About 9 cents of every dollar you spend goes to pay for the packaging around the products you buy. And this packaging is no small matter: It makes up about one-third of all wa... read full tip

About 9 cents of every dollar you spend goes to pay for the packaging around the products you buy. And this packaging is no small matter: It makes up about one-third of all waste generated.

So, if you have the option, try to minimize the packaging you buy. Choose products that are loosely packed, instead of buying the individually wrapped or pre-measured variety of the same product. Per ounce, single-servings can be 50 percent more expensive and may generate more than twice the amount of waste as products packaged in bulk. You could save more than $50 annually by avoiding single-serving food items.

If every household replaced just one 16 oz. package of individually wrapped crackers with a 16 oz. box of crackers packed loosely, more than 22 million pounds of packaging waste could be saved-enough to pack the entire volume of the White House from floor to ceiling.

University of Florida (PDF)