Waste Prevention World

Beyond Waste Prevention

Of course you recycle, don't you?

You recycle plastic that bears #1 and #2 resin codes, aluminum and non-aluminum cans, cardboard, boxboard, magazines, newspaper, mixed paper. Every piece of unwanted junk mail, every empty box of laundry detergent, and every empty toilet paper tube in your home is regularly put into your recycle bin without you or any family member even thinking about it. If you have a lawn, you mow the lawn with an electric mower, and your lawn clippings either stay on the lawn to nourish the soil or are composted in a compost pile or compost bin in your back yard, along with most of your vegetable food waste from the kitchen. If you live in an apartment you have a worm bin under your sink to compost food scraps.

You do more than recycle, don't you?

You have gone beyond recycling to waste prevention. You have explored steps that you can take to live, work, play, and consume in ways that generate less waste so that you have even less to recycle, and you have taken many of those steps. You have gleaned all the information you can about waste prevention topics from the Waste Prevention Information Exchange, and from the CIWMB publications catalog. You have taken many of your waste prevention practices to your work place. Your coworkers have become inspired by your silent sterling example. They have begun to think about practicing waste prevention in their homes. Now you are just wondering, what more can you do?

What more is there?

Can you do any more? You bet'cha! Everything that you do, and everything that you do not do, matters in many ways.

The California Integrated Waste Management Board has always been a proponent of people continually examining their lives and keeping the environmental ramifications of waste issues in mind when making choices, hence our slogan, "Zero Waste—You Make It Happen!" But there are other related issues to consider, other choices to make, and other potential benefits to reap beyond environmental benefits. The following links are offered as food for thought.

Here's More!

• Center for a New American Dream. Helping Americans consume responsibly to protect the environment, enhance quality of life and promote social justice.  See the Conscious Consumer project.
• Ecological Footprint Quiz. Are you walking lightly on the Earth? This Ecological Footprint Quiz estimates how much productive land and water you need to support what you use and what you discard. After answering 15 easy questions you'll be able to compare your ecological footprint to what other people use and to what is available on this planet. The quiz is currently available for 58 countries, ranging from the U.S. to Nigeria, and can be accessed in several languages.
• GoodHumans Guidelines. Tips on a wide variety of topics.
• Living Lightly. Motivation to consume only one's share, based on an assumption that every human being has a right to an equal share of physical space on this planet.
• Make Stuff. Craft projects, gift and holiday ideas, and recipes that are easy to make.
• Seeds of Simplicity. A Program of the Center for Religion, Ethics, & Social Policy at Cornell University.
• Simple Living Network
  • Simple Living Journal. A quarterly publication that inspires and supports people to simplify their lives. Includes first-hand stories, articles and networking opportunities. Published by Simple Living Press in Seattle, Washington.
  • Simple Living Network. Provides tools and examples for those who are serious about learning to live a more conscious, simple, healthy and restorative lifestyle.
  • Study Group Database. A listing of voluntary simplicity study groups and circles. These small, local groups, usually 10 people or less, meet to discuss, learn and share experiences and techniques in financial independence, simple living, voluntary simplicity, conscious consumerism, sustainable living and/or deep ecology using a variety of meeting formats.
• Simplicity Resource Guide. Provides a wide spectrum of resources related to simple living, including book reviews, links to related sites, and relevant articles.
• The Use Less Stuff Report. A bimonthly newsletter that helps people reduce waste and prevent pollution.
• Voluntary Simplicity. An index of alternatives to consumerism and ways to reduce one's dependence on mainstream economics and find happiness with fewer purchases, including resources about sustainable living, voluntary simplicity, frugality and other ways to live lightly on the earth.
• Voluntary Simplicity Web Resources. Provided by The Garden.

Waste Prevention and Recycling at Home | Waste Prevention World Home

Last updated: April 21, 2008