Wednesday, June 26, 2019

Economizing Measures ~ The 3 R's, or is it 4?

What I wanted to write about today was how you can save money from literally ending up in the trash as well as helping out good old Mother Earth. This is the only home we've got so we need to take care of her. Don't worry, I'm not about to get all smarmy on you. What I am talking about here is save yourself money by reducing your purchases of things that get thrown away because they can't be recycled - like paper towels and napkins, paper 
plates, styrofoam and so on. The amount of money some folks spend on these items in the home is atrocious. Try cloth napkins, rags for cleaning, real plates, cups, glasses and 
flatware and take your own reusable containers to the restaurant for leftovers. The amount of water you use washing them is much less than what you spent for the item and the trash man to haul it away. And speaking of trash, check out this chart:

Decomposition Rates
Paper 2-4 weeks
Leaves 1-3 weeks
Orange Peels 6 months
Milk Carton (VOC) 5 years
Plastic Bag 10-20 years
Plastic Container 50-80 years
Aluminum Can 80 years
Tin Can 100 years
Plastic Soda Bottle 450 years
Glass Bottle 500 years
Styrofoam Never!  That's definitely something to think about. 
Below is a chart of the different numbers used for plastics.

1= Soda bottles, water bottles, vinegar 
bottles, medicine containers. 

2= Containers for: laundry/dish detergent, fabric softeners, bleach, 
milk, juice, shampoo, conditioner, motor oil. Newer bullet proof 
vests, various toys, trash and shopping bags.
3= Pipes, shower curtains, meat wraps, cooking oil bottles, baby 
bottle nipples, shrink and cling wrap, clear medical tubing, vinyl 
dashboards and seat covers, coffee containers.
4= Wrapping films, frozen food bags, sandwich bags, squeezable 
bottles, flexible container lids.
5= Tupperware®, Reusable microwaveable ware, syrup bottles, 
yogurt and margarine tubs, microwaveable disposable take-away 
containers; disposable cups and plates.
6= Disposable cutlery and cups (clear and colored), bakery shells,
CD cases, meat trays, "cheap" hubcaps, packing peanuts, 
Styrofoam insulation, Styrofoam cups and plates and egg cartons.
7= Products labeled as "other" are made of any combination of 1-6 
or another, less commonly used plastic.

Be aware that not all recycling stations will take all numbers of plastic. In fact most will not touch numbers 6 or 7 and some only take 1 and 2. Plastic is undeniably the biggest
trash headache in the world, so think about what you buy and use and see if you can cut down on even a little of it. Cloth shopping bags are a great example and last for years and I
find them much easier to handle than the plastic ones - they don't get holes poked in them! How about eggs in paper rather than Styrofoam cartons, reusable drink containers filled at home, take your own cloth or net bags when buying produce or bulk foods. Things like that are so easy and cost less.

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