How often do you have to empty the trash cans around your home? If you take a trip outside to the dumpster every couple days, it’s time to examine why your garbage bins fill up so quickly. To cut down the amount of waste you send off to the landfill, here’s a list of things you shouldn’t be throwing away.

Water Bottles

Yes, they can be recycled but, with a water filter on your faucet and a reusable thermos, there’s no need for disposable water bottles. Stopping the bottle habit …

Tags: disposables , garbage , how much do Americans throw away , landfill , things you can recycle , trash , waste

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From organic cotton garb to reusable serving ware, they have raised the bar in San Francisco this week as more than 1,500 Jewish teen athletes from 40 U.S. cities and four international countries (Mexico, Guatemala, Israel and Canada) compete in the Maccabi Games 2009.

This year, for the first time, organizers introduced a Green Team – a committee chaired by Miriam Gordon, an environmental activist, and games director, Jackie Lewis. Their game plan: a zero-waste event that completely circumvents the dreaded landfill.

Instead of the usual bottled water …

Tags: athletes , carbon , compost , Conserve , garbage , golf , Jewish , Jewish Community Center , Jewish National Fund , Maccabi Games , organic cotton , pins , recycle , reuse , San Francisco , soccer , water bottles , zero-waste

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Call me a dirt girl, but I’ve always loved composting. There’s something very special about helping nature along in the process of turning orange peels and carrot tops into dark, rich, fertile soil. There’s such joy in helping to create more of the soil that grows the food that sustains us – and the cycle is complete. To the novice, it may seems like a messy and mysterious process, but done right, composting is tidy, easy and fairly low-maintenance. Here’s how to do it.

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Tags: biodegradable , compost , disposal , DIY , garbage , garden , gardening , how to

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There’s nothing more serene than walking the beach with your children on a lovely day, picking up shells and digging holes in the sand. The flip side of the coin (or sand dollar in this case) is combing the shore for trash, something I did with another mom and three 4th graders as part of a school community service project.

It is downright shocking so many visitors to Ocean Beach in San Francisco in the year 2009 litter without a conscience, discarding their plastic ice coffee drink cups and …

Tags: Barack Obama , Cause , environment , garbage , green , health , lifestyle , ocean , pollution

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A day at the beach shouldn’t include body surfing through plastic bags. But, equally detrimental is the harm that’s being done to wildlife when plastics photo-degrade (break down from the sun’s UV rays). In the ocean, birds and marine life often mistake these small pieces as food, and as they provide no nutrients, wildlife slowly starve to death.

The Surfrider Foundation recently announced the roll out of its long-awaited program Rise Above Plastics, which seeks to reduce the amount of plastics making their way into our beach …

Tags: environment , garbage , oceans , Rise Above Plastic , Surfrider Foundation , water

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