REDUCE
The FIRST step in waste reduction.
JUNK MAIL: Junk
Mail is extremely wasteful - it wastes our time, energy,
resources and money. Colorado residents receive 342,000,000
pounds of junk mail a year and in response, Colorado spends
over $4.3 million a year beyond recycling costs to dispose
of junk mail. GREENDIMES to the Rescue – Stop your
junk mail and plant a tree! For $20 a year GreenDimes will
get you off mailing lists and other pesky databases while
planting 10 trees on your behalf. You can sign up by clicking
on the box above - and by signing up here, High Country
Conservation Center receives a portion of the proceeds.
Buy in Bulk:
There are several components to buying in bulk that help
reduce waste. First, most products bought in bulk come unpackaged,
which leaves you with the option to put it into reusable
bags, jars or boxes. Second, bulk products use less packaging
that individually wrapped items. For example, a 40 oz bag
of potato chips has less packaging than ten 4 oz bags of
potato chips. Start with some staples, like coffee,
rice, cereal, flour or even dish soap.
Buy Recycled and Recyclable Products: Buying recyclable products and then tossing them in the recycling bin instead of the trash reduces the amount of waste we send to our landfill. Buying recycled-content products supports recycling markets and helps move us closer to a closed-loop, zero waste society. Visit our buying recycled page to learn more.
Avoid Individually Packaged and Single Use Products: As mentioned above with Buying in Bulk, individually wrapped products create a lot of unnecessary waste. Single-use products, like 12 oz. plastic water bottles, plastic utensils, tiny ketchup packages and disposable cups are examples of wasteful products that have readily available alternatives.
Ask for Aluminum Foil: When you need to take food from a restaurant to go, we suggest asking for a sheet of aluminum foil instead of a box. All kitchens have it, and its easily recyclable. Much better all around than Styrofoam or plastic containers!
Give Up that Disposable
Cup: If you stop for a cup of coffee each
morning or fill up a paper cup with soda each lunch hour,
try investing in a really good stainless steal mug.
The investment into a mug that really feels good, is the
right size, and fits in your cup holder is worth it!
With a mug that you like, you'll find it easier to give
up that disposable cup.
Forget the little
Plastic Water Bottle: Even recyclable #1
PET plastic bottles that soda and water come in are not
a good option for reuse. Those disposable bottles are not
intended for multiple use and can leach the chemicals found
in plastic into your drink. To avoid plastic altogether
we suggest investing in a stainless steel water bottle available
from High Country Conservation Center at our Farmers Market
booths or at the Ecoasis in Breckenridge.
Plastic Bags really
Blow: At High Country Conservation Center
we know plastic bags blow - we have all seen them flapping
from tree branches all over the County. We recommend investing
in large, flat-bottomed canvas bags for your groceries -
they are available EVERYWHERE these days! Safeway, City
Market, WalMart, Vitamin Cottage, Alpine Natural Foods,
and Amazing Grace all have an assortment of reusable bags
- some of them are only 99 cents! (For a much wider
selection of shapes, sizes, colors and textures we suggest
checking out one of our favorite websites: www.reusablebags.com)
A Disclaimer: We have found that the grocery store clerks and baggers are often flustered and confused when we hold out our reusable bags. Being the control freak that she is, Carly finds bagging herself is the best way to go, while Holly (with her new baby in her arms) prefers to cheer and coach the baggers (each and every time) on the durability and capacity of the big canvas bags. Habits are hard to break, for everyone.
REUSE
Reuse is a concept whose time has come again. Use
it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without!
There are many ways to REUSE materials. From supporting your local thrift stores, rummage and yard sales, and consignment stores (through purchases and donations) to finding creative ways to reuse odd items, reuse is an important part of a sustainable community.
Community Nonprofit Thrift Store: High Country Conservation Center and Summit Thrift and Treasure have partnered to help improve the reuse infrastructure of our community. You can help my purchasing items from the thrift store and following their donation guidelines. Please see their website for details: www.summitfirc.org/sttdropoff.php.
Summit Freecycle: High Country Conservation Center manages the Summit Freecycle list serve, an online message board to post unwanted, working goods or to seek specific items from the network. Join today by going to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/summitfreecycle/.
Other Consignment and Reuse Options are listed on our Hard to Recycle Page.
CREATIVE REUSE
The ideas are limitless,
but here are some of our staff's favorite ways to reuse
household items:
Recycled Plastic
Lunch Bag: Check out this fun craft project using
plastic shopping bags and a little creativity to create
reusable, durable, washable, and groovy plastic lunch bags.
Click here
for instructions (seen on SCTV 10's Green Show!)
Reuse Jars:
Jars are great for leftovers (no need to worry about the
chemicals in plastic leaching into your food that way!),
vases (hey, shabby chic is in!), luminaries (tear up some
colored paper or tissue paper and glue it to the outside
of the jar and place a candle inside),organizing a tool
shed, and much more. Holly's favorite way to reuse
a glass jar is to use it as a mug for her hot tea by wrapping
it in the top of an old wool sock for insulation. She's
got Carly using them for her summer smoothies now. Try it!
Reuse Plastic Tubs. Use them for mixing paint, holding leftovers, repackaging bulk foods for school lunches, or substitute them for baggies. Carly uses plastic cherry tomato and strawberry packages each spring to start plants for her herb garden. Plastic to go containers also make great water tray for small plants.
Check back often for seasonal additions to this REUSE section!
RECYCLE
Recycling is the LAST STEP in waste reduction. It's
a great solution and important part of a sustainable community,
but it can't save the planet alone!
You can find information about local recycling options on our Recycling in Summit page. But if you need some motivation, here are some facts:
Local Facts
Summit County residents recycled 7225 tons of material in 2005 diverting 12% of the total waste stream! By recycling locally, you made a difference globally:
- 2411 Metric Tons Carbon Emissions were not emitted into the atmosphere – the equivalent of taking 1819 passenger cars off the road!
- 48,005 million BTU of energy was conserved – enough to power 456 households of four for one year
- 3680 tons of airborne wastes were not emitted
- 14 tons of waterborne wastes were not released
- 143 tons of iron ore were not mined
- 259 tons of coal were not burned
- 22 tons of limestone were not mined
- 9579 forty foot Douglas fir trees were left standing
National Facts
• Recycling creates 6 times as many jobs as landfilling.
• Tossing away an aluminum can wastes as much energy as pouring out half of that can's volume in gasoline.
• Recycling a 3 foot high stack of newspaper saves a 32 foot tree.
• Water pollution is reduced by 76% and air pollution by 85% when steel is recycled.
• If only 10% of Americans bought products with less plastic packaging just 10% of the time, approximately 144 million pounds of plastic could be eliminated from our landfills.
• 50% of landfills, on average, are filled with paper, most of which could have been recycled.
• The average American creates 3.5 pounds of trash each day!
Resources for More Waste Reduction Information
GrassRoots
Recycling Network
National Recycling Coalition
Colorado Association for Recycling
Freecycle Network's national website |
