How to Reduce Waste for a Cleaner World

Each year every American creates 1,600 pounds of trash. How to reduce waste is one of the biggest issues of our time.

With places like the Pacific Trash Gyre and Henderson Island becoming monuments of our wasteful habits, how can we keep our planet clean for generations to come?

The good news about everyone creating so much garbage is that one person really can make a big change.

Even if only 10 Americans slashed their annual waste in half, that’s 8,000 pounds of garbage cut out from our footprint every year.

This article will show you how can humans reduce the number of landfills without sacrificing the things we love.

You can still get your coffee to go in the mornings and don’t have to forego eating out.

How Local Trash Production Affects Us Nationwide

This map of America’s landfills is disheartening, to say the least. Over 2,000 landfills dot the country to handle the massive amounts of garbage thrown away every year.

If you laid out all the garbage that goes into American landfills each year, you could reach the moon and back 25 times.

Some closed landfills are now disguised as public parks with rolling green hills. Those hills are made out of garbage.

The Biggest Threat

There’s one ingredient that makes up the majority of our waste every year. Can you guess it?

Plastics are by far the biggest threat to wildlife. Even if plastics break down, they aren’t biodegradable.

Shattered plastic fills the oceans with tiny particles that wildlife consume. Some of the deepest dwelling ocean creatures, many who have never seen sunlight, are now found with thousands of tiny plastic particles in their stomachs and intestinal tracts.

Garbage in Paradise

When you think of remote backdrops, the volcanic islands of the south pacific offer some of the most secluded land left on the planet.

Located thousands of miles away from the nearest mainland, environmentalists once fought off plans for a mansion to be built on the island.

Protesters wanted to preserve the natural beauty of the island. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) agreed when they designated the island a World Heritage Site in 1988.

Unfortunately, the island might have been in better shape than it is now had people been there to keep it clean.

The island is in an unfortunate location. Sitting on the rim of the Pacific Gyre, a giant everlasting circular current, the island attracts garbage like your dry cleaning attracts lint.

Researchers have found so much trash on the island, they claim it has the world’s highest density of trash littering its beaches and jungles.

There is good news. Recycling in America is at an all-time high. So what can you do to push us closer to a greener Earth?

How to Reduce Waste at Home

If you’re wondering how to reduce waste at home here are some simple changes you can make starting today:

• Don’t buy single-serving beverages
• Carry a reusable water bottle with you
• Bring your thermos if you have a favorite coffee house
• Use a lunchbox instead of paper bags
• Buy milk in a recyclable glass container
• Unsubscribe from any junk mail
• Make your household cleaners

When it comes to reducing the main component of our waste issue, plastic, you can save a lot with the following 5 tips:

1. Buy Used Clothes

How does this cut down on plastic use? Petroleum byproducts, like polyester, are continuing to make up a bigger portion of the apparel industry.

While cotton uses more land and water than polyester, the former creates almost double the carbon footprint.

Polyester production for clothing released over 1 trillion pounds of carbon into the atmosphere.

2. Buy From the Bulk Section

Most grains and packaged foods come in multiple layers of packaging. Your grocery store’s bulk section doesn’t just offer the same goods for cheaper, you can buy them in the thin produce bags the store carries and transfer them to a reusable container when you get home.

3. Use Natural Body Care Products

Some large cosmetic and body care manufacturers, like Neutrogena, use tiny little plastic beads in their products.

While they are advertised as an exfoliant, you are washing away hundreds of thousands of tiny plastic particles right down the drain.

Because thousands, if not millions, of people, use these products those little particles add up fast.

And because they don’t take the usual route garbage takes on its way to the ocean, they get almost direct access to the environment.

4. Stop Using Disposable Razors

This is another easy way to cut down on plastic waste that doesn’t involve a huge inconvenience.

Disposable razor cartridges are mostly plastic. A good safety razor only needs the blade replaced every month or so.

Even with a safety razor, these straight blades can be dangerous to handle and use. Make sure to watch a tutorial video on how to properly load the razors without cutting yourself.

5. Use Glass Food Storage Containers

Plastic food containers wear down fast even if they are reusable. They don’t last long in the dishwasher and you don’t want plastic that’s breaking down to be touching your food.

Pyrex makes thick glass food containers that can withstand drops as well as high and low temperatures.

How to Reduce Waste the Easy Way

How can humans reduce the number of landfills? We’ll always have some amount of waste to get rid of, better it be contained than polluting our rivers, oceans, and streets.

So how can you make sure your next move or remodel doesn’t add square footage to Garbage Island?

By making sure you partner with a dumpster rental company that puts you first.

All you have to do is call, and Bin There Dump That can have a dumpster waiting to be filled at your doorsteps in less than 24 hours.

Call today and get a free quote!