I try wherever I am to not create alot of garbage. I use dishes instead of paper plates and I cook meals instead of buying processed foods so i dont have to throw away paper and cardboard. what do you guys to to create less garbage and is there anything else i can do? I cant think of anything :/ But i try not to throw things away like clothes i give to my friends or my sister.

I try to recyle everything I possibly can. I even switched from Tropicana OJ to Simply Orange just because they have a plastic container. I should contact them to see if they use any recylced plastics. Then the cylce would be complete. But creating no waste at all is the best thing to do. I'm in super markets all day long and I frequently buy drinks or something to munch on and I always refuse a bag. Also when use an ATM or buying gas I generally tell it not to print a recept. If I need to see my account balance I just have it dispalyed on the screen. Also personal security plays a role, you don't want bits of your info being printed up everywhere.

I recycle as much as I can (cardboard food boxes for instance, bottles)...use cloth napkins about 95% of the time...and one thing I need to start doing is compost. I think I would feel better if I compost, and then also I'm not sure what I'd have left to throw away. I don't generate much garbage.

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buying in the bulk section and bringing your own containers (jars), not bagging veggies when possible, if you can, the best is to buy a bulk quanity of something like tofu, splitting it with friends. check for cellulose based plastics too, then you can feel a little better if plastc does get too nasty.

Search the yahoo groups for your local "freecycle". Freecycle groups exist with the idea of diverting as much as posible from landfills. The idea is that one person's trash is another person's treasure. You'll find everything on there from jars and plastic bags, to couches and computers. You can give away your old things or find something new.

I know there is a lot more we could be doing but currently:

recycle cans

we are moving into a house in a couple of months so my husband and I are doing research on compost heaps becasue we plan on having one of those.

I make my studnets use scrap paper for drawing (extra worksheets)

we are planning on planting our own fruit trees and garden so that will help with packaging and transportation.

i have a co-worker that sells a dozen free range eggs from his home for 1 dollar. sometimes i buy a dozen for my husband. when he wants more i just bring the same egg container up.

we use plastic plates and cups (but I guess we use up a lot of water to wash them)

we use tupaware containers for our lunches (no baggies) and reuseable lunch boxes.

i used to also worry about how much water i use when washing dishes but it has gotten to the point where using more water is better than using paper plates even because of the amount of trash going into the landfills.

Oh this is a difficult one for me. I feel like our household makes a lot of trash, but I don't really know how it compares to other households. We make a tall kitchen trash bag of household trash a week, and at least one big black trash bag of work trash a week (we work at a home business). We don't have trash pickup, I have to take the trash to the dump, which I do I guess about once a month (costs about $7-9). Most of the trash seems to be packaging and waste paper. We don't have local recycling, I have to go to another town 25 miles away to turn in the recyclables...I do that about every six months. But I still feel very "trashy." Everything is so overpackaged.

We recycle everything we're allowed to, and take packaging into considering when making purchases.

We have two composters! And a vegetable garden.

We donate stuff that's still usable to the Salvation Army, rather than just toss it. Just because the pants don't fit me anymore doesn't me they won't fit someone else! :p

We use canvas bags for our groceries. When we forget, we reuse the plastic bags.

I don't generate that much trash at all. I shop at the local bulk co-op reusing old containers and use calico bags. I compost. Recycle any paper junk mail, toilet rolls, dog food cans etc.

I'm actually struggling to think what I "throw out"...ummm the occasional plastic that is not recycleable like gladwrap.....

I also recycle plastic bags. I make the school kids take their sandwich bags home with them rather than throwing them away, and I reuse sandwich bags all the time. I also use plastic bags from the store as garbage bags rather than buying garbage bags.

I use reusable plastic containers for my sandwich, crackers etc. and use a lunchbox. We compost or feed leftover food to my pig.
I recycle scraps of paper for my desk.
We participate in the recycling program.

re-usable containers for food on the go. reusable water jug for on the go.

a travel coffee mug for if i buy coffee/tea from a shop.

i bring my own cloth grocery bags and veggie bags to the grocery store. buy in bulk and put those in reusable containers/bags.

buy clothes/ household goods at thrift stores, and donate there when i'm done with stuff (if it's still in usable condition).

don't use paper towels, use dishrags.
don't use paper napkins, use cloth.
use glass dishes and cups.

recycle everything i can.

reuse paper for scrap (including at work which generates a lot of waste paper).

