By Robert Grigg
Think twice about how much you consume or what you’re consuming. According to Duke University, the average person tosses around four pounds of trash, and about half of the 220 million tons of the stuff produced nationwide end up in our landfills, producing huge amounts of methane emissions while the garbage rots. Because of our large amounts of waste, it’s very important that we do what we can to cut back on what we contribute to the statistic.
The two biggest ways to help reduce one’s footprint are:
- Recycling: reuse as much of those materials as you can, and make things last if you can, then be sure to send them through the right places when you’re done. In just 2014, we managed to recycle almost 90 percent of the year’s corrugated boxes!
- Composting: Approximately 66 percent of our household waste can be composted, so be sure to pay attention to what you use and look up information to understand what you can and can’t compost.
It’s important to be conscientious about what and how much you’re throwing away, but what one absolutely must throw out or put in the recycle bin, you can count on the great folks at Vixster to pick it up and take it where it needs to be. For more information, visit https://center.sustainability.duke.edu and https://www.epa.gov. Feel free to look up your own sources as well!