Avoid Bagging Leaves - Create Mulch Instead

No one likes bagging leaves. It is a lot of work to collect the leaves and then put them into bags. The bags are expensive and the increase in garbage is huge.

Instead of bagging leaves, buy a leaf mulcher - they are the best! It is like a vacuum cleaner that mulches up the trash. A leaf mulcher sucks up the leaves, mulches them, and dumps them into a reusble bag. After you have mulched them, you can take the bag and empty it directly into your garden. Leaf mulchers are so great that I can run mine over my existing bark mulch at top speed and it only picks up the leaves. Love it!

You save the environment by not buying more plastic bags (plastic is evil) and not creating garbage. You also don't need to go buy bagged mulch at the garden store.

You save money on plastic bags and mulch.

Also, it is much less time consuming that trying to manouever leaves into bags.

For leaves that fall on the grass, just take your lawn mower over them, mulch them up as you go, and leave them on the grass just as you would do with your grass clippings.

Plus, I have to confess it's fun to do my leaves. I love my power tools and this qualifies!

Things to Do Without: Plastic Bags

Lose the habit of buying plastic bags to store food in. Try using reusable containers or reusing and washing plastic already in your house instead. We already have so much plastic coming into our homes, simply resuse those bags. Rinse them out quick, dry them, then store them. Some sources of plastic bags at home include: bread bags, tortilla bags, and cereal box inserts. Plastic is such a large part of our garbage - think of how you can avoid it before buying it and consider how you can resuse it before throwing it out!

Did you know: Factories around the world made 4-5 trillion plastic bags 2002. Even weighing a few ounces each, that is a lot of trash.

Fun thing to do: about a million plastic bags are consumed /minute. Check out this counter to see where we are so far this year.

Did you know: Prior to 1957 we had no plastic bags in our homes for sandwiches, fruit, etc. If we could do it then, we can eliminate it now!

And always remember to compost!

Things to do Without: Bottled Water

Bottled water is not safer, cleaner, or healthier. It is costly in terms of money and trash.

Unlike tap water, most bottled water sold in the US does not have to meet any FDA regulations. Things that are found in bottled water include arsenic and synethetic organic carcinogens.

Bottled water is nothing more than a great marketing strategy having people pay a lot of money (as much as you pay for gas) for something that is essentially free from the tap.

Your tap water is safe. It is highly monitored by both the EPA and the FDA and allows for no E. coli or fecal coliform bacteria; bottled water does not have this regulation. If you have the stomach, read this recent report on what is in your bottled water.

In the United States alone over 40 BILLION bottles of water are purchased every year and 80% of those are never recycled. To make those 40 Billion bottles requires 47 million gallons of oil. Quitting our water habit would be like taking 100,000 cars off the road every single year. For each bottle of water that we drink, five times that amount is required to create the bottles. That water is released back into the environment as dirty water containing nickel, ethylene oxide, and benzene.


Pledge today to cut back or stop using bottled water.

Composting is Easy

Did you know: 28% of what we put in landfills can be composted. This includes food scraps, yard trimmings, and wet/soiled paper. Most of this you can easily compost and create better soil, while reusing the water from the composted products also.

Just because it is winter, don't be afraid to continue with your composting. Regular outdoor composting means that your products freeze and thaw (depending on your climate) through the winter, helping them breakdown. If you are in too cold a climate winter might be the time to try indoor worm composting.

If you have any leaves left from fall, buy a leaf mulcher (very cheap - maybe $35), suck them up, and lay them on your garden or grass areas so that they mulch. Leaves should never be thrown in the garbage!

To start composting today, leave a bucket in your kitchen to grab kitchen compostables (fruit and vegetable leftovers, flowers, hair trimmings, egg shells, etc). When it is full take it outside and put it in your composter, dig it in your garden (my favorite method), or start a compost pile (my second favorite method).

However you do it, start composting today!

Things to Do Without: Magazines

Instead of picking up magazines at the grocery store or having them mailed to you every week, go to the library and get as many as you want at no cost. Save money and the environment. If you absolutely can not break your magazine habit, make sure you share your magazines with a friend or leave them at the hospital, hair salon, or doctor's office next time you are there.


Fun thing to do: Check how much trash magazines create.


Also, always remember to compost! It is easy and makes a big difference.

Things to do Without: Paper Towels

Make a committment to quit using paper towels - they don't do anything that a normal dish towel can't do. They only thing extra they do is create more garbage and cost more money. Buy some nice cloth napkins for your family to use with meals/snacks and you are set!

Fun thing to do: Use the paper towel waste calculator to find out how much garbage paper towels create.

Also, always remember to compost!

Walk or Bike or Take a Bus Once a Week

Just once this week, walk or bike somewhere that you would normally drive. Maybe to the local library or to the grocery store to pick up something. Walk your kids to school instead of driving them. You might even like it!



Destress your daily commute - take the bus. You can read a book, check email or pay bills on your laptop, nap, or knit a sweater! Low stress, low cost, and low exhaust!



Imagine if everyone drove just 10 minutes less a week, and then 10 minutes less a day!