I reuse as much as possible before throwing it away or recycling it.

I try to use plastic containers for taking meals out. Depending on what I'm doing/going, I use plastic take out containers from restaurants. (I have a salad bowl from McD's, for instance that I use for my salads.) I also have some Cool Whip and margarine containers for the same purpose. Those also work great for tomato sauce stuff that I don't want staining my good containers.

If the container is going to make my brief bag too bulky, I use plastic bags, that I reuse. I also use aluminum foil which I recycle.

I take a canvas bag with me to the grocery store. The bag was found in a trash can in the basement laundry room of my apartment building. It was the perfect size. Also, I like it because I have a rule when I'm shopping and I don't really need stuff--Not to buy any more than what the bag can hold and what I can comfortably carry home. (I walk to the grocery store.)

I Dumpster Dive. I have saved many things from the landfill that way. The dress on which I get the most compliments came from a soroity Dumpster at Ohio University. Our comforter also came from a trash pile from an OU student house. (As did the bowl I just used for my cereal.)

I rarely use paper towels. For cleaning I use wash cloths which I found in the Dumpster.

Before recycling them, I use scraps of paper for random notes/thoughts when my journal is not available. About a month or so, we get an envelope of coupons that are about the size of half a sheet of paper. I cut those in half and use the backs for scratch paper. When I'm done, they get recycled.

Our paper recycling goes to a local church who participates in a program that gives x amount per pound.

Clothes that are no longer wearable go for quilts. Check with a local Lutheran church as many of them make quilts for Lutheran World Relief. ( www.lwr.org ) If one church doesn't do it, they can probably tell you who does, or just keep calling. There are enough churches that do this. I don't know if any other denominations that do this. I know of LWR simply becasue I am a member of the Evengelical Lutheran Church in America.

Okay. I digress.

I definately do second hand clothing. The shorts I have on now I bought about three years ago at Goodwill. The Tshirt I have on is also from Goodwill. It was a new boys' XL that I tie-dyed. (I still can't believe that at six feet 155 pounds I can fit into a boys XL.)

I recycle as much as possible and try to throw away as little as possilbe. I take out our 7 gallon trash bag about once a month.

Someday I would like to have a house with solar panels and a compost pile. I was talking with somebody recently (I wish I could remember who, since we were talking about stuff like this and were on the same wavelength) and we were talking about the slim chance of solar powered cars, too. After all, one of us said, him, I think, Solar is eternal energy. Blah. I wish I remember who.

I REFUSE as much as possible to use disposable plates and cups. Yuck. Yuck. Yuck. My in-laws use disposable plates on a daily basis for almost every meal. EW!! Even when I'm there, I hunt down their few plastic plates. I wonder if they would even buy them if they realized how much money they waste on them. They do use lefover plastic fast food cups for the glasses, which is good, but kinda tacky, I think. Paper towels for hand drying, no recycling, prepackaged processed foods. Yuck. At least my husbnad never got into the foam plate habit. Every week our apartment communtiy has a cook out (bring your own grill food and a dish to share.) He agreed with my idea of getting plastic plates at the Dollar Tree to use for that, so that if we lost one or what ever, we'd be out next to nothing. I also take down plastic flatware from fast food joints.

I think the use of disposable dishes is getting out of hand for large parties. Andy and I went to a dinner party over the winter. There were at least 25 of us. Our hosts actually had china and flatware and glasses (real stuff) for everybody. Dr. Taylor, the host, said that he even pulled out his mother's good china, after I complmented him on using the real stuff. I said it might as well get used, or what's the point in having it?

Even when we go camping next week I'm going to take our plastic plates and cups and flatware. This way, again, if they don't make it home it's not a major loss.

Okay. I'm done ranting.