 Hello, this is in the studio. I'm the conservation enthusiast that's going to be telling you about reduce and reuse, which is very important to maintaining our planet in the coming years. And most of the information that I will be talking about can be found on the davisrecycling.org website set up by the conservation czar, Jennifer Gilbert. And you can use that as reference. Follow along a reduce button and a reuse button. So in terms of reduce first, one really important way to reduce is to share or to borrow. Say there's a tool that you need. It's a specialized tool, and your neighbor has one. Ask if you can borrow that. And you can also get rent a piece of equipment that's a specialized piece of equipment. You don't have to buy it. So that's the first thing in reducing is just share, be in a sharing economy. The second idea is to buy things that are durable and good enough so that they can be mended, furniture, clothes, shoes. So as an example, I bought or I got this. Actually, most of the stuff I have is secondhand in terms of clothes. But I got this in 1995 in Germany when I was there on sabbatical at a sale they called or redistribution called which means sharing of things that have usable life. And this lovely velour, which I always get a lot of compliments on, occasionally gets a little problem. And so I just set it aside for my mending. So that's one example of something you could mend, something that's of good quality. Next, buy in bulk. So when you go to a store, you might get some kind of packaging material that you can bring with you, like these containers that I brought for my seeds and my nuts. So this is a way you can buy in bulk. Reduce the packaging that you used. And that's a lot. The name of the game is to reduce the packaging. Next, get a bag for your vegetables. And don't forget to bring your bag to the store. So this is a bag of bags that I kind of invented. Basically, it's a newspaper bag that when they put, when the newspaper gets, would get wet in the rain. And in it, I have these little containers of plastic bags and recycling bags. So this is what I do every time I have a bag like this. I take it to the store, take the rubber band off. I put the rubber band inside. And then I put the groceries in it. Then I get back home. I take out the rubber band. And I fold it up again and put it back in my purse. So that's my way. And this is something that is always easy to pull out of my bag, but it doesn't take up much space. It's very small. So I also take containers that were takeout containers like this for my spices. Now that's very useful. There's another kind of a vegetable bag. And finally, I take a bag of little plastic bags that in case I want the vegetables and something like this, I can use that. So these are a number of things I take. And finally, in Germany, when I was in Germany, everybody brought their own box to take out their vegetables and produce. So you can also take your own box. So buying in bulk, you can do it at the farmer's market. You can do it at grocery stores around Davis. So the other thing you can do is buy in larger amounts. So a larger amount of applesauce rather than a single-use container of applesauce. And if you want a single-use container, use a little Tupperware container and then put that in the lunch rather than these single-use items. So that's another idea. And this applies to many different things to minimize packaging. If you happen to get a packaging, a box, or something, you can reuse the peanuts, take them to the UPS store, and reuse the box to mail your own things out. Another idea is to instead of going to the coffee shop and getting a cup, bring your own cup. Bring an insulated cup and take your coffee back in that or a mug that you can wash. Another idea is to instead of reaching for a paper towel, reach for a cloth towel, which can be rewashed. Or if there's a spill, wipe it up with a sponge. I keep a special sponge for the floor right by my sink in case I have that kind of issue coming up. Also, you can instead of using a tissue, carry a handkerchief. Men are better at this than women, but women could do it too. So that's a way you can eliminate the use of these single-use items, which is very important. Now, one of my favorites is the lunchbox. So this is a lunchbox. You can take it to work or you can take it to travel. In the top of the lunchbox is a water bottle. And here's my water bottle. There's my cloth napkin instead of a paper napkin. And then I have these little storage containers that can contain leftovers or whatever you want to take for lunch. Your sandwich box, your little dessert container. And in the front of this, I have my utensils, which are just silverware. I just reuse silverware, take my knife and fork with me. So this I take on travel trips. I'll take this empty through security. If I have cold items here, I'll freeze a container of something like alternate milk since I don't do dairy milk and put that in that. So that's your lunchbox idea. And you can also use this kind of a reusable water bottle as well. For a party, if you've got plates and things like that, use the kind of plates you can rewash rather than a paper plate. If you must use paper plates, put them in your food scrap bin. That's where a good place is for those. And if you go on a picnic, bring your own plate, cup, napkins. And you'll have everything washable and reusable. I keep this nice bag with those things in it and bring it to my picnic. So in terms of another consumable that you can lessen for your party, make a little water bag and freeze that to keep your cooler cool. And that way you can reuse it again. And finally, eat