BTC Eco-Challenge: Waste Not, Want Not Wednesday

The term "waste not, want not," which probably originated in Yorkshire, means exactly what it says:  “never wasting anything results in never wanting anything.”  For example, only purchase enough perishable food at the grocery store that you know will be eaten up during the week, before it goes bad.  Waste not, want not.  Only buy what you need, not wasting your hard earned on money on things that might have to be thrown away.

This goes for other types of products also.  Do you really need that new pair of shoes?  Or how about the newest cell phone – is there something wrong with your old one?  Must you really use a disposable fork and plate that after your five minutes of use will spend the rest of its lifetime in a landfill?  Waste not, want not.

Perhaps you have heard of the Subaru plant in Lafayette, Indiana?  The plant aims to send zero waste to the landfill.  The automaker pledges virtually none of the waste generated from its plant will end up in a dump.  Subaru says 99.8% of the plants refuse is recycled or reused and a small portion, about 5% goes to waste to energy plant that burns waste to make steam to heat Indianapolis’ downtown.

When the plant is done using pallets, they are ground into mulch for gardens.  When flawed plastic bumpers can’t be installed they are ground into pellets to make new bumpers.

Zero Waste has spread to other companies as well, from Anheuser Busch to Fetzer Vineyards and Aamco Transmissions.  Now, zero waste is heading to the consumer.  YOU.

Now, we don’t expect you to install solar panels on your home just yet and we can’t imagine you never buying anything ever again, but what we’d like you to do is “think.”  Take a moment and just think.

When we go to the grocery store, we don’t bag our fresh veggies.  We just go home and wash and reseal them in containers.  Why waste another plastic bag, right?  Waste not, want not.  When I make my lunch, I don’t use a Ziploc bag, I use my reusable containers because well, they are reusable.  We don’t buy water, we use our Zero Water filtration system and our BPA free reusable water bottles.  Waste not, want not.

Tiny steps, make a big difference if we ALL do it.

Once again, just tell us in the comments section below what you will do today to fulfill the "waste not, want not" challenge to earn your daily points toward winning the GREEN goodie gift basket at the end of the month. 

~Kristin & Kelsey 

Coming Up Tomorrow: Test-it-Out Thursday