America Recycles Day was started by Keep America Beautiful with the goal of promoting and celebrating recycling in the United States through various events and the #BeRecycled pledge. To celebrate this year, we thought we’d share some of our recycling and sustainability tips!
Photo by Mel Poole on Unsplash
Kate: Don’t be too hasty to get rid of your packaging. Keep a box of materials on hand for those moments when the kids are bored or you’re feeling crafty. It’s amazing what you can create with old boxes, cartons, ribbons, packing peanuts, bubble wrap and string when you let your creativity run wild!
Alicia: Plan out your meals once a week, ideally near your kitchen so you can take stock of what you already have. Then make one big trip to the grocery store. This helps prevent food waste, saves you the time and gas of making multiple trips to the grocery store, and helps ward off any desire to get takeout, which typically comes with lots of disposable packaging.
Linda: Conserving water can be as grand as installing rain barrels to catch the rainfall and using it to water your gardens and outdoor plants. It can also be as simple as keeping a small watering can handy in the kitchen. When you're about to pour water from used water glasses or the dog's bowl down the sink, pour it in the watering can instead and use it to water your indoor plants.
Lauren: Try to find small ways to cut down your daily waste. Investing in reusable sandwich bags, produce bags and shopping totes, and signing up for e-bills are small changes that can make a difference over time.
Mary: I drive a hybrid car, which I really enjoy – a great way to reduce impact. My other compulsive thing I do is use shopping bags from the back of said car when I go to grocery store. When we do get paper bags, we re-use them as garbage bags. Each week we know we’ve been successful when our recyclables are larger than our garbage!
Do you have any questions about what can be recycled in the Twin Cities? This MinnPost story has the answers!
