Imagine walking through a home designed to show you exactly how to reduce waste, room by room. That’s the idea behind La Casa Zero Waste, which CalRecycle showcased in a Los Angeles home in April 2026. And the good news? You can apply these same lessons in your own home, starting today.
The Day Focused on Two Simple Habits
The day’s event, La Casa Zero Waste, focused on two simple habits with the biggest environmental impact. The first action is simple: place food scraps in your curbside green bin instead of the trash (check your local program requirements). Those food scraps and other green bin materials collected through curbside programs become compost for California farms and gardens, nourishing our soils and creating a healthy environment, instead of taking up landfill space. And here’s a pro tip: when you cook the entire product, like turning citrus peels into Agua Fresca, vegetable stems into stocks, or stale tortillas into chilaquiles, you reduce waste even further. Want to reduce trips to the green bin? Use a countertop compost bin or freeze food scraps to reduce odors, then add them to the curbside green bin on pickup day.
The second action is equally powerful: save eligible beverage containers and redeem them for California Redemption Value (CRV). Returning eligible bottles and cans to a recycling site not only helps keep valuable materials in circulation and reduce litter, but also puts money back into Californians’ pockets. It’s easy to see why Californians redeemed an average of more than 400 containers per person in 2023 alone. You get your money back, and materials get recycled. Win-win.
Ways to Make Positive Changes Throughout the Home
Beyond these two core actions, La Casa Zero Waste at Home also featured other small habits to try throughout your home:
In your bathroom: Make DIY cleaners from baking soda, vinegar, and those citrus peels you saved. Switch to soap bars and toothpaste tablets instead of products in single-use bottles.
In your bedroom: Repair broken zippers and buttons, host a clothes swap with friends, or donate gently used items to give them a second life instead of discarding them.
Imagine walking through a home designed to show you exactly how to reduce waste, room by room. That’s the idea behind La Casa Zero Waste, which CalRecycle showcased in a Los Angeles home in April 2026. And the good news? You can apply these same lessons in your own home, starting today.
The Day Focused on Two Simple Habits
The day’s event, La Casa Zero Waste, focused on two simple habits with the biggest environmental impact. The first action is simple: place food scraps in your curbside green bin instead of the trash (check your local program requirements). Those food scraps and other green bin materials collected through curbside programs become compost for California farms and gardens, nourishing our soils and creating a healthy environment, instead of taking up landfill space. And here’s a pro tip: when you cook the entire product, like turning citrus peels into Agua Fresca, vegetable stems into stocks, or stale tortillas into chilaquiles, you reduce waste even further. Want to reduce trips to the green bin? Use a countertop compost bin or freeze food scraps to reduce odors, then add them to the curbside green bin on pickup day.
The second action is equally powerful: save eligible beverage containers and redeem them for California Redemption Value (CRV). Returning eligible bottles and cans to a recycling site not only helps keep valuable materials in circulation and reduce litter, but also puts money back into Californians’ pockets. It’s easy to see why Californians redeemed an average of more than 400 containers per person in 2023 alone. You get your money back, and materials get recycled. Win-win.
Ways to Make Positive Changes Throughout the Home
Beyond these two core actions, La Casa Zero Waste at Home also featured other small habits to try throughout your home:
Ready to get started?
This week, choose one action. Start collecting your eligible CRV beverage containers for redemption at a recycling site or make it a habit to place food scraps in your curbside green bin. Once those become habits, add one more from another room in your home.