Reduce consumption. Ask yourself, do I need this? Is this a meaningful purchase? If the entire world consumed the way Americans did, we would need about FIVE planets to sustain us. The first step to living sustainably is simply to reduce consumption. Bring your own. Ordering takeout? Have leftovers when eating out? Bring your own clean container upon ordering and ask them to use this for your takeout order instead of their single-use takeout container. This is legal in the state of Oregon! IMPORTANT: Make sure your container is non-plastic. If hot food touches the plastic, thousands of chemicals and microplastics have been found to leach off the container and into your food–and into your body when you consume it! Bring your own (non-plastic!) coffee cup. Bring your own dishware or cutlery to an event. We already know to bring our own shopping bags to the grocery store–but there are so many ways to expand this concept! Borrow instead of purchase. McMinnville has many entities that allow you to borrow items–big and small–for free, including the McMinnville Public Library (check out their library of things), McMinnville Tool Library (tools), and Zero Waste McMinnville (dishware). You can also join groups like the Facebook group “Buy Nothing.” Mend your items. Can you mend a piece of clothing, or turn it into something else useful? Can you get your computer fixed, instead of buying a whole new computer? Buy secondhand. Reusing items significantly reduces its carbon footprint–and depending on where and how you purchase, it is supporting the local economy and those in need. Purchase package-free. Bring your own reusable containers or cloth drawstring bags to fill up your necessary ingredients in bulk sections around town. You can find bulk sections at Village Provisions, Harvest Fresh, WinCo, and Roth’s. Purchase locally. Can you buy your item in town, instead of online? This not only supports our local economy, but it significantly reduces the carbon footprint of an item. For example, the average piece of produce in the grocery store travels 1,500 miles to get to the consumer. Consider the materials of both the product and the packaging. Is this product made with plastic or toxic chemicals? Not only does this seriously impact your individual health, but items made with plastic or toxic chemicals devastates humans, animals, and the planet at EVERY STAGE of its lifecycle. And plastic never goes away. Ask yourself, can I make this purchase without plastic? Does it come in a glass jar instead of plastic? Does it come in paper? Can I refill it? Can I find the item with clean and non-toxic ingredients? Buy organic and non-GMO. The magnitude of this choice cannot be overstated. Not only is this critical for our health and well-being, but choosing organic fights climate change. Check out the additional tab and info on Regenerative Agriculture. Concerned about the price? Harvest Fresh and Village Provisions both offer a great selection of organic foods and essentials in their bulk sections for refill–at a fraction of the price. Consider the material of your clothing. Buying secondhand clothing is incredibly impactful. If you want to up your game, choose clothing that is made out of natural fibers, such as cotton, linen, or bamboo. Materials like polyester, nylon, acrylic, and fleece are all made out of PLASTIC. Every time you run these clothes through your laundry, microplastics come off of the clothing and find their way into our water. Use Forever Ware at our local restaurants. Currently, five restaurants in town offer Forever Ware takeout containers and cups for checkout with a $5 refundable deposit. Let them know when you order that you want them to use the Forever Ware containers (reusable, stainless-steel). When you are done with the container, you rinse it out, return it, and the restaurant will sanitize before lending it out to another customer! Current participating restaurants: Alchemist’s Jam, Local Flow, Good Food Mac, Crescent Cafe, Bad Dog Bakery. Grow your own. We are fortunate to live in an area with a long growing season that supports a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, and flowers. Do you have space for a fruit tree? Or a small vegetable garden? A blueberry bush? Turn the 1,500 average miles that your produce travels into 15 feet! And when the plant dies, save the seeds from your healthiest plant to grow again next season for free, and then leave the plant there to compost and feed your garden soil. Want to add to your positive impact? Grow organically, plant cover seeds for the winter to enhance your soil’s health and ability to store carbon from the atmosphere, save your seeds, purchase bulk soil in town, use your own compost, or try soil blocking for plastic-free seed starting. Make your own. Can you make your own zero waste foods, such as hummus, yogurt, bread, tortilla, dairy-free milk? Can you make your own zero waste cleaning products? The list is endless–and there are many things you can make with ease and with limited time. Explore the bulk sections in town to find your ingredients without packaging and make your own zero waste products! Reuse or upcycle. Can you reuse something you already have before making another purchase? Or turn it into something else useful, instead of throwing it away? Can you clean the glass jar you bought your peanut butter in and use it to refill your bulk raisins at the store? Compost your unusable food scraps. When you can’t use the rest of your food scraps, be sure to compost them instead of throwing them away. When organic materials end up in the landfill, methane is released–which is a significantly more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2. Donate. When you are done with your product, can someone else use it? We have many shops and organizations in town that take secondhand products. Recycling and throwing away are the last resort.