The littlest things add up when it comes to saving the environment. Reusing can play a big part in your life and its super easy too. In my family we refuse almost every container we buy; whether its a water bottle, food container, or to-go cup. Recycling also helps a lot too. My family and I recycle and I also collect the neighbors’ recycling too. Reducing the amount of paper and plastic also plays a big part in conservation too.

Hi, my name is Emily and I’m a ninth grader from Texas. After calculating my carbon footprint and observing my daily habits, I have noticed how much trash my friends and I throw away from our lunch. By the end of our lunch period, we have numerous plastic bags, extra food, and plastic water bottles that we just throw away. For the past year, I have used a lunch box so I could save the extra paper bags that would otherwise be thrown away. Still, there are ways that I can reduce the amount of empty bags and food just getting tossed into the trash. If we reduced the amount of trash thrown away, my friends and I could reduce our carbon footprint as well as save some money. Using reusable containers and water bottles are a great start in reducing the amount of our trash. Also, it would be more beneficial to us if we maybe packed a little less in our lunch, so we would be sure to eat all of it, and not throw good food away. If we do have to bring items that must be thrown away, then most of the time, those items can be recycled. I think by taking these steps, a lot of unnecessary trash can be eliminated from our land fills.

My mom loves gardening, so she would compost to fertilize our garden. In fact our whole family composts anything we can. We found it to be really good for the soil that we grow our vegetables in. After I saw my carbon footprint results, I found out that by composting, it reduced my carbon footprint. In the link below, it is shown that composting has many benefits towards out environment making it far better than chemical fertilizers. This article says that by composting the plants growing in that soil actually yields more crops than plants in soil fertilized by chemical fertilizers. It is also proven to reduce toxic formulation in landfills. Composting is very cheap compared to buying fertilizers at the store that does half of what composting can do. Composts can include banana peels, eggshells, and other biodegradable items. So by composting alone you can reduce your carbon footprint significantly.

http://www.epa.gov/compost/basic.htm

My family is huge on recycling. We even have separate bins for everything. We try to recycle as much as possible at home and everywhere else. My parents encourage us to reuse most of our plastic water bottles recycle as many things as possible. Before we recycle something that can be reused we ask my youngest brother if he wants to use it to build something or we try to see if there is any way we can reuse it. Using your imagination to build things out of old things such as glass bottles, paper, or aluminum cans make recycling enjoyable and approachable for kids. I also believe that every (or almost every) city should have some sort of recycling system. Majority of people just throw everything in the trash because it is easier and simpler. If a city makes it easy on the people, then they will be more likely to recycle often. In conclusion if everyone would recycle the average carbon footprint would decrease dramatically.

I know that my neighborhood recieves recycling trash cans, and we have a recycling truck come pick up our recycle once a week. the process is really simple, and wouldn’t it be great if every neighborhood, apartment/condo complexe, and city had that. It would be a much more accessible way to recycle. I know that down at my house in Galveston, we dont have a recycling bin.If we want to recycle, we would have to drive 15 minutes away to the one of the locations for large recycling bins for the city. So, we don’t really recycle when we”re down in Galveston, and as a result, we have a lot more trash bags that we take out.

Last year a guest speaker came to our school to talk about redusing, reusing, and recycling. As she was talking I realized how important those topics were. Recently I calculated my carbon footprint and was not impressed with my recycling footprint. I think it is important because it can help reduce the amount of pollution in the air. In my school we are currently doing as electronics drive, meaning we are recycling electronics. I think every schoo should do this because many people have electronics that they aren’t using. Also whenever my family goes the store we bring our own reuasble bag so we don’t have to use the plastic ones the stores provide.

Recently, in my neighborhood, wehave started paying to have a truck come once a week to take our recycling. This is a good starting point and the people in my neighborhood hope to affect others by setting an example for them. Another way my family in particular reuses and recycles things is when one of the children have a project where they have to make some thing, they can go to our reycling bin and there is almost always a plastic bottle or a box or a tin can to manipulate into what ever you need. We also either fill up plastic water bottles that we keep resusing untill they are too well used to fill up again,or we but the reusuable bottles that can go in the dishwasher.

Hello my name is Sarah and recently i measured my carbon footpirnt. Before i did it i figured my carbon footprint would be larger than the average american but it was actually much smaller in three of the four categories! Transportation of course is my trouble spot. No shock there. Now it is really hard to reduce my carbon footprint in the area of transportation because of all the stuff i do but i can reduce my carbon footprint in otherways to make up for it. My family is big on recylcling, always have been! If you are also interested in recycling here is a link to some crafty ways to recycle stuff like clothes and shower curtains…
http://www.squidoo.com/recycling_crafts
join the discussion if you want to share new and fun ways to reduce your carbon footprint!

As far as reusing products, my family and I use the reusable grocery bags as much as possible. But when we don’t get the chance or forget we use the regular plastic bags. We then keep the plastic bags and use them for trash and lunches. Also, we donate clothing and shoes to the less fortunate.

my family and i reduce our plastic waste by using refillable water cantines and try our best to minimize buying products with a lot of packaging. if we do end up buying things with a lot of packaging we always recycle it. we also try not throw things away as much as possible and figure a way we could reuse it or we will usually give it to someone who needs it.