Solid Waste Reduction Tools

Reducing the amount of solid waste being generated saves Earth resources and reduces the amount of materials being sent to landfills. What follows are a list of suggestions to assist you with being a good environmental steward with regard to solid waste.

Buy less! Ask yourself whether you really have a need for a particular item.

Make double sided copies whenever possible and use a narrower margin in your documents to fit more information per page. Contact the Help Line at X477 if you need help doing this.

Be a good consumer; buy durable goods that need replacing less often over their lifetime; buy things that are reusable, recyclable, or compostable, and be sure to reuse, recycle and compost them! Choose items that have the least packaging, or no packaging at all.

Buy recycled goods, especially those made by primary recycling, and then make the effort to recycle them.

Use rechargeable batteries and recycle them at the end of their lives.

Recycle! At work, gather daily your recyclable paper waste and put it in the blue recycle bin located in each building. Encourage other employees to do the same, and post signs on the recycle bins to discourage unknowing students from using the bin for non-paper waste.

Use sponges and dishcloths instead of paper towels for wiping down home counters and floors.

Reduce the amount of junk mail you receive. Do this by contacting the Mail Preference Service, Direct Marketing Association, 11 West 42nd St., PO Box 3681, New York, NY, 10163-3861 and ask that your name not be sold to large mailing-list companies.