A Waste Reduction Week Reminder

When you think about it, in one way or another all of our actions have to do with reducing waste. Easing the strain on municipal dumps by composting kitchen scraps is a straight-up example. So is recycling second-hand goods that would otherwise end up in landfills. But weather-stripping your windows, insulating your roof, installing smart meters and low-flow showerheads are all about waste-reduction too. In these cases and a great many others, the waste you are reducing is energy.

Every bit of heat that leaks outside your house is waste, every watt burned using incandescent bulbs instead of compact fluorescent is waste. More often than not, the creation of that wasted energy involves the creation of greenhouse gasses. And greenhouse gases, we know, go hand in hand with global warming.

Canada’s Waste Reduction Week urges us to recycle, reuse, and — above all — reduce. The Good Life’s Take Action section shows you dozens of ways of doing just that. Why not browse through the list and see for yourself.

Scott Gardiner