We’re all familiar with the mantra: “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.”
What many people don’t realize is that those three R’s can trim your expenses — and in some cases, even bring in a little extra income.
Plus, cutting consumption, repurposing items that no longer serve their original role and recycling the remainder helps keep unnecessary refuse out of landfills. Sounds like a win-win, right?
To mark Earth Day, here are practical ways to spend less and help the earth at the same time.
Reduce
The simplest way to lower spending while shrinking your environmental footprint is to reduce what you purchase. By buying less, you’ll spend less and conserve more resources.
It takes habit and sometimes hard choices, but the savings are often worth it.
Try these approaches to curb your buying:
1. Purchase Only the Food You’ll Eat and Use It Up
Consumers throw away about 40% of the food they buy, according to Harvestright.com. That’s almost $200 a month for a family of four!
Wasting food doesn’t just waste money — it also wastes the water and energy used to produce it.
Cutting food waste isn’t hard if you adopt a few habits.
Make a shopping list before heading to the store, and stick with it.
Use your warehouse club benefits intelligently.
Buy in bulk only when you’re confident you’ll consume the whole item — especially perishables.
Learn proper storage methods to extend freshness, and get inventive with leftovers. You’ll use more of what you buy and throw away less, saving money and reducing waste.
2. Pause Before You Purchase
When you spot an item you feel you simply must have, pause and consider whether it’s truly necessary.
Before making any purchase, ask yourself three questions:
Do I genuinely need it?
Needs and wants aren’t the same.
If you’re inventing flimsy reasons to buy it or can’t name a concrete purpose, it probably isn’t essential and can stay on the shelf.
If you determine it is needed, next ask…
Do I have a spot for it?
Before you add it to your cart, decide exactly where it will live. If you can’t identify a place, leave it behind.
If you do have a spot, ask yourself…
Will I actually use or wear it?
Many items purchased with the best intentions end up gathering dust in a closet or drawer.
Ensure anything you bring into your home has a clear purpose and will be used.
3. Pick Products With Less Packaging
Packaging accounts for over 30% of the waste stream in developed countries, reports the EPA.
To tackle this problem, manufacturers like Unilever and Nestle have pledged to cut back packaging. If you shop thoughtfully, you can help reduce packaging waste too.
Buy items like cereal and nuts in bulk to minimize cardboard, plastic and glass use.
When bulk isn’t available, choose items that have minimal or recyclable packaging.
Reuse
If you’re anything like many households, you probably have things around that you aren’t using because they’re worn, broken or just out of favor.
You don’t want to send these straight to the dump, but you may not know what to do with them, so they continue to clutter your home.
Here are ways to repurpose common items I’ve noticed piling up around my family’s place.
For more inspiration, check out ideas from various DIY blogs.
4. Repurpose Old Furniture and Appliances
Furniture can have a long life, but when it’s damaged or no longer fits your needs, you don’t have to discard it. With a little imagination and elbow grease, it often has a second life.
Convert an old coffee table into a storage ottoman or transform an end table into one of these playful LEGO tables for kids.
Mounting your TV on the wall and left with a bulky entertainment center? Make a play kitchen for children or refashion it into a sleeker console.
During renovations, repurposing can reduce costs and create distinctive spaces. An old dresser can serve as a bathroom vanity. Reclaimed shutters can become a charming headboard.
Not sure what to do with old appliances? Refabdiaries.com offers several upcycle and makeover ideas to spark creativity.
5. Give Old Clothing a Second Purpose
If certain garments aren’t being worn, a little alteration can bring them back into rotation.
If your T-shirt pile is growing or favorites are showing wear, you don’t have to donate or toss them.
With a bit of creativity you can make new skirts, a reusable grocery bag, or a cozy quilt.
Want more options? Here are 39 more ways to repurpose T-shirts, including no-sew choices for non-sewers.
Holey or pilled sweaters can be reused too. Craftsy.com showcases projects like felted totes, fingerless mitts and slippers.
If crafts aren’t your thing, repurpose glass jars as sweater-covered vases (a double upcycle!).
You might even launch a small venture like Charlotte Reid Besaw, who creates and sells warm mittens crafted from thrifted sweaters.
6. Put Cardboard Tubes to Use
Those cardboard tubes from toilet paper and paper towels seem to multiply in our house. We collect and recycle them, so I wondered what else they could do before heading to the bin.
With some digging, I discovered many ways to reuse them around the home.
Use them to store cables and extension cords that tend to tangle and clutter drawers.
If you have a fireplace or fire pit, make kindling logs to get fires started fast. Gardeners can start seedlings in them.
Need a kid activity? Today’s Parent has fun craft projects.
You can also spend a rainy afternoon making a birdfeeder, staging a puppet show with owl finger puppets or creating artwork.
7. Give Glass Jars and Bottles a Second Life
Many foods and beverages come in glass jars and bottles.
I’ve been saving pasta sauce jars for years, intending to reuse them. And I hate throwing away wine bottles because they’d make beautiful chandeliers.
If you want inventive ways to repurpose glass, there’s plenty of ideas online.
Enjoy fresh flowers? Make a wine-bottle vase or a hanging window vase.
Wine bottles can become ambient lights or lamps. Prefer candles? Use jars as votive holders.
Rather than buying new organizers for your kitchen or bath, turn empty jars into soap dispensers, candy jars or flour and sugar canisters.
No time to make crafts? Sell your empty wine bottles to crafters or hobby winemakers.
8. Put Your Books to Work
If you have boxes or shelves full of books you’re unlikely to reread, consider letting someone else get value from them.
Sell them on Amazon or at a used bookstore and earn some cash. Prefer a tax benefit? Donate to a literacy charity, a local school or your library.
If books aren’t worth much or you don’t want to sell, repurpose them: hollow one out for a Kindle cover, build invisible shelves, fashion a purse or make a phone charging station.
Need more inspiration? Here are 10 additional ways to reuse old books.
Recycle
Beyond tossing recyclable items into your curbside bin, there are other ways to recycle household goods you can’t reuse.
9. Turn Metal Into Cash
If you’ve saved aluminum cans, copper piping from a remodel or other metal scrap, you can bring it to a recycling facility or scrap yard and be paid for it.
10. Donate or Recycle Shoes
I had a closet full of worn athletic shoes that were no longer suitable for running but still usable. I didn’t want to throw them away, and I wasn’t sure what else to do.
Programs like Nike’s Reuse-A-Shoe grind old athletic shoes into material used for playgrounds, sports fields and courts.
Gently used dress shoes and heels can be donated to groups such as Soles4Souls or the Cinderella Project to help people in need.
11. Sell Things to New Owners
Anything gently used that’s collecting dust could earn you money and find a new home.
This is a win-win: you’re recycling an item you don’t use, and the buyer reduces their consumption by purchasing used instead of new.
Sell clothing, toys, baby gear, small appliances, furniture and more on Craigslist or neighborhood sale groups.
Your Turn: Have you used other tactics to cut costs while living greener? Share your suggestions in the comments!
For more ideas on living simply and minimizing waste, check out zero waste.
