Disposables you can live without

As the attached article says, “eco-friendly living is as much about what you don’t buy as what you do.  Reducing your consumption, especially of one-time-use or plastic items, is vital to reducing your ecological footprint.”  The article discusses four things, but it only takes a few minutes to think of many other “disposable” items that you can live without.  It just takes a little more pre-planning and washing/laundering the reusable items.  The four items discussed in the article are disposable razors, dryer sheets, zip-top plastic bags, and paper towels.  There is a potential fire safety concern if cloth towels soaked with a lot of cooking grease are dried in a heated clothes dryer after laundering, but for most other uses, cloth towels can be laundered again and again.  And you can repurpose old clothing, bath towels, and other fabric items as your cleaning towels.  Even if something is biodegradable or compostable, throwing it away after one use wastes the resources used to manufacture it and may create methane in the landfill.  Here are a few more items to consider:

• Take your own reusable container to the restaurant for your leftover food.
• Use your own reusable water bottle or coffee mug whenever possible.
• If you use plastic eating utensils for a party, collect them to wash and reuse.  Use washable plates instead of paper plates and ask guests to pitch in to wash dishes before they leave.  At work, ask employees to bring their own plates and silverware to group meals instead of providing disposables. 
• This list would not be complete without mentioning reusable grocery and produce bags. 

https://earth911.com/living-well-being/rethink-disposables-four-things-you-can-happily-live-without-at-home