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 The resale clothing market is experiencing explosive growth, especially among younger shoppers, but environmental gains are negated by overconsumption.
Buying used clothes may psychologically and economically justify buying more than we otherwise would. Let’s be aware of our purchasing behavior. Read more in YaleNews.  Participate in Swarthmore Borough’s new Curbside Food Compost program to reduce the amount of trash sent to be incinerated. Collected food waste is composted into usable soil.
Swarthmore Borough now offers curbside food-waste collection with pick-up every other week. All residents were provided with a 5-gallon bucket. This program helps divert food scraps from trash incineration and instead keeps it in the cycle by converting it to usable compost. This in turn reduces trash disposal costs. More information about the program, including the pick-up schedule for your area, is on the Swarthmore Borough website, including FAQs with additional information. Some items that you can dispose of through this program include bread, coffee grounds, fruit and vegetable scraps, soiled pizza boxes (stack under the bucket at the curb), wine corks, and spoiled cheese. The program does not accept any meat or containers, even if they are labeled as compostable. A complete list of what items are accepted can be found here. If you need a bucket, contact EZ Composting ([email protected]). The cost of this service, including one 5-gallon bucket, is included in Borough taxes. If you produce more food scraps in two weeks than can be contained in just one bucket, you can order additional buckets directly from EZ Composting for a fee. Photo by Susan O'Donnell  Use what you have as many times as possible. Reusable items do not have a lower carbon footprint if they’re not used enough.
The biggest problem with reusable items is that we have too many of them. Extend a reusable product’s lifetime as much as possible. Avoid buying more, even if it is reusable. Having a large collection of reusable water bottles uses more resources than having just one to replace disposables. Read more from the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability  Focus first on waste reduction: reduce and reuse before relying on recycling
Reducing and reusing have greater value in terms of sustainability than recycling. Buying less new stuff and getting more use out of already existing stuff uses less resources and produces less waste. Recycling can be difficult to do correctly, and many materials remain unrecyclable. Despite this, there is a tendency for people attempting to be more sustainable to prioritize recycling over reduce or reuse. This behavior has been termed “recycling bias” and “reduction neglect.” The more effective way to reduce waste is to prevent its creation rather than relying on recycling. See more details in this 2023 article in theconversation.com by Michaela Barnett, Leidy Klotz, Patrick I. Hancock, and Shahzeen Attari.  Since 2011, the Plastic Free July movement encourages us to build new habits, such as carrying a kit for leftovers when we go out.
Americans go through five pounds of plastic a week. The Plastic Free July movement was founded in 2011 aiming to engage people to reduce single-use plastic use as well as push for systemic change. Reducing plastic use requires more planning and the changes that stick are the ones that work with your current lifestyle. Photo by Susan O'Donnell Read more at NPR.org  Use font and printer settings that waste less printer ink
Printer ink cartridges are expensive and run out remarkably quickly. Consumer Reports has some ideas for ways to make your ink cartridges last longer. For printing that does not require high quality, use the draft mode or eco mode in the printer settings. Print versions of documents, particularly those created from a web site, that don’t include ads and logos. Consumer Reports found that some fonts, such as Ariel, use more ink than others, like Times New Roman and Calibri. When possible use e-versions and skip the printing altogether. Read more from ConsumerReports.org. Photo by Susan O'Donnell  Getting a water filter pitcher instead of buying bottled water will save you money and reduce plastic waste.
Investing in a water filter pitcher or some other at-home water filtration system eliminates your production of plastic bottle waste and saves you money. Much of the cost of bottled water is from packaging, shipping, and marketing. In most places, municipal water is perfectly safe to drink, and the water filter can improve its taste. The pitcher can be stored in the refrigerator so that you have cold water to drink, and reusable water bottles make that water portable without the plastic. The Swarthmore Food Co-op has a box for recycling used Brita brand filters, packaging, and pitchers. Read more at HowStuffWorks.com Photo by Susan O'Donnell  Paper towels, napkins, and tissues cannot be recycled because their fibers are too short. Instead, compost them.
Papermaking fibers can typically be recycled five to seven times before they become too short to be recycled again. Paper towels and napkins are the last stop in the recycling chain. Also, only clean recovered paper that is free of food, trash, and other contaminants can be recycled at all. Read more at StanfordMag.org Photo by Susan O'Donnell  The Delaware County library system has a library of things, with items that you can borrow ranging from kitchen/lawn appliances and tech gadgets to camping gear. Before buying things new, first look for it at the library to see if you can just borrow them for the time that you need it. Borrowing items instead of buying new reduces using precious resources for manufacturing, packaging, and transporting new products. It also saves you money and helps you cut back on your clutter at home. Once you are finished with your task or event, just bring the item back to the library for others to use or until you need it again. You might be surprised by the variety of items on their lending list! It includes: yard games and board games (Jenga, connect four, table tennis, horseshoes, Bocce ball, croquet), electronics (scanners, metal detectors, DVD players, power adaptors, calculator), tools (drill, wrenches), musical instruments (guitar, glockenspiel), camping gear, health needs (blood pressure monitor, pulse oximeter, walkers and canes), crafts (sewing machine, crochet and knitting kits), and more!
For a complete list, check out the Delco Library System webpage and search for “library of things”. Or click this link.  A pea-sized dollop of coconut oil will remove eye makeup brilliantly. Beware disposable makeup wipes as they are made from plastic fibers which become microplastics.
Warm a pea-sized dollop of coconut oil in your palms and gently massage it in the eye area with your fingertips. Disposable makeup wipes are one of the leading contributors to landfills and generally made with plastic which breaks down into smaller plastic particles that pollute our waterways. Read more about this issue at thegoodboutique.com and more skin care recipes at Earth911.com. Photo by Susan O'Donnell |
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