There's not a lot of waste involved with the big moving day. Or is there? All those brand spankin' new cardboard boxes, filled with packing foam and peanuts to keep your stuff together, and sealed with tape, isn't exactly low impact. And if you're going long-haul, think about how much pollution that truck is creating, in addition to all your cars.
For our move we made things very simple. Kelly's parents moved just before us, so there were more boxes to hand down to us than we could actually use. And our boxes? They're going to Kelly's sister next, who will be moving shortly. Instead of getting brand new packing material (many brands of which are not biodegradable), we used our clothes. T-shirts for dishes, towels for larger glass, more towels for wrapping up fragile furniture, stuffing boxes with more shirts. This not only reduces your packing costs, but it also gets your clothes from point A to point B. Our cost for packing materials - about $5 for packing tape. Couldn't get around that one. Try to find used boxes if at all possible. My work goes through a lot of cardboard boxes, some of which I snagged for Kelly's parents (and which ended up coming back to me). If you can go to a recycling center, they also have large stockpiles of boxes. Or if you plan ahead, go to grocery stores right after stocking. You can get a lot of great boxes this way. And re-use or donate them when done. If you must buy new boxes, make sure they're recycled, like the one's Home Depot sells.
If you really want to go green, consider renting your moving supplies. There is a company that uses recycled plastic boxes that self seal and are easily stackable. They come in different sizes for your needs and are even delivered to you by trucks that run on bio-diesel. Really cool!
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