making sustainability simple and second nature
Zero Waste Resources
“What do I do with…?” We field a lot of questions that start with: “What do I do with…?”. Here we highlight some local resources for recycling items that can’t go in our Lexington curbside bins and might not be listed on the Town’s recycling web page. Do you know of a reuse or recycling resource …
Learn MoreZeroToGo Reusable Takeout
ZeroToGo ™ is a FREE pilot program for reusable takeout intended to significantly reduce the use of single-use plastic containers. Nearly 1 trillion disposable food service products are used each year in the United States, resulting in 7.5 million tons of waste. ZeroToGo promotes a culture of reuse over a culture of throwaway, single-use. We …
Learn MoreTextile Waste Resource Page
U.S. Impact The average American purchases 53 items of clothing a year. The current amount of clothes purchased is four times higher than in 2000. 65% of new garments are discarded within 12 months of purchase. The Ecology of Fashion.The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA,November 16, 2024–August 31, 2025. Massachusetts Impact …
Learn MoreUpcoming Events
Get ready for the 10/4 Costume Swap! Drop your unwanted costumes in one of the bins at the Lexington Community Center at 39 Marrett Rd. or at the Hayden Recreation Center at 24 Lincoln St.
Early drop-off helps us organize the costumes in advance of the event.
Beijing Dining will begin ZeroToGo reusable takeout service starting Oct. 1st. To begin your zero-waste meal at Beijing (or any of our ZeroToGo sites), simply register with us and Download the Recirclable app. Then call in your takeout order and tell them you want your food “ZeroToGo”!
- LexZeroWaste is partnering with LexFun to host a Halloween Costume Swap! Visit the East Village Fair to trade up for costumes (that fit better or are just more interesting!). Save some money and have fun choosing a new costume for Halloween. Everyone is welcome to participate: you can swap OR shop. Or volunteer! We’re looking for volunteers to help before, during and after the event. If you have costumes to swap, you may drop them off at the Community Center or Hayden Recreation Center starting September 10.
WIth LexFarm and Cary memorial Library, LZW is sponsoring a zero waste cooking demonstration by Jenny Devivo in the LexFarm geodome.
Jenny is a chef, educator, and food advocate whose mission is rooted in one powerful belief: food is love, and giving is powerful. She’ll demonstrate how to cook with farm-fresh ingredients and move toward zero-waste cooking at home. Learn her tips, tricks, and recipes for prepping, storing, and cooking to get the most out of your CSA haul, grocery trip, and all those fridge finds you hate seeing go to waste. Free Registration; space is limited!
Have fun smashing your pumpkins! Afterwards, smashed pumpkins are composted by Black Earth. Composting pumpkins reduces waste and creates a valuable supplement for our soils. Sponsored by Lexington Green Teams.
News & Events
Beijing Chinese Dining Joins ZeroToGo
Starting October 1, LexZeroWaste is pleased to announce that Beijing Chinese Dining at 1709 Mass. Ave in Lexington Center will launch its participation in the ZeroToGo program! ZeroToGo began in the spring of 2023 with one Lexington restaurant, Royal India Bistro. Then Revival Café joined the program in February. LexZeroWaste partners with Arlington-based Recirclable LLC to track the use of our stainless steel reusable containers. With more restaurants joining in, it’s easier than ever to enjoy takeout without the throwaway waste.
If you haven’t tried ZeroToGo, it’s simple (and free).
Register here and download the Recirclable app, and then
place your order ZeroToGo at any of the participating restaurants.
News & Events
Bags at the Farmer’s Market
LexZeroWaste is all about reducing waste in our lives. And Plastics in particular. Shopping at the Farmer’s Market is not just a great way to support local producers, but it is also a good way to shop for products with less packaging.
The first week of August we handed out cotton mesh, reusable produce bags at the Lexington Farmers Market to the first 300 people to arrive. These bags can be washed and reused over and over and keep veggies fresh longer.
