Recycling, Reusing, and Reducing can be easy. Now unlike many website we are not going to ask you to do things that will cost you more money. We are hoping to give you useful suggestions on ways to do these "3R's" without costing you money. What we would like to do is help suggest ways to save money by doing the "3R's".
One way to help reduce costs in these tough economic times is purchasing slightly used items instead of new. Yes, I mean purchasing at yard sales, thrift stores, in the local classifieds, or other resale listings. Items purchased through these resale means are usally cheaper, prevents these items from being dumped into landfills, and prevents the production of more packaging and manufacturing emmissions. Don't forget to sell your unwanted items too. You can either sell the items or donate them to a charity. Even if you donate them to a charity you can usally claim it as a tax deduction so you will still have saved some money.
Another way to help reduce costs is to reuse items that you already have. We hope to provide you with many ways to reuse some the common items around your home for other uses.
When it comes to Reducing it doesn't always mean that you have to do without. You can help reduce the amount of waste packaging, wasted energy, expense in transportation of products you commonly use, and total cost of the items by purchasing larger size packages and dividing them up into reusage containers if needed. Some items like laundry detergent, sugar, flour, and others are usally less expensive if purchased in larger packages. But don't be fooled! Sometimes the larger packages are actually more expensive. I suggest carrying a calculater with you when shopping. Larger size items means that the manufacturer uses less packaging, less space when transporting, and usally less wasted product when producing the items. This can save the consumer and the environment. But we find that when consumers pour laundry detergent from a larger container they tend to use more of it. So consumers have to make sure that they always either measure these items or distribute them out into smaller reusable containers. Dish detergent is a very common product that falls into this bad habit. So if this is a problem you run into you can try saving one of your smaller containers and just refilling it from the larger one.
This also brings up the subject of purchasing product refills which are meant to poured or used in your old product container. These are great and can save a lot of wasted packaging. They often come in concentrated strengths that you simple mix with water when you add it back to your original package. Most times this can be a real savings, but always watch the prices of the original size packages because sometimes the original container sizes are cheaper if they are on sale. This is the time when you can purchase the sale item and be able to replace your container.
