Let Usborne Books teach your children about garbage! Trash and Recycling is a beginner’s science book that is also fun to read! It is very informative and covers a topic that affects us all. Trash!

See if you can minimize your trash by taking the Garbage Challenge!

Think about Trash

It is important for us to think about the garbage that we throw out! Have you ever thought about what happens to it? After all, all that garbage has to go somewhere after you throw it in the garbage can. Some of it takes a very long time to disintegrate. And some of it never does.

Recently, a landfill near my house closed down. It really surprised me, because it had been open since I was a child. It caused me to wonder, if they had finally run out of room. Or was there some other reason? It also made me consider how much our rates would increase for the future removal of our garbage. After all, it has to be transported somehow, and the price of gas is going up.

One way we can all help keep down the cost of garbage removal, disposal, or storage is to create less of the stuff. With that in mind, I decided to look in my own garbage to see what I was really throwing out. The results were enlightening. There were some food scraps, but even more of it consisted of package material, food containers, and paper products.

Teach your Children about Recycling

Teaching children about recycling is easy, and every bit helps! So please recycle plastic, paper, and glass, plus, anything else that can be recycled in your area. Sometimes recycling can even make you a bit of money. I recently took a bag of aluminum cans over to our recycling center and they gave me money in exchange. What a great deal!!!

Also, if the items you want to get rid of are something someone else can use, why not donate them to your local charity? Then, instead of taking up space in a landfill, they can do someone some good.

Join me for a Teach our Children about Garbage Challenge!

Let’s see how we can minimize the amount of garbage that we throw away. One source of excess garbage is the packaging material from all those food items that come individually wrapped. Buying them in bulk decreases the amount of garbage we end up throwing away and saves money. For example, instead of purchasing the instant oatmeal packets that are individually wrapped, just buy a large cardboard container of it. That way, not only will you save money, but the container can even be recycled.

To help teach my children to reduce the amount of garbage that we throw out, we found a couple of products that are easy to make at home. This way we won’t need to purchase them (in their disposable containers) in the stores on a regular basis.

This week we made our own laundry and dishwasher soap. Yes, we still have a few packages to recycle but there were a lot less of them. Plus it saved money and was much healthier for the environment! It was another win-win situation!

Today, we baked banana bread instead of banana muffins. This way we limited the amount of waste we were throwing away. In addition, by serving homemade quick bread to my girls, I was giving them a healthier snack than they’d get from the store. After all, store bought food often has preservatives in it.

Another tip to those of you who want to limit their garbage: if you want to bake muffins or cupcakes, purchase one of those silicone muffin dishes that don’t need the paper liners.

Finally, we are going to learn to compost! We can compost food scraps in with our grass clippings. I am still trying to find out more information about the subject, but I will be sure to keep you posted.

So, for your garbage challenge, look at how much you throw out each week. Then, think of ways to minimize your trash and recycling.