Does the very idea of reducing waste excite you? Me neither. We know that dump is harming our environment and our children’s and grand children’s planet. So what can we do about reducing our waste.

1. Measure How Much Waste you send to dump and how much for recycling.

The standard US citizen produces 4.4lb of waste a day of which half 54% goes to dump. How does one compare. When we know where we are. We are then we are in a solid position to be proactive about enhancing the situation.

2. Why do You Wish to Reduce Waste?

Reducing waste is the number 7 goal that folk set for the New Year. Like to know the others my post Goals for the New Year looks into the 6 most popular and how to keep on course.

Here in the Philippines reducing waste as an industrial prerequisite. With a ‘good ‘ wage being $4 a day you are really careful with what you buy and what you ditch. I’ll give some examples, but the result is that Charito and I produce about 2lb of waste a week. What is your reason? Maybe so that your grandchildren don't have a ‘plastic necklace ‘ when they're going swimming in the ocean.

3. Set up a Group to Reduce Waste.

Setting up a group to reduce waste will increase the likelihood of success several times over and make the process a load more pleasurable. This group may be local, or on the internet using a social platform to talk about paths to reduce waste maybe have a challenge. To produce less than 3lbs of waste per individual per week. That’s 10% of average and only 1.5Lb of waste or less going to rubbish heap per person per week. That's the urgent figure, rubbish heap. Landfill when properly managed still leeches out and pollutes our water and soil. If we can, you can too.

4. Commence with the End under Consideration

We feel like throw less waste, the easiest and best is not to get it in the first place. The Filipino buys their eggs without a container. A container costs 6 pesos extra (15 cents). I thought that the eggs would break amongst the remainder of the shopping, but they don't I've had 1 break concerning 2 eggs in 12 months. Which I suspect is probably less than I had in the UK. Leave the packing at the store. In the UK stores are well equipped to recycle, and doubtless are where you live too.

5. Buy Less to Waste Less.

Buy less to Waste Less, 8 out of 10 folk shop at supermarkets, and the shops have giant selling departments to lure us to buy more with buy two and get one free. In the Philippines is often buy one and take one, which is a pleasant ‘take’. The intention of these offers to make us buy more.If we don't use this extra instead of us saving money it costs us and we finish up throwing it or giving it away. Approximately over 1/3 of your food is disposed of. So economize and produce less waste by buying less. Buy the amount you want for a meal. When I left the United Kingdom my food bill for the last few weeks was negligible as I eat the meals that I’d frozen. But some were a bit old and had to be thrown. Perhaps you could have old frozen food too; also by purchasing less we feel freer as I look into in Life with One Suitcase and a Portable, which is all I brought with me to the Philippines, and while having less isn’t for everyone for me it's been great.

6. Mineral Water Waste.

You know that 90% of the cost of the water is in the packing and promoting and that 44% of mineral water comes from municipal supplies. To colossally cut down waste, if you do use mineral water use large bottles at home, which is less expensive, I pay 35 pesos for 5 gallons (Slightly below $1) and then have a reusable glass at work together with at home. The average office employee throws away 600 plastic cups a year, that sure is a lot plastic heading towards dump.

7. Use Leftovers

Either use leftovers to make another meal or part of, if there’s not enough. Many cafes specialise in giving a taste of a meal, you can too. Or give the remains to neighbours or friends. I used to think that was charity, and would feel embarrassed to give. I don’t know how you’d feel. But I have found in the Philippines that it's completely practical and amiable way of reducing waste. Most houses have electricity, I live 5 minutes from the popular Alona beach on Panglao, and it’s beautifully rustic which means that few people have fridges and in the tropics food does not keep, so we share or give to the chickens.

8. Reusable over Expendable

If you happen to have a small child potentially you use forever nappies. You use them once but they stay in landfill for all time. When we use dispensable nappies Which I am sad to say we used on our first 3 kids I didn't give a lot of thought to the indisputable fact that when. Purchased that's as tiny as they get and when made use of a lot larger, nor to the indisputable fact that each child uses between 8 to 10,000 nappies before being toilet trained. That is a lot of landfill for each child. Recyclable appliances or if they have to have batteries, re-usable batteries. This area I want to deal with as my mouse uses a large amount of battery.

9. Smaller waste disposal

How big is your trash container, not the one in the house, but the one outside? When shopping the supermarkets have nice big shopping carts, just made for filling. Employ a smaller shopping cart and you will buy less, same goes for trash, utilize a smaller trash container and you'll produce less trash.

10. Post and Waste

When I was in Great Britain I used to get 20 to 30 items a week, of which about 80% would need to be recycled or binned. It doesn't have to be that way. In the Philippines I've had 20 items of post in a year. 17 of them a weekly magazine Bills and bank statements are recorded and filed electronically. It needs a bit of effort to get your name off junk mail lists and cancel all those publications that often don't get read, but it's a particularly freeing experience.

11. Reduce Office waste

There are many paths to reducing office waste. Maybe the largest isn't to print out, No print outs, no storage required.

12. Make Reducing Waste FUN

By making Reducing waste fun you may enjoy finding ways to reduce waste and you'll do more of it. Involve kids if feasible, as we are then teaching and having a good time simultaneously.

So there we have 12 methods to reduce waste. But if you do not suceeded at first, don't worry. Perhaps though you you might make 2012 the year when you begin making real progress to living the Life of Your Dreams.

My Mantra is Live in the moment, its a present. Love Greatly and Unconditionally. Laugh at Life’s Challenges, funny things and self.

Bruce Kidson loves helping people give their dreams life so that they can enjoy a life with abundant wealth, vibrant good health and scintillating and empowering relationships. Through personal Life coaching. Which he shares with his clients and on his Personal Life Coaching Blog.