We’ve had a clever “Reduce This” idea from “Someone else”:

I try to cut back, it’s true, but I love Doritos, so not having chips ever wasn’t an option. I did find a way which is perhaps a little easier on my health and the environment by baking some tortillas instead. We buy those tall stacks of 6 inch corn totillas, cut them up with a pizza slicer, and spread them out on sheets to bake them. we eat them with salsa, and you can find recipes online.

It helps me get the crunch I want, and one stack comes in a soft plastic bag, recyclable the same was as a bag on a loaf of bread, and contains enough to make quite a few batches. Yes, I still get Doritos occasionally, but I am weaning myself off them and those strange bags they come in.

That’s a great compromise – I love ideas that provide an alternative without feeling like a punishment.

For people that prefer potato-based crisps/chips, you can make them out of sweet potato in the microwave without needing tons of fat and packaging.

Any other suggestions for cutting back on snack waste?

• How can I reuse or recycle crisp packets?

We’ve had our first Reduce This email! Lindsey from SwirlyArts/Cuteable wrote:

I buy eco friendly washing powder but it always comes in tiny boxes unlike the bigger brands which come in huge boxes. I don’t want to start buying the ‘normal’ brands of washing powder with less packaging but am concerned that I am buying lots of the smaller boxes.

I know that Ecover do larger boxes of washing powder but I tend to buy the supermarket brand of eco friendly washing powder. The boxes do get recycled but I want to try and reduce the number of boxes I buy.

From my experience, big boxes of Ecover are difficult to find – it’s strange they don’t do refill like the do with liquid cleaning products… They can be ordered online though (I’ve seen places offering 10kg sacks) and depending where you get them from, it might be comparable in cost to supermarket brand products – but of course then you have to think about the delivery footprint…

Anyone got any suggestions or ideas?

(On the subject of washing powders, Ethical Consumer have reviewed a range of laundry detergents on the market in terms of their environmental impact – interesting reading.)

We’ve always tried to minimise the amount of waste our cats produce by buying in bulk where possible, choose recyclable packaging over plastic bags and they mostly eat biscuits, which have less water content so aren’t as heavy/bulky to ship.

Except now one of them is sick – very sick – and is having trouble digesting regular cat food. I’ve become incredibly familiar with cat food ingredients (and also the consistency of cat poop) over the last few months and the better quality stuff (stuff that is made up of at least 50 or 60% the meat/fish it claims to be – most cat food is around 4%) seems to come in small quantities in plastic pouches, or tiny, teeny cans. Enter loads of extra waste.

I try to feed her frozen fish/mince at least once a day – since that has a considerably lower packaging cost – but worry that she’ll miss out on essential vitamins/minerals if I just feed her those all the time. I’m happy to make her food from scratch but don’t have time to do it at every meal time since she’s eating lots of small meals throughout the day. I’ve tried making a chicken & rice mash before but it didn’t really interest her.

Unfortunately for us, this is a short scale problem with this cat (*sniff*) but looking at the ingredient lists on the standard cat food boxes & cans has made me want to do better by the other cats.

So has anyone got any suggestions for how I can reduce the amount of cat food packaging waste we’re producing? Anyone found any decent quality cat food (dry or wet) in large quantities rather than tiny sachets? Any popular homemade cat food recipes?

While reusing and recycling is important, the first stage of the waste hierachy is the most important: reducing consumption of raw materials in the first place.

As most greenies know, the amount of energy reclaimed by saving something from landfill is only a tiny proportion of the energy required to have made the thing in the first place and then ship it around the world. By reusing things we already have – either fixing broken things or reusing some waste for a different purpose (as is the aim of this site), we’re reducing our requirement for those new things but we should really be reducing our requirements first, then reusing the things we still need; not just reusing things all the clutter we’ve gathered in the first place.

With this in mind, I’ve decided to try out a new feature on Recycle This: how can I reduce my use of this? if you’re in any way prone to procrastination, the thought of having to reduce everything can stop you doing anything: it’s a lot easier broken down into smaller steps. It’s pretty obvious how to reduce consumption of some things – that random plastic thing that you’re not quite sure what it is but my, it’s pretty (candle holder? bottle opener? plant pot?) from Ikea, just stop, that doesn’t need to be bought – but other things are sometimes a bit harder – and I thought it might be worth trying to get a bit of crowd wisdom/support for those things. And hopefully the suggestions will help other people with their reducing too.

So do you have anything you’re finding it hard to cut down on/wean yourself off? If so, drop me an email – reduce@recyclethis.co.uk and I’ll try to make this a regular thing. Conversely, if you found a really good way to cut back on something, get in touch – it might help someone else give up that same thing too!

We can kick off with one of my bugbears:

• How can I reduce my use of cat food pouches and tiny, teeny cans?