There are many great ways to keep clothes, including unwearable clothes, out of the landfill. A list of organizations that need usable clothes is available at: www.cuyahogarecycles.org/clothing H&M gives 15% off the next purchased item for each bag of clothes donated, any brand and any condition. Nike collects worn out athletic shoes to recycle into athletic and playground surfaces as well as Nike products (see https://www.nike.com/help/a/recycle-shoes ). This article has ways to upcycle unwearable clothes to create makeup removal pads, reusable food wraps, cushion covers, no-sew pillow cases, headbands, reusable tissues and wipes, and reusable grocery bags: www.goodonyou.eco/7-creative-ways-to-upcycle-your-old-clothes

https://www.thekitchn.com/the-kitchns-ultimate-guide-for-using-up-every-type-of-food-82260Food is a significant part of landfill trash and is a burden for the water treatment system, but there are many ways to avoid this. Unusable scraps can be composted in your backyard or the Rustbelt Riders bin in the church parking lot (sign up at Compost Drop Off — Rust Belt Riders: Feed People, Not Landfills ), as featured in the last two newsletters. What about usable food? There is a fun website to find recipes to use up ingredients you may have left over after preparing food. You enter a protein, vegetable, and grain and it provides many recipes using those ingredients for preparing breakfast, lunch, and dinner: https://www.bigoven.com/recipes/leftover This website also has a lot of great ideas on how to use up food: https://www.thekitchn.com/the-kitchns-ultimate-guide-for-using-up-every-type-of-food-82260

This website has meal planning calculators to avoid food waste: NRDC Meal Prep Mate https://savethefood.com/meal-prep-mate/

Are you interested in joining a group that works on projects to help the environment? The Unitarian Universalist Ministry for the Earth (UUMFE) meets the second Sunday of every month after church and coffee hour on Zoom. Contact Pam Schenk (pamelajschenk@gmail.com) if you would like to attend.

-UU Ministry for the Earth.