Chelsea Zero Waste Coalition: everyday things you can do to reduce waste

By Carol Strahler

(This article is written by Chelsea Zero Waste Coalition member Carol Strahler.  In her past lifetime, she was a Chelsea Middle School Science teacher and director of the Waterloo Nature Center—known as the Eddy Discovery Center today. She has resided in Chelsea since 1978 and is committed to reducing her impact on the environment.)

Are you committed to reducing waste in the environment?

There are some easy things you can do every day, but they do require mindful decisions on your part. I have been practicing waste reduction for most of my adult life, so for me it has become a way of life.

I can blame my early entry into this lifestyle, in the late seventies, on the fact that we lived in a small home–under 1,100 square feet. As the family grew, so did the lack of space. When my husband would ask me what I wanted for my birthday or Christmas, I would reply, “time and space.”

One of the most important decisions you can make is to stop purchasing items you really don’t need. Because of space limitations, I always asked myself two questions. “Is this a need or a want?” and “If I purchase this item, where will I put it?”

 So even though I now live in a larger home, that habit was well established, and I continue to ask these questions.

Here are some suggestions you may choose to adopt.

REUSE the following items before recycling:

Reuse plastic bags – I grow much of my own produce and use freezer bags for storage. Swoosh some soapy water inside the bag, turn inside out and place over a bottle to dry. Some bags have dates going back to 2014 – 6 years of use.

Reuse plastic containers – on the bottom of food storage containers look for numbers 1,2,4 and 5 in the tiny triangle, which are considered safe. Use containers for cold storage and transfer to glass if heating in the microwave.

Reuse aluminum foil – if not heavily soiled, aluminum foil can be easily wiped down with a sponge and saved for future use. Personally, I prefer cooking with the Corning Ware we received as a wedding present over 40 years ago.

Glass lids are great. And if you break a lid, check out the Share House on Jackson Road for a replacement.

Reuse freezer wrap – for items like bread, wrap can be used several times before the coating breaks down. I store my bacon in freezer wrap that is dedicated to that item. Once the bacon is consumed, I store the wrap in the freezer to be used again.

Reuse paper towels – multiple times to wipe oil on cast iron pans. Or better yet, use a dedicated cloth to oil pans.

Reuse newspaper – my husband never had to worry about not having wrapping paper for he always used newspaper in a pinch and it became known as Dad’s special wrapping paper, a tradition that continues in our family.

Also, use newspaper for storing or sending items in boxes, protecting work surfaces, and mulching the garden. If you do choose to use wrapping paper and ribbon, carefully unwrap the present so the paper can be used again.

Reuse party supplies – when guests come to my house, they are trained to place their cups and plastic utensils in dedicated containers so the items can be cleaned and reused.

My son graduated high school in 1999, and we are still using cups and utensils from that time. Guests can place utensils in a tray filled with soapy water to soak off food particles.

If I have fewer than 15 guests, I may choose to use regular dishes instead of paper plates, which by the way can be composted. Some of my friends are now serving crowds on inexpensive, colorful, plastic dishes, that can be washed and reused. A dishwasher makes the job easy.

Recently, at an organizational Christmas party, I announced to members that they should not throw their colorful red and green plastic cups in the trash, but that I would take them home and wash them. Yes, they could be recycled, but better yet, they were reused by a friend for his family Christmas gathering and are now in his basement to be used again next year.

Reuse cardboard boxes in the garden – I have extensive vegetable gardens, but I am allergic to weeding. I work very hard to set up the garden at the beginning of the season.

I obtain cardboard boxes from the supermarket and lay them down on the paths between the rows. Two layers of newspaper are laid down between the vegetable plants. A 2-3” layer of straw or marsh hay is distributed over cardboard and newspaper. This prevents light from reaching the weeds in the soil and also helps to retain moisture.

This method of mulching really cuts down on the weeding and watering, allowing me to enjoy my crops without too much labor during the rest of the summer. By the end of the season, the paper and cardboard have broken down and can be composted into the soil. I learned about this mulching method from Project Grow in Ann Arbor, over 40 years ago. It works.

Sometimes the choices we make are not always popular. When my children were young, I consciously chose not to purchase kid meals at fast food places.

What prompted this was seeing boxes of fast food toys “free for the taking” at garage sales. The toy was enjoyed for the moment while at the restaurant and then often relegated to the discard box. My kids grew up knowing that on a rare occasion a special meal with a toy might be purchased. They learned to evaluate whether it was a toy they would value and play with more than one time.

It’s a good habit for us all to consider the end of life of the products we consume.

As a Chelsea teacher, one thing we had to contend with was the advent of water bottles at 6th grade camp. In the early days, each child had a cup upon which they wrote their name. This cup was placed face down on a rack and used multiple times during the week.

The bottled water industry did such a good job marketing their product that pretty soon the public began to believe that bottled water was safer and healthier to drink. I am proud to say I never succumbed to this marketing ploy and continued to use tap water.

Because we were avid hikers, our family owned refillable water bottles before they became popular. It is encouraging to see so many people using refillable water bottles today. When our Ann Arbor friends would visit, and I would pour a glass of “flavorful” Chelsea water, they would often comment on the awful taste. I used to joke and say I never had to worry about taking iron supplements.

For a while my son lived in a town in Maine, which produced bottled water from the local aquifer. One of their acquaintances joked that his dog drank bottled water for he enjoyed lapping water from the toilet bowl.

Recently, I have started to take my own container to restaurants for leftovers. I was encouraged to do this by a friend, and while at first it felt odd, I now see other people doing the same. Have courage and join a trend.

For years, I have been frustrated by the number of napkins wasted at restaurants. Take fewer napkins to begin with, or if a stack is placed at the table by wait staff please take them home and use them there or keep a supply in your car. Once set on the table, health code does not permit them to be used, and they are thrown out.

There are many other things that you can do to reduce waste and some have been mentioned in previous articles written by other members of the Zero Waste Coalition. Because I practice Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Repurpose, and compost my food waste, I only produce one black plastic garbage bag every 1-2 months. It may be a bit inconvenient and take some thought on our part, but let’s make the 50th anniversary of Earth Day a year that we all choose to participate in waste reduction.