REDUCE: I've stopped taking atm receipts completely and gas station receipts when given the option (since I live in Oregon and never pump my own gas, sometimes the attendants hand it to me before I can tell them not to print me one). I've decided if I really need to know how much money I have in my account after making a transaction at the atm, I can wait until I get home and check online. This is a VERY simple change, but one that saves trees, one receipt at a time. (PS--those are not my red fingernails in that picture)
REUSE: Recently we've started buying our milk at Dari- Mart (our local 7-11) in reusable bottles. Obviously we know that milk cartons are recyclable, but better to just use bottles that will go back to the dairy to be cleaned and filled with more milk and resold. Recycling is great, but reusing is better. Granted, the milk is a bit more expensive this way, but it is also from a local dairy, so we're supporting local farmers. (Plus, we get to go to Dari-Mart more often now--my boys love the smorgasbord of 35cent little debbie treats and I love the diet pepsi refills in my reusable cup.)
RECYCLE: We built this homemade composter in our backyard to reduce our garbage and have fallen in love with composting. Not only are we able to throw in all our kitchen scraps, grass clippings, and leaves, but we compost our wet gdiapers, paper towels and paper napkins as well. (In fact, you might be able to see a bit of all of these in this picture). If you even have a tiny spot in your yard, I would suggest building (or buying) some sort of composter to fill that spot. You will probably find yourself, like me, completely amazed at the organic breaking down processes that take place in there. If you want to build one like this, here is a tutorial.
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