at home more. So you can stop jump mail. There's wonderful sites on the website to tell you about how to do that. And start a garden. You can get your groceries right in your backyard. You can start small with a tomato plant, a pot, and a tomato plant. So I want to switch now to water energy and how you can conserve energy and go through this a little bit more quickly. So in terms of energy, a good rule of thumb is turn out the lights when you leave a room. I want to make a little addition to that in that if you have any of these multi-plug strips, they have a little switch on the side. And you can just turn it on and off when you close down your devices. And if you have an electrical device, you can unplug it from the wall. Everything uses some kind of a small amount of current, even when it's turned off. Second, use recyclable batteries. Here I have a little battery charger and batteries that go in it rather than throw away batteries. Some other ideas for heating and cooling. Use a fan, a whole house fan. Open your windows at night to cool off the house in summer. And I'm lucky to have a greenhouse so I can do the opposite. In winter and the night, I open it up to let the heat in. So a few ideas about water. Oh, yeah, one more thing about LED lights. Use LED switch from whatever you have now to LED lights. These use much less energy. They have dimmable and also regular LED lights. Let me get these right side up here. So it's easy to do, and it makes a big difference in energy. Then in terms of water, this is your best friend. This container, put it in the shower, put it next to the bath. Take a pitcher, get the water out of it. Put it on your plants. It's great for watering. And in terms of other things for water, you can buy flow restrictors. As I said before, you can reuse water to make your ice. If it's yellow, let it smell. That's an old adage, but it definitely helps with reducing water consumption. And now, finally, I want to talk about reuse. So in terms of reuse, think about more than one time around. Donating things is very helpful and also buy things that have been used more than once. So all of the clothes I'm wearing, my shirt, my pants, all of those came from a gently used recycling store. So I really believe in this, down to my toes. And you can find a lot of local stores as PCA. There's a furniture store. You can get used furniture. There are many sites on the internet. There are Facebook lists. There are some wonderful names of those on the web. Check on the reuse site that I mentioned before, Craigslist. Freecycle. Freecycle is an incredibly valuable thing where you say you want something. You offer something, or something is taken. You can go to freecycle.org, look for your zip code, sign up for Davis. And the other site I really like is Nextdoor, which is something the city of Davis has been encouraging people to use. They use it for city announcements, but neighborhoods share things that are classifieds or that are free items that they want to give away. Now, finally, Davis Enterprise will put free items in for free. Repurpose things, upcycling them. That's a hot new name. This is one of my favorites. Take the containers that you buy sheets in and use it for another purpose. When I go to college reunion, I need all whites. And so I keep my whites all safe that I'm going to wear in this little container. I also could, you could use it for office supplies or anything you want to keep contained in the night's neat way. So finally, just to mention the landfill reuse center. And then a second area of reuse is gifting things now. There's a song that goes about, don't give me flowers when I'm dead or when I'm in the grave. Give them to me while I'm alive. It's the same kind of purpose, heirlooms. Give them to your children. Don't just put them in your well. And think more of more than one use. Many of the things I've already talked about are more than one use. There's a great song that I know called, I Had an Old Coat. I'm just going to sing a little bit of it for you and tell you about what they do. I had an old coat, but the court was torn. What'll I do? I had an old coat, but the coat was torn. What'll I do? I had an old coat, but the coat was torn. So I cut it down and a jacket was born. And I sing every day of my life. So this jacket became first. So this jacket then became a vest, then became a tie, then became a button. So many different incarnations. So you can take things and use them again if you really love them. So in that spirit, I want to just summarize for you the ways. This is something the Clean Water Association put out of ways to reduce trash and to summarize some of what I said in 10 ways to unpackage your life. So the first one is bring your own bag. The second one is use a bag for your produce. Take along containers. Use your cup. Use your water bottle. Then second part, pack your lunch. Use a thermos. Bring your own utensils or dine in. As they say, slow down. Don't use straws. Don't use much packaging. And as we come back to the studio, you can see all of these laid out before you. The packaging, the bags. Bring your own container, water bottle, lunchbox, insulated container, and dishes. And you can see more about conservation in a number of other shows, most of which I've done with Jennifer Gilbert, the conservation coordinator. All of these are available in the studio and also on YouTube. If you look by the title. And I am available for any questions that you have about anything that I've presented. You can email me at martha.teeter at gmail.com. And I encourage all of you to reduce and reuse. And thank you very much for listening. Bye-bye.