Wow. That guy is a real jerk. 
We have 3 large bins to put by the curb for pickup: garbage, recycling, and yard/food waste. The garbage one is the smallest, and we don’t fill it completely, but anything smaller acceptable by the city doesn’t have wheels, so it would be a chore to lug it down our long driveway (we are a no curb appeal house).
We generally adhere to the 3Rs: reduce, reuse, recycle - in that particular order of importance. Do we need it? Can it last long enough to outlast us so we don’t have to replace it? Can it be repurposed if we don’t use it anymore? Can it be recycled if it is hopelessly broken? Not saying we are environmental saints, but every little bit helps.
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Speaking of putting stuff to the curb… our new to us house came with a dog kennel. We don’t have a dog and would never put one in that kennel even if we had one. Mr. disassembled it thinking he’d take it into our old, more rural ‘hood to put out as a freebie. When the contractors came here doing roof work, he jokingly offered the kennel to them. Man… one grabbed it quickly and disappeared with it, but apparently there were some other takers who really wanted it. There were some hurt feelings in that crew. Mr. offered some other junk from the garage as a “peace offering,” and peace indeed was restored.
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So, one thing I’ve done is to make fabric produce bag where the print on the fabric is the produce inside. (So, for example, we picked up carrots at farmer’s market yesterday and used my “carrot” bag.) I’ve found it really helps me to “see” what’s in the fridge. I also found a over the door shoe organizer - in my closet - that is now hanging on the door out with my produce (and bread) bags. It has clear pockets so is my shopping reminder list, so to speak.
Also, we call our clean out the fridge meal a smorgasbord - leftovers happen in someone else’s house!
Locally, we’ve had food waste in our green waste container for years. Just in the last few years, I learned that twice a year, the compost company has a community day where one can load up one’s vehicle with free compost! (I’ve seen large Dump trucks in line for fill up.) From our former residence, we kept the yellow recycling bins, and use them for the compost. I really like this model because it’s easier to empty the car, we can move the full bins on our own (hand truck), and can distribute the compost on our schedule instead of needing to shovel it into and out of the car all on the same day.
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Love it - “leftovers” night at our house is called “taste sensations from around the world” - I reheat each item separately and announce as I serve them - like you would find in a fine restaurant - for your first course…
It puts a smile on our faces -
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Such a good approach. I strive toward that top/.
One example: Although we have a compost bin that accepts yard waste, I sometime bring a load of branches to the waste diversion center. While there, I pick up bark from the pile of mulch made from ground up yard waste. Yes, I still sometimes buy the prettier bagged mulch from Lowes (which with my new eyes seems a waste of packaging, shipping etc). But the backyard and front yard bottom layer has the free stuff.
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Happy Earth Day. 
I can still remember hearing about the first celebration in 1970. For those interested in reading more about the history of Earth Day and the Environmental movement : April 21, 2023 - by Heather Cox Richardson
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Love that!!
Since there are only two of us in the house, we have what I have been calling “a cocktail hour” for dinner on Friday. No actual cocktails because we don’t drink them, it just means a glass of wine and whatever is left in the fridge. Saturday is weekly groceries shopping day! 
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We have Mustgo night–things that must go from the fridge.
I admit that after Goskids flew the coop, it did take me awhile (years) to adjust my grocery buying habits. I was tossing food weekly (and feeling guilty). Finally got the strategy down of keeping list of what I had, what meals I could make, etc. Covid also helped-- I wasn’t going out to stores, and if H did, he needed a list. And he RARELY bought something not on the list.
Goskid 1 got us a soda stream, as she was appalled at the amount of LaCroix bottles we would go thru. I use…but H doesn’t like as much–so we have half the bottles we used to. baby steps.
Buy Nothing story: Goskid 1 was a bridesmaid in wedding in March. She put out on BN that she was looking for a dress from Azazie (online wedding dresses) in a specific color. (Bride had requested the color from Azazie, bridesmaids could pick the style.) Bingo. Got a reply from girl who lived 1/2 mile away. Perfect match, other than D paid $30 to have it shortened. Edited to add—she’s putting dress back on BN. It’s a popular color right now, so she’s confident someone will want…
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My green lad doesn’t use just the 3Rs: reduce, reuse, recycle.
He does 4Rs: refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle
He might want or need something (like a drink or food), but if the place is only using plastic or Styrofoam, etc, he will refuse to take part, even if he’s thirsty or hungry. He will let us get something if we want to, but will tell whoever is there why he’s choosing to not take part, hoping they change for the future.
And… it has worked at a number of restaurants he chooses to eat at in Puerto Rico. They have found more sustainable options, including compostable or reusable things. He ends up with a good relationship with the owners/workers.
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That’s a cool story. I got a kick out of the hononym….re-FUSE (reject) vs REF-use (trash)
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My husband’s version is “just stop buying S(tuff)”
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I bet he does 5 Rs, maybe Repair also?
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Absolutely - he just puts that under reuse. He has many items being used for different purposes than originally intended, including tossing some of them into his house when he was building it. He has an Earthbag house - pretty easy to bury some solid things in the earth while filling the bag. Other things can be used to channel water in his catchment system, etc.
He’s one of those who will pick up trash when he sees it and repurpose it into something else.
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LOL - My Dad (grew up in the Depression era) has Green/reuse habits. It is common and wise now, but during my childhood it seemed an annoying thing.
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Just did a 3 mile loop of my suburban neighborhood and picked up almost 8 lbs. of trash, including four beer cans, five (small) wine bottles and 22 nips. Happy Earth Day!
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No Earth Day projects for me today (unless you count buying used clothing at thrift store). But tomorrow I will stay after church for an Earth Day speaker.
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It’s raining here, so no Earth Day special events unless you count mowing our lawn by pony instead of a gas riding mower. We haven’t used our mower yet this year. Our neighbor mows his large lawn every third day or so. I have to remind myself each time that our natural lawn probably drives him nuts the way his golf course lawn does for us, but ours is far better for the planet (and looks far better to me, with flowers and diversity in it).
I will have to mow ours next week to remove what the ponies don’t eat, but I prefer mowing once or twice a month to two - three times per week. It’s been fun watching the pollinators too - though not today with the rain.
Last year I started to hear about No Mow May. (We have a later spring in CO; typically we don’t plant flowers til after Mother’s Day. No mowing yet). Wonder if it will catch on.
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We did no mow May last year. I leave leaves alone. Plant lots of native. Have a compost bin with a lid that locks on with a twist. There’s some critter that comes from below and eats some of the fresh stuff, but that doesn’t bother me particularly. We reuse take out containers and recycle them when they break. More and more places are using cardboard containers. Now if I could just get my husband to remember to tell people when we do takeout that we don’t want the plastic silverware!
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