Practices to Use Less Plastic

• Take your own bags when you shop.
• Decline the plastic utensils in your take-out orders.
• Stop buying plastic bottles of water; use refillable bottles.
• Avoid using plastic straws.

Change of Habits

• Rinse, dry, and reuse lightly used plastic bags.
• Use paper bags or waxed paper instead of plastic, even for small stuff like treats and sandwiches.
• Buy what you can, such as laundry detergent and kitty litter, in more readily recycled boxes instead of plastic containers.

♻️ Recycle

• Plastic bags in the handy bins at local grocery stores. (Just outside the front door at the Derwood Giant Food.)
• Big plastic items at the Shady Grove Processing Facility and Transfer Station at 16101 Frederick Road, Derwood.
• At home on trash collection days, placing paper and cardboard vs. plastic/glass/metal in separate blue recycle bins.
• Plastic items marked with the recycling symbol and the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7 ARE recyclable, but items marked with the recycling symbol and the number 6 ARE NOT.

Did You Know?

• The liner bags in cereal boxes, baking mixes, and many other boxed items are plastic bags that can be rinsed and reused or recycled in the grocery store bin?  (Nope…they don’t belong in paper recycling.)

What Else?

• Teach your children good practices to avoid wasting plastic.

Small steps add up!