One of the largest contributors to the excessive amounts of carbon emissions in the world is our needless waste productions, and the manufacturing of new materials on a global scale. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, carbon dioxide is a by-product of waste incineration. It states, "In 2005, EPA's Waste Reduction Model carbon dioxide as (WARM) showed that GHGs equivalent to 99 million metric tons of CO2 were released as a consequence of discarded packaging alone. It would take almost 83 million acres of pine or fir forest one year to store that much carbon." Also, "Materials that are disposed in landfills must be replaced by new products manufactured from raw materials. Extraction of raw materials and manufacturing activities to new products requires fossil fuel combustion." By not disposing of so many materials that could potentially be reused or recycled, we can decrease our carbon footprints by minimizing our waste production. This directly correlates to manufacturing. If recyclable items aren't disposed of as often, then the need to manuf acture more items will not be as great.
   Our plastic milk jugs are a small example of wasted recyclable items that could potentially make a big difference. http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/recycling/ … -milk-jugs gives us many examples of how we can reuse these jugs for both useful and creative purposes. Some ideas include: milk jug lanterns, watering cans, mini-greenhouse planters, jewelry boxes, piggy banks, and many more.

EPA source: http://www.epa.gov/region4/rcra/mgtoolk … hange.html