General

The Kitchen:

• Store leftovers in a bowl with a plate on top - just like your mother did. This eliminates the need for pricey plastic storage containers.
• Reuse plastic yogurt and dip containers for away-from-home lunches and picnics.
• Ask your favourite take-out restaurants if you can bring your own containers. Reuse those unavoidable food containers.
• Take your old containers to the recycling depot as you phase them out of your kitchen.
• Take cloth shopping bags to the store.
  • Canadians bring home 55 million plastic shopping bags each week, or almost eight million every day.
• When you can't avoid them, reuse paper and plastic bags for lunches, leftovers and lining garbage containers.
• Reuse the many things that come with products you buy, such as string, plastic and glass containers, gift wrap and shopping bags.
• Turn vegetable and fruit peelings into compost - the best way to reuse organics is to turn them back into food.
• Use cloth or metal coffee filters instead of paper ones.

Around the house:

• Rent major tools and appliance before buying to determine whether you really need it.
• Borrow, rent, or share big ticket items that are used infrequently such as a snow blower, chipper or lawn aerator, and large wood working and renovation tools.
• Refill your refillable bottles and other containers. The same container can be used more than once for many things'shampoo, pop, laundry detergent.
• Use old pantyhose as tiebacks in your garden .
• Keep paper that has printing on only one side to use for draft copies and scratch pads.
• Buy products in containers that you will reuse (glass jars, resealable containers).
• Use durable, reusable products instead of disposable ones. For example, use cloth rather than paper napkins, durable cameras instead of disposable, handkerchiefs instead of tissues, sponges or rags instead of paper towels.
• Return refillable bottles. They can be used up to 20 times.
• Use a mug at the office instead of a paper or plastic cup.
• Use cloth diapers instead of disposable ones. Canadians throw away 1.7 billion disposable diapers every year and the average two year old has gone through 5,289 disposable diapers. For every dollar spent on disposable diapers, the taxpayer must spend an additional 8�� to dispose of them.
• Repair broken appliances instead of buying new ones.
• Use rechargeable batteries .
• Get books and magazines from the library or buy used books.
• Share magazine subscriptions with a neighbour, co-worker or friend.
• Donate reusable items to non-profit groups, thrift shops, or second-hand stores.
• Shop second hand or thrift stores first when you want something new.
• Use salvaged building materials.
• Hold a garage sale to get rid of unwanted items. Shop at garage sales to get wanted items.
• Reuse styro-foam packaging peanuts.
• Consider using used or refurbished office furniture for your home office. Call the Waste Reduction Office for the names of local resale businesses.

These are just a few ideas you can use to become more eco-friendly at your house.