REFUSE

• Junk mail
  • National Do Not Mail List — Get Rid of Junk Mail – DirectMail.com
• Free gifts you will not use
• Excess hand wipes and bottled water on the airplane (bring your own)…food even!
• Single-use utensils and extra napkins and condiments for carrying out. BYO! (In Chicago it’s illegal for restaurants to include these items unless requested. Tell the restaurant if they don’t know.)
• Bring your own bag when shopping for groceries and retail purchases
• Say no to straws

REDUCE

• Shop local from farmers markets to support farmers with less packaging waste
• Packaging by shopping items in minimal plastic or from zero waste stores
• Use cloth napkins. Thrift various patterns and colors for fun
• Learn how to cook with Ends and Stems to save time and reduce food waste
• Wash your clothes in cold water and air dry them
• On the topic of clothes washing, challenge yourself to wear clothes more often between washes, thereby decreasing your number of loads!
• Turn off lights and unplug electronics when not using them
• Eat less meat – Meatless Mondays (or more)!
• Challenge yourself!  Can you decrease the amount of recycles going to the curb?

REUSE

• Join your neighborhood Facebook Buy Nothing group (search on Facebook buy nothing and enter neighborhood to find)
• Shop second hand (poshmark and thredup great for clothing)
• Upcycle jars and cans for plants and flowers 
• Use glass jars to store bulk items (seeds, nuts, etc)
• Shop or donate bikes at Working Bikes www.Workingbikes.org
• Turn empty food containers into leftover containers
• Before throwing an item away – ask yourself if the item can be repurposed
• Make your reusables more accessible (reusable straws & utensils in your purse/backpack, reusable bags by the door & in the car) and phase out single use items (hide them! See if you can get by without using them)
• Buy reusable silicone bags or reuse ziploc bags

RECYCLE / UPCYCLE

• Divert bread tags from landfills and get them to SCARCE for Danielle Cares for Chairs
• Bring American Flags to your local VFW, fire department, village/township hall
• Bring Eyeglasses + Hearing Aids to your local Lions Club 
• Ink cartridges from printers can be refurbished and resold (no toner cartridges) through Planet Green Recycle Fundraiser www.planetgreenrecycle.com
• Vases can be repurposed for Flowers for Elderly and Sick Persons at The Douglas Center www.thedouglascenter.com
• Make homemade guitar picks out of used credit and gift cards with a pick punch – donate the picks to elementary and high school music teachers and music schools
• Ship your extra and unwanted sports and academic medals to be recycled with Sports Medal Recycling
• Donate unwanted craft, office or school supplies and materials to nonprofits like Creative Chicago Reuse Exchange or The Waste Shed

ROT

• Compost food scraps at home (backyard or vermicomposting), curbside (if available), or with a microhauler. Check out the Illinois Food Scrap Coalition for all the details
• Search for community food scrap drop off events or opportunities to divert food scraps from landfills. A few local examples to consider are select community gardens, urban farms, and farmers markets.

LOCAL ZERO WASTE STORES

• Eco Flamingo
• Tinyshop
• Sugar Beet Food Co-op
• The Unwaste Shop

MISCELLANEOUS

• Composting: Collective Resource Compost, WasteNot Compost, The Urban Canopy and Block Bins. City of Chicago Food Scrap Dropoff.
• Recycling in Chicago, everything you want to know. (recyclebycity.com)
• Book: An Almost Zero Waste Life: Learning How to Embrace Less to Live More by Megean Weldon
• Book: Zero Waste Home by Bea Johnson