We got new next-door neighbors, who haven't moved in yet, but have been working on updating the house for the past few weeks. On Saturday, my husband called me over to the window.

"She's washing out her paintbrushes with paint thinner ON THE GROUND!" I looked. Sure enough, our soon-to-be neighbor was pouring paint thinner all over her paintbrush, right into her yard, along with the paint from the brush. "What should we do?" he asked. What should we do? We didn't want our first encounter with our new neighbors to be us acting as the neighborhood eco-police, but we also didn't want paint thinner going into the ground that we plant food in.

"Maybe she doesn't know that that's not okay," I optimistically offered. It wouldn't surprise me. Take a look in a neighborhood dumpster. Chances are, people in your neighborhood are probably disposing of things that they shouldn't.

When my kids visited the landfill, their pre-trip lessons included one about BOATY. BOATY is an acronym to help consumers remember what shouldn't be disposed of with your regular household trash:

Batteries, in general, shouldn't go into the house. Newer alkaline batteries have 97% less mercury than they used to, so many landfills have lifted bans on alkaline batteries, but you should check with your local hazardous waste agency on how to dispose of these. Rechargeable batteries, particularly nickel-cadmium (NiCd), are a better choice than alkaline because they can be reused many times, but are identified as hazardous waste and should be recycled after they can no longer be charged. Automotive batteries should be recycled, and button cell batteries, such as those in hearing aids, should be disposed of as hazardous waste.

Oil and other hazardous household fluids (like paint thinner) have the potential to pollute groundwater and harm wildlife (think Exxon spill). The EPA estimates that 40% of spilled oil comes from consumers in their homes changing their own oil. The good news is that you can recycle used motor oil–fossil fuels are finite, right? AutoZone and Jiffy Lube both accept used motor oil for recycling. Other household fluids, like cleaning solutions, antifreeze, fertilizers, solvents, paint, and degreasers should be disposed of during hazardous waste pickup days. Most solid waste management departments have these once or twice a year, where your hazardous waste is picked up by your municipality and properly disposed of.

Appliances and e-waste take up a ton of space in our landfills. Roughly 10 million refrigerators are disposed of each year. Ahem, did you get that? TEN MILLION! Forty percent of those are salvaged and resold/reused, but the rest go to landfills. Those old fridges release refrigerants and insulating foams that aren't exactly eco-friendly (read: ozone depleting). How do we fix this problem? First of all, repair your appliances. Use them until they completely cash out and cannot be fixed. If you are dead set on buying something new (like an incredibly efficient refrigerator) make sure you aren't throwing away a perfectly good appliance by donating or selling your old appliance via Gigoit or Freecycle. Goodwill and the Salvation Army will accept many used appliances. E-waste, a growing problem in America due to constantly emerging technology and built-to-die products, Only 13% of the 20 million computers that became obsolete in 1998 were recycled, but discarded electronics contain cadmium, lead, and mercury, all extremely hazardous to humans. Thankfully, e-cycling programs are springing up all over the country–you can even get rebates and discounts from many retailers for trading in your used cell phone, computer, or printer cartridges. Try E-Cycling Central to find programs in your area.

Tires, until the 1960's, were almost all recycled. When oil (the material used to create synthetic rubber) became cheap and abundant and steel-belted tires came into prominence, that recycling almost completely shut down. Thankfully, our country has started recycling tires again, because their durability allows them to be recycled into a plethora of items. Tires are bad for landfills because they are large and bulky and the steel-belt can puncture the , the geotextile liners of landfills, leading to ground contamination. Tires can be recycled at almost any car dealer or tire service center, but it's worth checking around–some places charge a small fee to drop off tires. Those tires are turned into roads, playground surfaces, and athletic facilities, among other things.

Yard waste, such as leaves, grass clippings, branches and sticks, are high-volume and take up a lot of space in landfills. More importantly, yard waste is easily reused by consumers and communities. Hello, composting? Grass clippings are great natural fertilizer for your lawn, but can be composted, along with leaves and your home food waste, to create a rich fertilizer for your plants. Most communities collect extra yard waste, either in special bags for pick up, or in special dumpsters. That yard waste is turned into mulch and compost used throughout cities and towns, and often available to citizens. In my hometown of St. Louis, residents can pick up mulch and compost for free, which is awesome when getting your garden started in the spring (we're taking a trip next week!)

The best resource available to figure out how to reduce, reuse, or recycle your trash, or properly dispose of it, is Earth911. They have a wealth of information and can direct you to resources in your area to help you reduce and clean up your household solid and hazardous waste. The EPA's solid waste site is also good.

(What did we do with the neighbors? We walked up to the grocery store, bought them a six-pack of locally-brewed beer and stopped by to introduce ourselves. This weekend, we're going to offer to help them move in and properly dispose of the household hazardous waste associated with moving, cleaning, and refinishing their floors. Wish us luck!)

Conducting a waste audit is an excellent way for students and adults alike to realize how much “trash” is thrown away each day. My students and I, with the guidance and equipment of the lovely Katy Mike Smaistrla, Education Coordinator at the Earthways Center in St Louis, did a weeklong analysis of what is thrown away at our school, and the results provided awesome learning opportunities and project potential.

Long before the waste audit, which took place close to the end of the semester, my students went on a field trip to the Fred Weber landfill. There, they saw where our trash goes, how much space our metro community needs for its trash, and learned how a landfill is structured.

The waste audit itself took about a week. During that time, kids interviewed building officials, weighed and sorted classroom trash, and analyzed purchasing by the school. The counted copiers, students, fax machines, soda machines, printers, and dumpsters. Finally, they donned jumpsuits, gloves, and goggles and dove right into the dumpster to collect bags of trash, which were sorted into individual components and weighed.

Their findings were shocking. An overwhelmingly large amount of what we threw away can be reduced, reused, or recycled, and our school was doing none of that. We found blank paper in the trash, unopened snacks, and cardboard, paper, cans, and plastics that could easily be recycled. We found bagged yard waste, enormous amounts of styrofoam and disposable utensils, unopened sodas and snacks, and perfectly good books. Our Abitibi paper-recycling bin? Empty.

The students were now invested. They realized that they throw away a lot of stuff, and when they throw stuff away, it doesn’t disappear—it has to go somewhere. The next task was to create an implement a project that would, in some way, make our school more sustainable. Because the waste audit was fresh in the students minds, their projects focused on solid waste reduction and reusing.

In only a few shorts weeks, the students were able to start a school-wide paper recycling program, designed and run by students. They also designated one of the school computer printers as a “draft printer,” printing on the blank side of previously used paper. Finally, students are currently working on recycling 20oz plastic bottles (the plastic most commonly discarded at our school) through Terra Cycle. Teachers and students are working together to decrease our waste, and later in the spring, we will do another waste audit to measure the impact these projects are having.