The word trash refers to those items that consumers throw out after use. These can be anything from bottles and corrugated boxes through food and grass clippings all the way to sofas and tires. The EPA is preoccupied with waste disposal, energy, and natural resources conservation through recycling, and the reduction and the cleaning up of waste materials. The EPA, however, is an organization that is made up of people like you and me and your neighbor. In other words, if everyone chips in, the EPA will also be able to do their work more efficiently. Let us see what we, as individual families, can do to minimize our waste production at home:
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Home Delivery
In recent times especially when too many people are homebound, we tend to order things online even more frequently than before. Now, it is not only your washing machine or the latest bestsellers arriving in boxes but also your groceries and meals possibly. It is one thing to be receiving cardboard boxes and breaking them down for later use or putting them out on the curbside. It is an entirely different thing to remind the restaurant you are ordering from not to include plastic cutlery and napkins with your order. Grocery stores may also be delivering in plastic and paper bags. These can be reused to line wastebaskets and to pick up after your dog. You can also collect the items in these bags that you mean to give away at a later point.
Running a Household
When it comes to running a household, there are quite a few zero-waste hacks you can take advantage of. One such trick is to wait until the laundry basket cannot take the load anymore, and only then start washing. The same goes for the dishwasher. Also, depending on the number of people in your home, you may not have to use the dishwasher at all. Often, it takes much less time and water to clean everything under the faucet. While talking about water and cleaning, you may also want to consider using less water for your showers. If you are used to taking baths, you may start by cutting back on those a bit. Remember, there are less-developed places where a bucket full of water is all that a person gets for washing themselves. Just because you have more at your disposal, it does not mean you have to use more too. A cost-efficient, and practically zero-waste, the solution is to use biodegradable, concentrated household products. You would use these for a much longer time as you would be using only a little of the concentrate and dissolve it in water. The containers would then degrade naturally.
Propane versus Electricity
You will not be able to do away with using electricity entirely in your home. So, what you can do to reduce your carbon dioxide emission is to simply switch off and unplug devices when they are not in use. At the same time, you may want to start exploring electricity alternatives. Propane is a term appearing in the context of environmentally friendly homebuilding more and more. Ask questions like how is propane made that it makes it adequate for a zero-waste household. The idea is that propane would contribute to your cutting your carbon footprint by half. It is rather multifunctional as you can use it for space and water heating, cooking, and clothes drying as well.
Kids Activities
Teaching your kids about the environment and about fulfilling their needs without going overboard starts at home. What easier way is there than setting time aside to be out in the backyard and engaging in some games that require only the person? Eco-friendliness can be playful. Prompt your kids to rush to the recycling bins and find where glass and where plastic go. The winner can choose what to have for dinner. With the current school conditions, it is a great time to encourage teachers to completely eliminate paper from their teaching. Receiving and handing in assignments digitally is a great zero-waste lesson to put into practice.
Just like many other things, going zero-waste is a gradual process to adopt. Choose one area at a time, such as the kitchen, the bathroom, or the garage. Start listing the things you can implement in the direction of zero-waste and do it bit by bit. We all produce enough waste material so that if everyone gradually reduces that, it will make for a long-term contribution to our planet.
