I can be more eco-friendly in 2013. You can too.

 How to Create Less Garbage and Create More Change

Happy New Year! All of us make new year’s resolutions – things that we are going to do better or different when a new year begins – and mine is to be more eco-friendly and to help the environment in many, many ways. I think that this will be one of my New Year’s Resolutions for a long time. If your resolution is the same as mine –  awesome. If not, it would be great to make it one of your goals. We need everybody to take care of the  environment. We need to do this together. Every little thing that we each do will add up to make a huge difference in the world.

To help get you and your family started, here are some things that I put together for you. These are ways we can create less garbage and create more change.

1. Recycling all around the house.

Other than the kitchen, we have the most garbage in the bathroom.  There’s so much stuff that we throw out in the bathroom that is not garbage at all. None of these things is garbage and should be disposed of in an eco way:  hair (green bin), toothpaste/ soapboxes (blue bin), cotton balls (green bin), toilet paper rolls (blue bin), tissue (green bin), empty cans and bottles (blue bin).

There’s a easy and simple way to turn your bathroom garbage can into a recycling center. To do that you need a big bin and get 3 smaller containers to fit into the big one. Then label them green bin, recycling bin and garbage.  This makes it really clear and simple.

2. Not everything you throw out is garbage

Everyone knows that paper goes in the blue bin and so do cans, newspaper and other paper good, but not a lot of people know that batteries, styrofoam, ink and toner cartridges, and electronics can also be recycled.  In every city there is somewhere where you can take all those stuff to recycle them!  Recycle things that are unwanted, things that don’t work, Recycle it!

If you have old toys, clothes that don’t fit anymore. Books that you don’t want, donate them!  Maybe you need things but someone else does! I have donated to a couple of charities, I donated baby blankets and towels to the vet to make the pets more comfortable.

Stuffed toys are not accepted  by most donation places because they say  that they are full of germs. I found a great solution to this and I donated a huge box of  my stuffed animals to the humane society. I was happy to give them all the dogs there something to play and sleep with.

3. Create a Recycling Centre

There are so many things that need to be recycled that can’t go in the recycling bin Things like: batteries, styrofoam, small electronics, clothing, books and toys. Find a space in your garage to make a recycling centre with bins that are labeled for each. When the bin is full, take it to the depot in your community for proper and safe disposal.

4. Make Eco choices when purchasing your school and work supplies.

There are a lot of products that are eco-friendly for school and work. You can buy recycled notebooks, biodegradeable pens and pencils, pencil cases made from recycled water bottles. When you are shopping look for  the recycled symbol- the triangle made for the 3 r’s- and make an ‘eco’ choice.

5.  Share what you are doing to help the environment. Inspire people to join you.

Tell your family, friends, neighbors and teachers what you are doing and they might be inspired to join you. Then they might pass it on and then those people will pass it on and it will keep going. This is how we can all make a difference.

And my other New Year’s Resolution for 2013 is this: