Small Steps: Big Impact-- Egg Cartons

When you buy eggs, if you can buy the ones in cardboard cartons, go for it. Not only are they more easily recycled, but they break down faster in a landfill if (for some reason) you don't recycle it.

In my neck of the woods, though, the eggs in cardboard cartons are several dollars more expensive than those in foam cartons. So I buy the foam ones, but reuse them by giving them to my mom, who happens to have chickens. If you know a farmer with chickens (or can find one), they might appreciate the used cartons to hold their excess eggs. You might could even work out a trade. Five egg cartons for a dozen eggs, anyone?

The Time Excuse

People have many reasons for why they "can't" help the planet. I'm going to take a look at these excuses over time and bust through them. The first excuse is "I don't have time."

I don't have time to... wash baggies, tins to recycle, foil to reuse, etc.
You are going to be washing dishes anyway, aren't you? It takes about five extra seconds to rinse out a zippy bag or wash a tuna can. Foil can be laid on the counter and wiped off with the soapy rag in seconds. If you are already washing dishes, don't you have twenty extra seconds to save the planet? If you have a dishwasher, you really can't use this excuse.

I don't have time to... use cloth diapers.
Again, if you have a baby, you are already going to be doing a ton of laundry. What is one more load? If you have a washing machine, it takes less than three minutes to load the thing and start it. Even if you have to carry your laundry to a community laundry room like I do, it still takes less time than a trip to the store to buy diapers. The only thing about cloth diapers that takes extra time is rinsing out the poopy ones, maybe one to two minutes? Some people don't even rinse them, though, so if you really DIDN'T have the time, you wouldn't have to do that.

I don't have time to... take my recycling to the recycling center.
I don't really have a great answer for this one except to combine it with other errands. But consider this: An aluminum can takes between 80 and 200 years to break down in a landfill. A glass bottle will take over a million years (Source). Now how long does it take to drive to the recycling center?

Recycling

One of the big things I (and many others, I'm sure) have neglected in "going green" is recycling. It is extremely easy and a huge step toward reducing waste. While the big goal is to reduce consumption in general, what you can't reduce you should recycle!

So I'm on a recycling adventure. In my town you can recycle metal (aluminum and tin cans), newspaper, and cardboard. There is no pickup, so I'll have to haul it myself. I saved a trash can from the landfill (i.e. found it in the dumpster) the other day to be a recycling bin for my tin cans, and for now I'll use two cloth bags to hold newspaper and cardboard (until the dumpster yields more trash cans). I don't want my tins to stink until I have enough to carry, so I'm washing them with my dishes.

I'm pretty excited about all this. I knew you could recycle aluminum here, but I hadn't thought about tin cans. So I'm taking one more step.