One of the greatest things we can do as consumers is reduce our e-waste generation. This means finding ways to not do things that generate e-waste whenever possible. While this website focuses on reducing password e-waste by providing easy, free recycling for your bytes, there are many ways that each of us can reduce e-waste before it even happens by not generating wasteful digital information.

Here are some useful tips to help you reduce your e-waste generation.

• Instead of creating a new draft of that document, consider whether you will really use it. I mean, when are you really going to use that resume version tailored to your skills as a guinea pig shampoo specialist? Just send in the old resume instead!
• When on a new website, ask yourself if you really need to create an account. I mean, you are just on there to read the forum, and there is no chance you are actually going to contribute. Just keep lurking and avoid creating an account that you will later discard.
• Thinking of protecting that data with a password? Think again! What is going to happen when you have to change that password later? While passwords can generally be recycled, many people forget so it's better to just avoid creating unnecessary passwords in the first place.
• Are you taking a lot of photos that you just end up going through and deleting later? Stop it! Take more time setting up each photo so you take as few photos as you possibly can.

Conventional wisdom says you should never reuse passwords. Well, conventional wisdom is what got us into the mess we are in right now! People creating new passwords left and right, and not recycling them, generating unmeasurable amounts of e-waste every second.

You should reuse passwords as much as you can. Try to get at least 5-10 uses out of every password before recycling it. This will reduce the need to create new passwords and will cut down on your e-waste generation.