Save money and help the environment by using fewer paper products. Implement these fourteen ideas.
As a society, we’ve become addicted to paper products. We use paper for cleaning, eating, personal hygiene, and communication. Here are some ways to break the paper addiction and help the environment, while at the same time fattening your wallet by saving money.
Avoid Paper in the Kitchen
- Don’t use paper towels. Use rags instead. Rags are free and re-usable. The best source for rags is your wardrobe. Retire your old flannel shirt and reuse old t-shirts by cutting them up for rags. Use holey socks over the end of a broom handle to reach and sweep up cobwebs. Another excellent source for top quality rags is those diapers your child has now outgrown. Cloth diapers make the best rags in the world.
- Don’t use paper napkins at the dining room table. Use cloth napkins. Make your own out of fabric that works for your decor. Pick something that is soft and washable. Make your napkins out of a pretty print to hide stains.
- Don’t reheat your food on paper plates. Use your dishes to reheat your food.
Save on Printer Paper
- Unless you are printing personal correspondence or business letters consider using both sides of your paper. If you printed out an article to read, put it back in your printer when you are done and print on the other side of it.
- Use scrap paper from work. In most offices, one side of a piece of paper is all that is ever used. If your office wastes paper this way and isn’t interested in recycling it for reuse in the office, ask if you may take it home for personal use. Make sure that nothing you take home for personal use has sensitive information about your company on it.
Paperless Correspondence
- Pay your bills on-line.
- Use email instead of using the postal service.
- Get your news from an on-line source rather than newspapers or magazines.
- If you want to use a printed box to ship items, do not wrap it in paper. Instead of wrapping a box in paper when you mail it, turn a used box inside out. Most people know how to break down a box so that it is flat. To turn a box inside out, go one-step further. Open the side seam of the box. Turn the box inside out. Use hot glue to create a new side seam. Put the box back together as you would any other broken down box.
Paper and Personal Hygiene
- Go ahead and use your toilet paper. It would be unwise to scrimp on toilet paper or experiment with alternatives unless you are interested in a first name relationship with your plumber.
- Replace face wipes with a washcloth and use soap or other cleanser on it.
- Replace tissues with good old-fashioned handkerchiefs.
- There are some excellent alternatives to paper feminine products that will save you money, help the environment, and perhaps even save you from contracting a severe illness such as toxic shock syndrome (TSS). If you are interested in alternative feminine products consider cloth napkins or a reusable menstrual cup such as The Keeper (or Moon Cup) or the DivaCup.
- Use cloth diapers on your baby.
These are just a few of the ways you can cut back or eliminate paper usage in your life. Take a look around you and see where you use paper products and come up with a reusable alternative. If you have a great idea, share it in the comments for other readers.
The copyright of the article Break the Paper Habit in Reducing Waste is owned by Melissa Howard. Permission to republish Break the Paper Habit must be granted by the author in writing.
