Plan Ahead: Before you prepare your next shopping list, take a few minutes to think about your family’s schedule for the week ahead and which foods will work best for your menu. You don’t have to go so far as to assign a meal for each day of the week (although if you’re uber-organized, you probably do this already.) But there is no point in buying a lot of great organic ingredients if everyone will be too busy to eat them. Make a list of the ingredients you’ll need for that week (or day or month…depending upon how frequently you shop) and stick to it.

Pass It On: Got an extra jar of creamed corn or box of mashed potatoes that you’re not likely to use? Pass on any non-perishables (or even unspoiled perishables) to your local food bank so that they can feed someone in need. Check out America’s Second Harvest to find a food bank near you.

Tell It To The Birds: What is it about kids and bread crusts that makes the two so incompatible? Save those discarded bread crusts along with any stale crackers or moldy rolls and bring them along to feed the birds on your next outing in the park.

Turn It Into Dirt: Don’t toss those rotten tomatoes or banana peels in the trash. Turn them in to compost instead. Compost is the ultimate recycler…it turns useless yucky stuff into really valuable yucky stuff. It also reduces waste, saves money, and can help protect your plants from diseases and pests. And it’s not as hard as you might think to get started. Check out this post on starting a compost pile.

Why Compost?

1. Save Money: Why pay money for plant food and fertilizers when you can make your own with some broken down leaves and newspapers. Composting is not as hard as you think and it can save you a fortune in yard care products.
2. Reduce Waste: Every scrap you put in the compost bin is one less scrap that’s locked away in a landfill.

3. Protect Your Plants and The Planet: According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “compost has been shown to suppress plant diseases and pests, reduce or eliminate the need for chemical fertilizers, and promote higher yields of agricultural crops.” The organization has also found that the composting process can help absorb odors, bind heavy metals, and break down toxic volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

Starting A Compost Pile

There are tons of resources out there that cover the composting process inside and out. Basically, to get started you will need 2 types of ingredients:

• Carbon (shredded newspapers, cardboard, and straw)
• Nitrogen (lawn clippings, kitchen waste, and weeds).

Combine them together and before long you’ll have compost. If you’re feeling lazy you don’t need to do anything else (but wait and wait). You’ll have usable compost by next year even if you never touch the pile again. If you’d like things to move along a little more quickly, you’ll need to turn the pile and add a few drops of water every few weeks. If you really want to get the most from your waste, check out a few online resources:

How To Compost.org
How To Make Compost
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: Composting Info