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Hello, Happy Monday and here’s hoping you don’t have 200 cavities and a stomach ache from the Halloween festivities!  It’s officially November now, and with the start of this week, I’m hereby issuing you a full-on challenge.  Whether you decide to undertake it or not is up to you, but I think the more people that jump on board this challenge, the better off we’ll all be.

The Challenge, is called the No-Waste Challenge and it basically involves exactly that…going this entire week without generating or creating any waste.  By waste, I mean garbage that can’t be recycled, reused, or biodegraded.  It’s not going to be easy, but lucky for all of us, I found a pretty awesome article that offers a few very amazing, and very simple tips that can help you get through this entire week as waste-free as possible.  Remember, your goal is 100% waste-free, but as close as you can get to that as possible works for me too.  Every little bit counts, and when it comes to saving this planet, I could not mean that any more.  At any rate, here are the tips, check out the full article for more:

1.  “Cut the convenience foods. While convenience foods might be, well, convenient, they also come with a ton of packaging. Those prepackaged mash potatoes come in a plastic carton. That box of Chinese takeout comes with loads of Styrofoam trash, plastic forks, and paper napkins. Takeout boxes and convenience foods can fill up your trash can super fast. Instead, take your canvas bag to the farmers’ market or grocery store and fill it will tons of wholesome foods like fruits, vegetables, fresh bread, and grains.
2.  Compost all your used food matter like veggies and fruits. This week, skip on the foods that you can’t compost, like meat and eggs. You can drastically reduce your waste by turning your waste into nourishing soil.
3.  Stop the consumption. Only buy what you need and don’t buy excess. If you do buy something, buy it locally instead of having it delivered—you’ll save the miles and and the packaging, the waste.“

Recycled bags at the grocery store, fresh foods, cooking foods you already have in the fridge and cupboards, start a compost pile, mulch, and whenever you can, Walk, don’t drive.  Waste is such an integrated and sad part of our society, the more we can do to stop the trend, the better off we’ll all be.  Waste-Free Week, Start NOW!

Image by House Of Sims via Flickr