Reuse What You Have: Save Money and Resources

The Palisadian-Post has partnered with locally founded environmental organization Resilient Palisades to deliver a “green tip” to our readers in each newspaper. This edition’s tip was written by Lisa Kaas Boyle, an environmental attorney and member of the Zero Waste Team at Resilient Palisades.

As the recent run on Stanley Cups revealed, there is a market for “green” products. And buying reusable products, like food storage containers for take-out, is definitely better for the environment than single-use containers that go straight to landfill.

But most of us don’t need to invest in anything new in order to become part of the reuse movement. Here are some ways to reuse what we already have:

Drinking Containers: I use glass bottles with metal lids for to-go bottles. Because they are inert glass, I can fill them with tea or fruit flavored water, and there is no chemical leaching into my drink as with plastic bottles. The Italian tomato sauce and kombucha drinks I get have the perfect sized bottles for my hikes.

Produce Bags: While many of us have a large collection of canvas bags for our shopping, we fall short on produce-sized bags. Cloth shoe bags are just the right size.

Clothing: Fashion has a very high environmental footprint. Most of us keep adding to our closet without spending enough time cleaning it out to find what is buried behind the latest purchases. One good method is to display only seasonal clothing and store the rest so we have space to see what we have to wear. Also, donate or sell what no longer inspires so that someone else can reuse these items. Finally, buying second-hand clothing is much easier on the planet and our pocketbooks. We have many excellent vintage and consigned designer clothes in this city. Think about price per wear. I have designer suits I bought second hand that will last forever, while fast fashion may fall apart quickly.

Do you have additional reuse strategies to share? Tag us on Facebook or Instagram: @resilentpalisades.