As the parent of a young child, I have faced my share of over-packaging.

Toys, especially the ones a child wants to play with immediately, aren’t just packed tight in a rigid cardboard box. They are also taped, glued, wired, and even screwed in place.

It seems like overkill to me. We recycle the cardboard and reuse those crazy long twist ties when we can, but it still seems like such a waste of resources.

Toys aren’t the only items that seem over-packaged. There are also electronics and single-serve food items.

Last year, Amazon.com began offering Frustration-Free Packaging with 19 of its most popular items.

And recently, I’ve started noticing the packaging differences with different brands of some items. I drink hot tea a good bit, and am not brand loyal.

Most recently, I bought a box of Celestial Seasonings, and noticed that the tea bags don’t have little tags or strings.

The manufacturers say that leaving out those little tags helps save more than 3.5 million pounds of waste every year.

Do you buy products based on the amount (or lack thereof) of packaging? Which brands do you most recommend?

You have heard it over and over again…

“Reduce, Reuse then Recycle” but it isn’t always obvious just how to do that, is it? Well, here’s the tip for you – and it will save you money!

Plastic Wrap, sandwich baggies..all plastic that is thrown away. The least you can do to keep some of that plastic out of the landfill, is to buy the reuseable containers. Go long term with more durable pieces, or short term with the GladWare, Rubbermaid TakeAway stuff.

Aluminum foil is recycleable. make sure it’s clean.

You want to make the biggest impact? AND save money? Use the containers you already have!

Use the empty Cool Whip containers for leftover mashed potatoes, the glass spaghetti jars for soup, the empty Chinese food containers for almost everything! These containers were not meant to be used long term, so you may find they do split after a couple of washes. Have no fear, throw them in the recycling bin for guilt free recycling…you have reduced (you are causing less production of plastic film and baggies), reused (that is self explanatory), and recycled!