Napkins. In America, we use almost exclusively paper napkins. You see the cloth napkins at fancy restaurants, or perhaps at holiday meals in people’s homes. During the rest of our day-to-day existence though, we largely use paper napkins, and those napkins are the result of many trees being cut down, and much emissions being emitted into the atmosphere to create them. On top of that, all these napkins create a lot of garbage.

So what to do? I know everybody isn’t going to stop using paper napkins, so Tip #2 is this: when grabbing napkins out at your average restaurant (McDonald’s to Denny’s, and everything in between), just take one! Many of us often take 2, 3, or maybe even more napkins before we sit down to eat, as we don’t want to have get up and get more, or ask for more, etc. The reality is though, that most times we end up not needing more than one, or maybe we need two, but not that 3 or 4+ that we grabbed. So the next time you go for the napkins at Mickey D’s, just grab one. If it isn’t enough, then go get another one after you’ve used up the first one. Only take what you need!

This helps in all the ways that I already mentioned (less trees felled, less pollution, garbage, etc.), but it also has this benefit – lower cost to you, the consumer! Though we often don’t think about anything besides the food, all those paper goods that the fast food restaurants have to burn through add up to large expenses, and those expenses are passed on to the consumer. So by lowering their paper goods costs, you lessen the likelihood that they have to raise prices on you again anytime soon. Business profit all amounts to revenue minus expenses. So if you can lower their expenses while their revenue remains the same or even rises, then their profit margin remains healthy, and you can continue to enjoy that Big Mac on the cheap.