Eco Frugality
Each day you make choices and decisions. Some of these decisions can be environmentally friendly. By modifying simple activities in your daily life, you can help the environment. Many frugal practices run parallel with green living. Frugalitarians know of the three R’s: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, but in my opinion there are more than three R’s that can assist you in living more frugal, green, and/or simple. I call these practices “eco frugality”.
Let’s consider the following R’s, as well:
repurposing
repairing
restoring
respecting
rethinking
renewing
reviewing
revising
retrying
A portion of frugality focuses on waste reduction. More specifically, using less disposable items such as plastic, packaging, and styrofoam. There are simple ways you can make a difference in your home.
In a typical week what are the wasteful materials used the most in your life?
Grocery bags?
Milk Jugs?
Sandwich bags?
Coffee cups?
Plastic utensils?
The list can go on and on. There are durable item alternatives that won’t break your budget and ways to repurpose or reuse items too.
Consider the following mini options:
*Bring your own cloth bag for shopping.
*Use commuter cups for coffee and beverages
*Wrap n mats instead of sandwich baggies or rinse out your plastic baggies. Don’t want the clutter of baggies? Try this
*Reusable lunch containers
*Reusable utensils and http://www.to-goware.com/products.php
*Repurpose and reuse plastic containers
*Choose items with less packaging. For example, buy refillable products.
*Borrow and share items when you can
*Cloth napkins instead of paper
*Use homemade cleaners
*Use reusable coffee filters
*Purchase secondhand
*Use rechargeable batteries
*Walk or bike more often
*Compost
*Use mechanical or refillable pen and pencils
Keep in mind that reusing is equally important as recycling.
Additional Reading:
Eating Green Calculator
Carbon Footprint Calculator
Reuse Household Items
Shopping Tips
Share with me ways that you reduce waste and reuse and repurpose items.
Frugal Village Natural Living Forum Discussions:
New Uses For Old Things
Bring Your Own Bag
Frugality, The Environment, and Time
Reduce Your Plastic Rubbish
Reducing Plastics
Posted by Sara Noel
on February 8 2007. Filed under Frugal & simple living.
Sara Noel owns Frugal Village, LLC and is a nationally syndicated columnist with United Media. Bio, Follow me on Twitter, Join us on Facebook.
I agree that frugality is generally fairly good for the environment. I stopped using many tossable items, using washable reusable products instead. We reuse things till there is barely anything left to them and then sometimes they can still be used in other ways outdoors for the pets or yard work.
21My DH has rolle dhis eyes a few times but sometimes he’s the one who thinks of ways to repurpose things too now. It’s catchy
Great article, I love the ‘rethink’, that really says it all. I remember being told once that the 3 r’s are in order of importance, that reducing & reusing are the crucial elements and recycling is a last resort.
My mission these days is to find ways to reuse packaging. Our milk comes in bags here instead of jugs, last fall I started cleaning out the bags to reuse in the freezer (they are good heavy plastic), I haven’t used a ziploc bag since. I actually just posted on the gardening forum today asking if I could use egg crates for seedlings, I see Bumplett is already doing that. I’m using an empty case of pop as a plastic bag dispenser in the closet, and I’m going to use kleenex boxes to organize my kitchen drawers. I’m still looking for ideas for small margarine containers and the stryofoam trays that our meat comes on.
Yesterday I went to the store and bought a bag of milk and a bag of chips. The girl asked me if I wanted to buy a bag, and it struck me as kind of funny that I should buy a bag to put my bags in. Guess I’m doing some rethinking
22You have me thinking Sara…:)
23I try to buy less processed/packaged items and cook more from scratch. I control the ingredients and have less packaging that goes to the dump or to recycling.
It amazes me how many things are packaged to the hilt, do we really need to package drink mixes in those plastic tubs that are then in another plastic container?
I buy large sizes of all kinds of things and refill containers, everything from shampoo to spices & cooking oil.
It’s fun to take an item and ask yourself what else can I do with it. Hubby has cut up plastic and made new hinges for an old cooler, plastic bottles become funnels or scoops when you cut out the bottom… all kinds of things. You are only limited by your imagination and level of enthusiasm.
great post! We just had an “aloha run(8K)” and a after run party at my house and everyone contributed to the washing dishes and utencils and recyling containers – they understand my need to not throw away… parties are the most wasteful. I get so annoyed when I go to parties and see how many unneccessary bags of rubbish are hauled away! Here in Hawaii we use a lot of chopsticks at parties, I read somewhere that millions of trees every year are chopped for this in China, so I bought a bunch of unused ones from my thrift store – so happy with that purchase!
24Thank you for the great tips! We are trying to go as natural as possible, but it definitely strains the budget sometimes. Especially with the prices! these are great ideas!
25This is a great article! I try to do as much as I can to reuse items. I hate to toss out something that I know will just clutter our landfills. I never buy ziploc type containers because I just reuse butter, yogurt, and cottage cheese containers to name a few. I try to find similar uses for milk jugs. I use them as funnels, scoops, bird feeders, etc. I can’t do that to ever milk jug of course, but I do what I can.
26Thank for all of these wonderful tips and ideas. I have been trying to cut back on my waste for a long time. It really helps when I read articles like this that point out the different things that I can do to make a difference.
27Thanks
I also use many of these great ideas. Most recently I repurposed old clothing into attractive cleaning clothes and washable replacements for the Swiffer. I love reusing containers (ice cream, mayo jars, sour cream, oatmeal tubes, anything at all) for gift giving. I enjoy doing collage and do my work on these throw away items. The vessels are attractive and most people keep them to reuse in their home for storage. I’d love to post a picture so you could see what they look like! It’s an excellent way to “recycle” and “reuse” and also fits in with frugality and fun.
28Now this is great. I did not know that there are reuseable coffee filters. That in itself will save lots of money in my house. Serious coffee drinkers in my home. I need to work on the repairing part of the other Rs. I usually throw things away once broken. Thanks.
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