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Reduce Your Impact
Many societies in the past have been ardent recyclers. What do they all have in common? They are extinct. Recycling is not enough to solve our resource problems. In order for the United States to prosper into the future we will need to learn to use less stuff.
See our quick suggestions below and pick one thing to do to start reducing your waste impact. Or start by stopping the junk mail. Or check out these local and national organiztions (and books) who really know how to help you reduce your footprint on the planet.
 Reduce.org, a website of the Minnesota Office of Environmental Assistance, http://www.reduce.org. When you avoid making garbage in the first place, you don't have to worry about disposing of waste or recycling it later. Changing your habits is the key -- think about ways you can reduce your waste when you shop, work and play. There's a ton of ways for you to reduce waste, save yourself some time and money, and be good to the Earth at the same time.
 The Vermont Earth Institute, a local organization, http://www.vtearthinstitute.org/ educates and supports Vermonters to reduce consumption and adopt environmentally sustainable practices in their homes, workplaces and communities.
VEI's discussion courses and educational programs bring people together, raise their ecological awareness and facilitate profound change in their values, habits and actions in caring for the environment.
 The Sustainability Institute, a local organization http://www.sustainer.org/ focuses on understanding the root causes of unsustainable behavior in complex systems to help restructure systems and shifts mindsets that will help move human society toward sustainability. Their staff includes biologists, writers, social scientists, system dynamics modelers, and facilitators bringing a wide variety of experiences and skills to their work.
 The New American Dream, a national organization, http://www.newdream.org helps us to "Live Consciously, Buy Wisely, Make a Difference." By changing our consumption patterns on a household level, we can greatly reduce our waste stream with no real effect on our "standard of living."
 Sustainable Step New England, a regional organization for businesses, http://www.ssne.org/. SSNE helps organizations to grow and thrive within a changing global environment. Their mission is to build the capacity of organizations to thrive financially while enhancing our environment and community. They do this by:
- training leaders and key contributors
- convening conversations across sectors
- developing networks for ongoing learning and motivation
 Jim Merkel, Radical Simplicity: Small Footprints on a Finite Earth. Jim Merkel, currently a Corinth, Vermont resident working as Dartmouth's Sustainability Manager, quit his job as a military engineer following the Exxon Valdez disaster and has since worked to develop tools for personal and societal sustainability. He founded the Global Living Project to further this work and conducts workshops around North America on this topic.
The book builds on steps from Your Money or Your Life so readers can design their own personal economics to save money, get free of debt, and align their work with their values. It uses refined tools from Our Ecological Footprint so readers can measure how much nature is needed to supply all they consume and absorb their waste.
Combining lyrical narrative, compassionate advocacy, and absorbing science, Radical Simplicity is a practical, personal answer to twenty-first century challenges that will appeal as much to Cultural Creatives and students as to spiritual seekers, policy makers, and sustainability professionals.
 Michael Brower, Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices: Practical Advice from the Union of Concerned Scientists. In these pages, the Union of Concerned Scientists help inform consumers about everyday decisions that significantly affect the environment. For example, a few major decisions - such as the choice of a house or vehicle - have such a disproportionately large affect on the environment that minor environmental infractions shrink by comparison. Learn what you can do to have a truly significant impact on our world from the people who are at the forefront of scientific research.
 Alan AtKisson, Believing Cassandra: An Optimist Looks at a Pessimist's World. Consultant, raconteur, and musical performer Alan AtKisson sees a parallel between Cassandra's situation and that of today's environmentalists - concerned citizens and scientists who see the world hurtling toward self-destruction. Is it true that most of the human race could care less about their dire warnings? "AtKisson provides us with a bridge passing over the brink of despair to the crest of an enticing future. He enables the reader to join the pioneers who embrace the ideas techniques, and practices of sustainable living - the people who are "believing Cassandra."
On a nationwide and global level, we can greatly reduce our resource depletion by basing our economy on "Development" instead of "Growth."
Growth can be defined as increasing the total number of resources extracted and used up. Development can be defined as finding more efficient and less material-intensive ways to meet our needs. Development means being smart and thinking our way into a sustainable future without sacrificing what we call our standard of living.
The Development scenario contends that services might just as well be provided without the use of materials. For instance, many of us would like the service of learning about what's going on in the world. Currently, we buy newspapers to fulfill that service. The actual paper is not what we need, it's the information on it. If we could read the Times, the Globe, and the Wall Street Journal on our computer with comfort and ease, the same service would be provided without the destruction of trees, the use of harsh chemicals, the burning of fuels to move the material, and the waste product at the end.
Suggestions for Reducing Household Material Consumption
We're not saying you should do everything on the list, but please do something! If everyone did a little, the difference it would make would be a lot.
- Make more time for your real priorities
- Stop junk mail
- Eat less meat (Production of meat can be many times more energy-intensive and resource-intensive than vegetable production. Just cutting meat consumption by one day a week would save more resources than you recycle in a month.)
- Compost at home: Composting Your Garbage
- Drive less
- Choose less packaging
- Double-side copies at the office
- Choose non-toxic alternatives Alternative Recipes
- Buy and repair durable products
- Buy used goods
- Borrow, rent, or share items
- Sell or donate salvageable goods
- Buy only what you need
- Take a Sabbath from shopping
- Shop at locally owned businesses
- Use gift bags, the gift that goes around and around
- More ideas from Other Sites Worth a Visit
- Remember: the landfill starts at the mall!
Stopping Junk Mail
If you find that you receive large quantities of mail which you do not want, contact the Mail Preference Service and say "please remove my name from all mailing lists." This needs to be done periodically to keep your name off the lists. They can be reached at (212) 768-7277, http://www.dmaconsumers.org, or:
Mail Preference Service/Direct Marketing Association
PO Box 643
Carmel, NY 10512-0643
Stop the Credit Card Offers
You can also stop the credit card offers. Call the credit bureaus to get your name off the shared list: (888) 567-8688. Also, call the 800 numbers listed on unwanted or duplicate catalogs and ask to be removed from the list. New Hampshire has a great information on more you can do, visit: http://www.des.state.nh.us/junkmail/.
Greater Upper Valley Solid Waste Management District
96 Mill Street, PO Box 58, No. Hartland, VT 05052-0058
Phone (802)296-3688 | Fax 281-7088 | E-mail GUVSWD@valley.net
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