On May 1, South Orange resident Marcia LeBeau opened her mailbox to find an eco-friendly tip book inside Matters Magazine. The leaflet protruding from the pages was the Home Eco-Guide.

About 16,000 copies of the six-page booklet were mailed to every resident in the two towns of South Orange and Maplewood, free of charge. Another 4,000 copies were printed to be distributed to businesses around town. The Eco-Guide was primarily intended for new environmentalists, but many other people found the tips to be useful as well.

The author recommends tips to reduce food waste including packaging of food. The guide says to keep track of leftovers and store the oldest food in the front of the fridge to avoid forgetting them. Another recommended tip is to measure serving sizes to prevent food waste from over serving.

LeBeau said she had already implemented some of the tips like using less paper when she received the guide, but she still “read it cover to cover.”

“It was great,” she said. LeBeau said the guide pushed her to get the information she wanted, but wouldn’t take extra time to seek out herself, like stormwater mitigation.

The guide's author, Georgia Madiba of the South Orange Green Team, intentionally wrote the booklet in plain language to appeal to people who don’t typically engage with environmental sustainability. The illustration and design of the guide by Helene McKelvey-McLaughlin makes the booklet seem less like a technical manual and more like a magazine list of tips and tricks.

The author coordinated with a handful of organizations to produce and distribute the Home Eco-Guide. Madiba conceived the project to satisfy an internship requirement of the Rutgers Environmental Stewards certification program, but she hopes to impact environmental mindfulness as part of the South Orange Environmental Commission and Green Team, a voluntary environmental commission and open environmental volunteer organization.

Another South Orange resident, Barbara Nash, believes environmental sustainability is an everyday issue, especially water quality. She said she worries about friends dealing with wildfires in California and the future of her three grandchildren.

Nash said the tip about collecting water in a rain barrel brought back childhood memories of her mother collecting water. The guide said using a rain barrel can prevent pollutants from entering the watershed through ground water runoff.

Nash continues generational care for the environment by passing Madiba’s guide to her grandchildren to bring to school in another New Jersey county. She encouraged her grandchildren to “share good things to spread the good.”

Nash is not the only New Jersey resident “spreading the good.” Sponsor Tracey Stephens of EcoSmart Kitchen and Bath Designs said she passed the guide on to her clients.

She said she valued the guide because “so many tips can become daily habits.” Stephens, whose business is built on environmental sustainability, said the guide reminded her to opt out of junk mail.

“Recycling is important, but not more important than reducing the waste in the first place,” said Stephens. She has even committed to using beeswax fabric instead of single-use plastics.

Although printing the guide in addition to its digital publication seems counterintuitive to reducing waste, Madiba said she hopes the guide’s modest impact will outweigh its paper use.

The guide is made from recycled materials. Madiba chose to keep the paper non-glossy in an effort to retain its recyclability. She intended the heavy stock paper to reflect its value as a reference material.

Madiba expects to assess the guide's effects through qualitative data collected by a survey. She will submit an impact report to the Environmental Stewards program to complete her certificate.

“The goal isn’t for everyone to act on every listed tip, that’s not realistic for now,” said Madiba “but if everyone took one or more actions, collectively, it makes a big impact."