Recycling Tips and for You, Our Lovely Readers, a Request!

Welcome back readers!

Just for you, just because it's Friday, we're doing 2 posts in 1 day!

Here are some things we are currently doing in our home to reduce trash:

1. We no longer use paper towels or paper napkins. We are using cloth napkins that we bought for cheap at Ross and we already had four. We also use kitchen towels for drying and cleaning. For heavy cleaning, you can take old t-shirts and cut them up to use as towels, and also, old towels can become good rags for cleaning.

2. We've bought one cloth bag for the grocery store and we've rummaged through our closets and have found about six other ones that we can use for groceries. Note, it is much easier to carry groceries in cloth bags than paper bags.

3. Now you might be asking yourselves, what do we use for trash bags in the kitchen if we use cloth bags at the grocery store? The answer is simple: we do not use plastic or paper bags. What we do is separate our trash between recycling, composting, and throw-away. We have one recycle bin and one trash bin and one compost pot in the kitchen. We empty them daily into their corresponding bins without any bags. Every time we empty them, we wash them out. So far, it has worked really well. Trash has not spilled onto the sidewalk and things look and smell clean.

We do, however, use plastic bags that we collect for the cat litter (we need something to collect the poop in, and we haven't come up with a better solution. Suggestions??). We then put the bag of poop in the trash bin and dispose of it.

4. Tristan is working on not using paper towels in public bathrooms and instead relying on a handkerchief (seriously, he bought handkerchiefs!) that sometimes he remembers and sometimes doesn't. But one thing you can always do is use the hand air-dryer rather than use paper towels. I have yet to buy my own hanky.

5. For all the ladies out there reading, we know how much plastic goes into each tampon, yes the tampon. If you buy o.b. tampons, you can seriously reduce your monthly plastic consumption. They are small, discrete and don't have any plastic applicators. Just a small film around the outside to keep it clean. That's it.

6. Tristan stopped buying sodas, because they are single serving and instead has turned to brewing tea in large pots to drink all day. Yum.

7. We currently hang-dry most of our clothing and only use half a dryer sheet per load. A friend who worked at a dryer-sheet company told us that half a sheet is more than enough to leave your clothes smelling fresh and feeling soft.

8. We bought reusable water bottles and traveling mugs for coffee and tea and have been happily using them as well.

Our request to you is that you post some of your tips for reducing trash, or even things you are considering doing, on this blog as comments.

Cheers until next week,
S&T