A huge part of living providently is managing your resources wisely! There was a great article Thurs. Nov. 3, 2011 in the Mormon Times section of the Deseret News, by Kim Grant called, "Time to 'use it up' or 'wear it out'."
She quotes the 2009 Environmental Protection Agency who reported that the United States produced more than 243 million tons of garbage which is equal to 82,000 football fields full of 6 foot deep in compacted garbage.Kim gave 5 great ideas to reduce waste in our society.
Here are Kim's great suggestions:
1- Use reusable items such as rechargeable batteries, cloth napkins, and towels, reusable water bottles, refillable pens, etc. Use dishes unstead of paper plates. Another idea: use lunch boxes instead of paper lunch bags.
2- Clean, repair or maintain items so that they do not end up in the landfill. This is also better on your finances! Try to buy quality items that will not break as easily. When things do break order new parts, or go to websites such as: Howtofixyourstuff.com.
3- Donate or sell unwanted items instead of recycling to get more use out of them.
4- Reusing items saves you money and also saves energy of recycling, or making new items. Print on both sides of paper, or use as scratch paper; reuse bubble wrap or packaging peanuts; grocery bags; ribbon and wrapping paper, etc.
5-Instead of spending money on books, DVD's, or CD's check them out from the library, use online movie sites, or radio Net flicks and Pandora are great! Swap your old books, CD's at online swap sites or used book stores.
