Photo by Mert Guller on Unsplash

Contributed by Leon Collier

More people are starting to realize to how their carbon footprint affects the environment. Adopting an attitude of zero waste helps in the fight against global warming.

How can you join this fight? Here are seven best zero-waste practices that also reduce your maintenance cost:

1. Adopt recycling and reusing items

Recycling and reusing items have been one of the most sustainable ways of creating a zero-waste environment. However, these practices were considered mostly in the workplace or in other public areas. That is why you should try and implement a plan specifically designed for your household.

Think about all the waste you throw out on a daily basis and consider ways to reuse or recycle those items. For example, if you need to use plastic bottles, why not wash them and reuse them for other purposes?

2. Reduce the amount of plastic in your household

Plastic is one of the most common materials that lead to wasteful behavior. For example, using plastic bags to buy groceries can lead to more waste that goes to landfills or ends up in rivers or roads.

You can reduce the amount of plastic by using reusable packaging such as shopping bags made of fabric. Alternatively, you can also prefer glass bottles when buying things like jam, peanut butter, juice, and so forth. Glass can be reused while plastic might not be so durable for reusing more than a couple of times.

3. Do not buy unnecessary things

It is said that 99 percent of the stuff we obtain ends up in the trash in half a year. Keep this dramatic fact in mind when you go shopping. Are you sure you can’t live without this extra toy for your dog or a candy bar wrapped in a thousand sheets of plastic and paper?

Set up a list of necessary things you have to buy this week or month and stick to it. Do not practice sporadic shopping – it isn’t good for your wallet, nor for your planet.

4. Reduce food waste

Food waste is one of the largest money-wasting behaviors. To solve this problem begin with your mindset because you’ll carry that mentality everywhere if you are determined to reduce food waste. For example, if you’re at a restaurant, don’t order more than you need to satisfy yourself.

You can also plan meals in advance to avoid cooking more than you’ll eat. Also, if you buy perishable items, do not stock up more than you’ll eat before they spoil.

5. Repair items instead of discarding them

Waste transfer station. Next stop, a distant landfill. Some rights reserved by ACE Solid Waste

Landfills hold many items such as radios, stereos, old television sets, and children’s toys. Many of these items could have been repaired to avoid landfill overflows.

By looking for ways to repair broken items before discarding them, you will do your part in reducing waste statistics.

Repairing these items helps achieve zero waste. It can also save you a lot of money, because it eliminates the need to buy replacements. Plus if you use how-to guides to fix them yourself, you’ll also learn a new skill.

6. Perform preventive maintenance

Creating a preventive maintenance program for your house and vehicle also reduces waste. That way you don’t need to discard items before they reach their end of the life cycle.

For example, if you neglect glazing on windowpanes, the glass can get broken way before its predicted lifetime. If you do not preventively fix wheel alignment on a car, tires can become unusable before they reach their end of the life cycle. Be on the lookout for other ways to maintain items in due time. It saves the cost of premature replacement.

7. Let others reuse what you don’t want

Many people, when they move or buy new furniture, discard old things. Landfills are full of perfectly usable items. If you want to get rid of whatever you don’t want or need, explore different options so you can practice zero waste.

Try selling items on a yard sale for your neighbors to buy. That is a great way to make a little extra money and save the planet at the same time. Or donate to a thrift store. Some will even send a truck to collect bulky furniture,

The zero-waste bottom line

Zero waste is the ultimate goal for clean living and a green household. Therefore, ensure that you are not promoting food waste or using packaging that is not reusable. Also, try to recycle most things that can be recycled and implement a preventive maintenance plan for your vehicle and house. Lastly, consider selling items at a yard sale, donating them, or repairing them before throwing them at a landfill.

Author Bio:

Leon Collier is a blogger from the UK working as a freelance academic writer for professional writing services that provide custom papers, essays, thesis and dissertations. He is currently working for an essay writing website on a project that involves creating free essay samples across various subjects and writing a book on student startup funding. Follow him on Twitter @LeonCollier12