We have also provided 3000 compostable bags to the four farms at the Market to use during August to reduce their reliance on plastic produce bags. When you are done using these green produce bags, they may be added to your curbside Black Earth compost.
If you missed our free give-away, we encourage you to reuse produce bags that you have, and remember to bring your own grocery bags whenever and wherever you shop!
News & Events
New Textiles Working Group
New Working Group starts mending sessions to encourage re-use and repair in the face of our problem with textile waste.
News & Events
“Plastic People” Film Screening
Join us for a screening of the “Plastic People: The Hidden Crisis of Microplastics”.
Tues., April 29
7:00 – 9:00 pm
Lexington Venue
1794 Mass. Ave
Plastic People is an award-winning feature documentary that chronicles humanity’s fraught relationship with plastic and one woman’s mission to expose shocking new revelations about the impact of microplastics on human health. Winner of the Environmental Award at the Hamptons Doc Fest and the Jury Prize at the Filme für die Erde Festival in Switzerland (plasticpeopledoc.com). A discussion will follow with Dr. Philip Landrigan.
Philip J. Landrigan, MD, MSc is a pediatrician and epidemiologist, board-certified in the specialties of pediatrics, general preventive medicine, and occupational & environmental medicine. He is a Professor at Boston College, where he directs the Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good and the Global Observatory on Planetary Health.
Film runs for 84 mins. Director: Ben Addelman, Co-Director & Science Journalist: Ziya Tong
Attendance is on a first-come basis.
Presented in partnership with Climate Action Team – First Parish in Lexington UU, LexCAN, LexZeroWaste, the Lexington Venue and Cary Memorial Library.
News & Events
Revival Café Joins ZeroToGo
LexZeroWaste would like to thank Royal India Bistro and all the participating diners and LexZeroWaste members who helped launch our reusable takeout pilot program ZeroToGo in 2023, and who have successfully diverted over 2500 containers from incineration and landfill so far!
Along with Royal India Bistro continuing its participation in ZeroToGo this year, we are thrilled to announce that Revival Café will launch its participation at its Lexington location in late February! We are also excited to continue our partnership with the Arlington-based container-tracking service Recirclable, LLC for this next phase of the ZeroToGo pilot program.
Please let us know if you plan to use ZeroToGo this year by registering with LexZeroWaste below. The next phase of the pilot program will continue to measure total plastic reduction as a result of reuse, so be sure to take advantage of the ZeroToGo program at both restaurants!
News & Events
Are you Wish-cycling?
Wish-cycling is the practice of placing items into recycling bins that cannot be recycled. It stems from the best intentions. You wish or hope that something you’ve bought or use regularly can be recycled. We all like to feel good about our recycling efforts, so much so that perhaps we feel good when our recycling bin is full. But as this video shows, putting cartons and bags in our recycling bins only causes more work for the sorting facilities by tangling their machinery and generating trash.
Common recycling mistakes can cause big problems (youtube.com)
Massachusetts has created a Recycle Smart widget that can help you when you are not sure what to do with an item.
And we can tell you about the items that are filling the wish cycling sculpture on the lawn of the Munroe Center for Arts, located at 1403 Massachusetts Ave., Lexington.
Milk, juice, broth cartons, and frozen food boxes are not recyclable. Such cartons and boxes contain a plastic coating that can’t be separated from the paper base.
Chip and snack bags are not recyclable. Plastic bags tangle the sorting machinery.
Black plastic food containers are not recyclable. Recycling facilities sort plastics by bouncing a beam of light off them. Since black plastic absorbs light, it can’t be sorted so it is sent for disposal.
If you don’t feel great about trashing these items, there are alternatives. Milk, juice and broth can be purchased packaged in other containers. LexZeroWaste is asking more restaurants to participate in our ZeroToGo program that uses reusable take-out containers. As for chips, well you know the alternative already: veggies, nuts and fruit for snacks instead…