How Can I be less Wasteful

Your toy breaks. What do you do? You throw it in the trash. You don’t like supper. What do you do? You throw it in the trash. You leave the water running while you brush your teeth. You let things pile up and get destroyed rather than let someone who needs it and will take care of it have it. All this is wasteful.

So how can I avoid a wasteful lifestyle. Indeed, I have been guilty of everything I just listed. So how can I not be wasteful? Should I just kill myself because I’m a parasite to the world? Or is there a less dramatic way?

First of all, when a toy breaks, I can try and figure out a way to fix it. If I cannot, then I can try and see if anyone else can fix it. If no one can fix it, I can try and figure out if I can use the pieces to make something else. If I cannot reuse it, then I can see if it is recyclable. If it is, then I can recycle it. If not, then and only then I can throw it away. Unfortunately, it is very hard for us to recycle where I live.

I can bag aluminum cans to be taken away to be recycled, but we don’t use to many aluminum cans anymore.

I could give away toys I don’t use to kids who’ll play with them.

I could turn off the water when I brush my teeth … wait, I already do.

I could make sure we eat all the leftovers that go into the refrigerator. Even if they taste nasty and bleh. I can put them all in a stew, re-season them and make them taste good. I can make sure the salad supplies are all used up before they go bad.

I can plant my own garden so that the vegetables are fresh as long as possible. I just have to make sure that I don’t water them too much and waste water. I also would need to make sure that I use the food I grow, and especially make sure that insects don’t get the food I grow first.

I can turn off lights when I leave the room. That’s something I really need to work on. I can also make sure that the door is locked behind me when I leave. That’s to keep my little sister safe.

I can pick up trash along the road.

It is very hard to find people to take second hand things, though. This is sad. Why do Americans think that everything has to be new? This is wasteful. It’s also a reason that other people hoard, which is also wasteful, because they are willing to take the used and aren’t willing to let it go to people who’d just throw it away.

Sigh. It’s a sad, sad world we live in.

But, all in all there is a lot I can do. I just need to do it.