Our county has a recycling center that accepts plastic, glass, styrofoam, newspaper, cardboard, cans batteries and used motor oil.

My state requires a deposit on soda and beer cans/bottles, so these are returned to the store.

Our post office has a bin for junk mail.

I have a composter that we put food scraps in. Any meat scraps are fed to our barn cats.

We use cloth bags for shopping. If we do have plastic bags, we use them to line trash cans. We also live in an area that allows burning so we burn things like used tissues, box board, etc.

Other things, I try to find a use for. If I can't and no one else wants it, then it gets tossed.

We have solar panels on the house so this helps with the heat. Propane heat is kept low, unless someone is showering then it gets turned up. Showers are limited to 10 minutes. Lights are turned off when not needed.

We try to cook only what we can eat at that meal. If is something bigger, like chili, then it is frozen right away in single serving sizes. The 1# butter dishes are great for this. If leftovers can't be frozen then they need to be eaten within 3 days. We sometimes have a "clean out the fridge" day.

We also have a grage sale at least once a year and what's left over gets donated to the thrift store.

I have been trying to find a place that takes worn clothing and old shoes. I hate throwing things like this in the landfill.