Yesterday marked the end of the 30 day ‘Reduce Challenge’ and we still only have the garage bin a little under a 1/3 filled. Which is very remarkable for us. There are still a few areas we need improve on – paper towels seems to be our largest contribution to the bin. Here is a summary of what we did to reduce;

• Purchased a Compost for Food Scraps (still working on the Pet Waste Compost)
• Tried to improve our purchasing choices ensuring the materials could be recycled
• Items not picked up curb side, found recycle drop offs within the city (such as items as plastic, styrofoam, milk cartons, and tetra packs need to be dropped off)
• Stopped buying bottle water (see http://mymindsink.com/kill-bottled-water/)
• Use cloth bags for all purchases – including clothing – most retailers also give a small discount off your bill when you use your own bag
• Stopped using paper napkins – this is different from paper towels
• Return metal hangers to the dry cleaners

It was an interesting 30 days and it did not seem to effect us too much – just me picking through the garbage a few times to pull out compostable and recyclable items – then lecturing my husband and niece.

I think we are on the right path and will continue this new Green way of living – I just hope they will not kick me out of the house.