We hear "reduce, re-use and recycle" a lot. By far, the most popular of these three guys is recycle. Why? I'm guessing that it's because it's the easiest.Re-using takes some creativity...what am I going to do with the stack of 32oz yogurt containers that are coded #5... so far I can't find ANYONE to recycle these guys.
In my region, only plastics numbered 1, 2 and 3's can be recycled. I guess they could be used for some kind of storage if I was into beading or something...and they're too small for my son's Legos...
So while I haven't found out what to do with the stack of yogurt containers I have, I did figure out a way to stop accumulating them...REDUCE!!! So no more buying those containers of yogurt. Instead, I bought a yogurt maker. 
If that works out, it'll be 2 less containers a week (wow...that's over 100 a year...just for my family!) And the bonus...it's cheaper!
And while we're reducing our use of products using non or hard to recycle containers, we're going to ditch the tub butter (also the #5 packaging). Instead, back to stick margarine.
And even recyclable stuff...well it takes energy to recycle. We're going to switch over to shampoo in bar format...no more bottles to recycle after we finish our "pumpable shampoo"! I'll let you know how the bar shampoo works out.
Having all those yogurt containers piled up definitely made me realize recycling isn't the real solution...reducing my purchasing of this kind of packaging.
How do you REDUCE?
3 comments:
You can also reduce by choosing products in larger containers to reduce waste. I have yogurt and V8 everyday in my lunch. I buy the large bottle of V8 and the large container of yogurt then just pour/scoop out what I want that day. This way, I am using 1 big container instead of 5 little ones.
I am not sure where you live but keep checking in my area we can recycle #1-7. the ideas you gave, however are great!
I just bought the YogoTherm. It uses NO electricity, but it does have a plastic container (I'm going to get a glass one that will fit inside the unit). It was super, super easy to make some great-tasting yogurt. I can't wait to make my own sour cream!
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