How to clean out an item you want to throw away for recycling without wasting water

In the city which I live in all recyclable waste can be thrown into a separate bin for pickup just as the garbage is.
All the regular recyclable material we buy and use we dispose of in the recycling bin before being trucked away twice a month by the municipal service in our city.

So as it is I throw regular recyclable waste as well as anything that can be recycled and not in use. But sometimes a disposable product requires washing especially if it carries liquid such as a shampoo bottle or a soap bottle.
I had to dispose of such items as well a small plastic ink bottle once but they required washing out before being thrown into a dry waste bin.

So I decided when I was showering I would use the shower water to rinse out the liquid from the recyclable bottle. That way no extra water would be used. The water already flowing out of the shower and being used for bathing can also be poured into the bottle and clean it out. This way no extra water is used to clean out a plastic bottle before disposing of it.

I urge everyone to use this method to help conserve precious water.

Buy recycled paper

When buying blank paper for printing and/or lined paper for writing try to buy recycled paper as pictured above if your store has any. Using recycled products helps reduce resource consumption and waste production.

Think green, live green

Even if you are not taking care of wild animals or directly contributing to the preservation of wild species, there still many useful suggestions for how you can generally help preserve the environment:

Making use of your old clothes

Some people give away their old clothes that are torn and scratched to charity. I prefer sleeping in my old clothes compared to thin pajamas as my clothes are thicker and warmer.

Sometimes at home I wear my old/torn clothes but just inside the house because I don't want to spoil or dirty my formal clothes. By making use of your old/torn clothes you don't have to throw them away and unnecessarily produce waste until they are really unusable.

At other occasions you can use your old clothes when doing messy work such as painting or cleaning a certain place. You can also use them when cooking so any spilled or frying food comes at your already dirty/used clothes.

Using computers for distributing/collecting assignments instead of paper

This may be something for teachers to look into. Instead of students receiving handouts/assignments on paper, students can receive them online via computer and also send them once finished back online.

This could reduce the consumption of paper resources. I understand that data on computer takes up hard disc space but hard disc space can contain much more data than paper. Additionally once data is used on hard disc it can be deleted clean, unlike paper which needs to be recycled and cannot be used again the same way.

Some university professors do require/accept assignments returned online.

If this practice was more common it would significantly help the environment and conserve resources.

Using magiboards and blackboards for public demonstrations instead of placards

For those who are politically active and take part in public demonstrations- especially environmentalists, a great way to post public messages in demonstrations is to stop using placards which take up paper resources. Typical usage of placards for public demonstrations pictured below:

Using a placard only allows a message to be written once. But by using a magiboard or blackboard to display a message, you can erase it and use it again and again. This will also reduce paper resource consumption as well as costs.

Using hand dryers in public washrooms instead of paper towels

Many public washrooms in countries all over the world have hand drying machines for people to use after washing their hands to dry on as the one pictured below:

People using the public washrooms usually have the option of drying their hands by using a piece of paper towel and disposing it in the trash bin or using a hand drying machine. By using a hand drying machine, you don't use a tissue paper and by doing that you don't produce waste.

So the next time you're in a washroom, use a hand dryer if there is one instead of a paper towel and think of how you're helping the environment even in a small way.