Reduce your landfill imprint

I'm following the story in the URL I linked to this post and I am readily aware of how much trash I probably produce.

I am an avid consumer, frequently buy stuff at target on the cheap only to throw it out.

I have more than one eyeshadow pot containing a similar color to the others I have (dark violet being my favorite), and lots of dark reddish brown lipsticks (I'm brown skinned)

I have TONS of half used hair products and more than one aging cream product.

I will NOT buy L'oreal's skin genesis line until I use up Olay's definity stuff and my Avon anew stuff. I will NOT buy any new hair products until the old ones are gone.

But I can do more> From now on, when the kids want something that's packaged I'll consider the landfill imprint of that purchase as part of my criteria. For example, never again do I buy a barbie doll (we have enough)

And this Christmas? No wrapping paper purchases. I'm going to use newspaper that I already have - or old sheets and yarn. It'll look quainter, and also, it'll teach my kids a good lesson - more so, it'll help the earth, and help stop contributing to damage that I, a middle-class over-consumer have helped create.

This weekend is the initial purging of old junk (I had a yard sale with friends and did a lot of purging already. I'm going to donate all the stuffed animals and dolls we don't use that are in good condition here:

http://www.mnf-iraq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5663&Itemid=109

And then I'll be super mindful of not letting my kids nor I get out of control again.

Link

Mon. Sep 17, 10:24am

Why'd I post this here, anyway?

I posted it here to encourage you to join me. Let's reduce our landfill imprint. Tell Victoria secret and Oriental trading co to stop sending you catalogues, etc...

Monday, September 17, 2007, 10:24 AM

I'm with you! I do what I can - where I can and love suggestions

I also find it interesting that I became more concientous about the time I really overhauled my eating and my life in general. When I eat clean, I want to live clean.

Thus I use my own cloth bags for shopping, buy more produce in bulk and package in my own re-usable packaging. Buy fewer packaged goods - making my own sauces, dressings and spice mixes from scratch. I've become really concious of food packaging and how much of it there is - some is simply unavoidable, but I try to do my part to use as little as possible.

I don't buy things I'm not going to use for at least 5 years. My furniture is solid wood from sustainable sources and heirloom quality. Yes, it's more expensive, but I don't buy 3 of them over the years - I buy 1 classic piece and treasure it. My matress is 100% natural, organically raised material (latex, wool, cotton) and when it wears out, it will not sit in a land fill - I will take it to the local business that made it and get it restuffed. They will launder and reuse the old stuffing, or send it to a recycler who makes it into insulation that doesn't put fibers into the air like fiberglass does.

I buy quality shoes and get them re-soled rather than throw them away. The exception is my gym shoes, and if anyone has a good suggestion for how to dispose of them - I'd appreciate it.

My husband has completely caught on and thinks it's great we have less garbage than recycling (and that's not much). And now that I compost all our food waste - even less. We now have the smallest curbside garbage container you can get and don't even fill it half full.

I also don't buy a lot of cosmetics and the ones I do buy are of high quality, last a long time and are good to my skin. Plus at least with MAC, you can take back the old container and they will recycle it. Spending a little more upfront keeps me from buying a bunch of stuff I am not quite satisfied with.

In short I really think about what I buy, how much I really like it (often not that much), how long I'm going to have it and what's going to happen to it when I no longer want it. I find that with that mindset I simply buy less. My life is not disposable and neither are the things in it.

My worst thing? Magazines! I love them. So I and several girlfriends share a couple of subscriptions to our favorites and get together regularly to exchange magazines (which itself is a lot of fun).

Monday, September 17, 2007, 11:19 AM

I live on a property where I can't do gardening (renter :() on the land. Anyone know of any uses for compost other than fertilizer? Could I donate it to a local farm or something? I go through a TON of vegetable scraps and I swear that ends up being a huge chunk of my garbage.

Monday, September 17, 2007, 12:31 PM

I love this thread. These are GREAT ideas which I will use. Thanks so much.

Monday, September 17, 2007, 6:05 PM

This is a great thread!

11:19 .... On the quetion about running shoes ... I think NIke collects used ones and recycles them .. someone does.

12:31 ... I don't know waht else you would do with compost other than to put it in a garden. Look for community gardens and community sponsored agriculture in your area. They might take it from you .. and also give you an opporunity to garden! You can get a nce crock to save compostable stuff on your counter - a crock at www.gardenerssupply.com. It has a nitrogen pad so it won't smell.

Monday, September 17, 2007, 9:28 PM

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