in disposable containers.
Healthy Schools Projects
Three Minnesota schools reduce pollution and save energy and money. Houston Public Schools in southeastern Minnesota, Pine Point Elementary on the White Earth Reservation, and Hutchinson High School took part in a recently finished pilot project to develop a healthier, more sustainable work and study environment in schools. These schools were part of a grant to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency called the Healthy Schools project.
Green Your Office
Business-to-Business Mail
Businesses and institutions receive a great deal of unsolicited mail, such as catalogs and advertising mail for products and services of all kinds. Even when these materials are wanted, there can be a tremendous amount of waste and duplication. Do these sound familiar?
