Compost piles are great ways to recycle food scraps so they can be reused. Compost can be used to improve the quality of gardening soils or can be used to feed chickens in an environmentally-friendly way. My cousins own a dozen chickens, and they reuse their food scraps as food for the chickens. Also during the summers, they rarely use their AC unit to conserve energy and to reduce their carbon footprint. Their entire town is walking distance from their house so they try not to use their car. Most of their neighbors grow and sell their own crops right from their backyard as well.

This sounds like a great idea about the air conditioning and using cars less, but in bigger cities that tend to get very hot or very cold during summer and winter I don't think these methods could be put into use. Lots of people in the US cannot walk to their jobs or to the grocery store. My own mom has to drive 45 minutes to work every morning. Also it gets extremely hot during the summer in some part of the US and it would be very miserable if not impossible to not use air conditioning.

Maybe they can start small, like turning off their AC while at work or away on vacation.

While this is a great idea for recycling materials, however when your cousins eat meals with chicken or eggs, what do they do with the scraps? You said that they reuse their food scraps as chicken food, so do they feed chicken to their chickens?

They did at first but the chickens started to eat their eggs and the egg scraps had to be taken out. If anyone is planning to do this, please don't forget to take out any chicken scraps.

Compost piles are great ways to reuse and repurpose. Composting as opposed to throwing away trash helps in many ways. One way, relating to our carbon footprint, is the emission of greenhouse gases. The decomposition of trash in landfills produces methane. Methane is very efficient at trapping heat. Thus, landfills have become a significant sources of man-made greenhouse gases. By composting, we create a soil that is filled with nutrients and very healthy for plants. Compost is also a great alternative for chemical fertilizers.

Using cars less is also a great way to reduce carbon footprint. Most people use their car to go to places for pleasure. If we can simply walk or use public transportation, we would cut our carbon footprint greatly. As Ashleigh S (USA) stated, most people live in big cities and do not live close to certain places. A great way for these people to use transportation would be public transportation or carpooling.

I would love to see how your cousins carbon footprint compare to someone such as me who does not recycle as much and uses their car a lot.