Reduce Consumption

Refuse – The most effective way to reduce consumption is to buy less and use less! Just say "no".

 

 

Buy Good Quality to avoid disposable culture - See our page on Zero Waste!

 

 

Buy Local to lower transportation (carbon footprint).

 

 

Borrow Instead of Buying:

 

• Join the Poudre River Library and check out their book and non-book collections

• Use the EcoThrift Tool Lending Library to find tools you can avoid buying by borrowing

• Borrow toys and games from Fort Collins very own Toy, Game and Puzzle Library !



 

Make Your Own:

 

• Broth from vegetable scraps or the remains of carcasses
• Soap
• Cleaning supplies from simple ingredients like vinegar and baking soda (less toxic)
• Clothes and other sewn materials

• Join with other makers

 

 

About Those Clothes...

 

• Repair and reuse clothing (see section about mending below)
  • Check out The Lucky Sweater community
• Buy secondhand clothes when possible (except for basics like underwear)
• Avoid fast fashion

• Wear out your clothes and then cut them up to make rags for cleaning

• Upcycle clothing – make something new out of an outgrown favorite

 

 

Repair Clothes and other Objects

 

• Take shoes and boots to a shoe repair shop, clothes that need mending to a local tailor
• Books on Mending:
  • The Mending Life by FarWoods
  • Mending Matters by Katrina Rodabaugh

 

 

Reduce Food Waste - See our Food Page!

• Take your own leftover containers to restaurants

 

 

Share Tools and Resources

 

• Meet your neighbors and let them know what you are willing to lend – don’t be surprised if they do the same! Take the same approach with friends and acquaintances.

• Check out your local Buy Nothing group (on Facebook) - Fort Collins gifting communities – no money exchanged

• Start a Little Free Library (https://littlefreelibrary.org) or support the one already in your neighborhood
• Check Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, other Social Media groups like Foothills Online dedicated to sharing.
  • You can even do hand-offs at the Fort Collins Police Services Exchange Zone to ensure safe exchanges

• Clean out your garage and get things with value back into circulation so others don’t have to buy new.