Many of us use our backyard grill for cooking during the warmer months. But as you cook up burgers and chicken wings, you’re leaving grease and food traces behind that are enticing to small animals like mice. To prevent mice from invading your grill, cover grill holes that they can enter with screening or even just painter’s tape -- but be sure to remove it before you use the grill again. Be sure to clean the grease trap thoroughly each time to remove the smell of cooked food. There are also companies that make wire mesh covers designed to cover vents as well, which you can find at home improvement stores or online.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the most common item in landfills is discarded food, most of it perfectly edible. Because of the “cult of perfection,” or the desire for fruits and vegetables to look perfect in order to purchase them, almost half of imperfect produce -- think weirdly shaped apples or too-short bananas -- are tossed because its believed consumers won’t purchase them. To shift this attitude, consider buying imperfect produce at the store. It is just the same in quality; it just looks different.

Today, newspapers are made primarily from recycled paper; 20 years ago, only 10 percent of a newspaper's overall content was actually recycled, according to Waste Management. This uptick in recycled content means the fiber strands in newspaper are weaker, so they can be recycled into only a few new products, like insulation, cereal boxes and newspapers. But one product that is gaining ground is called hydro-seeding. It’s a slurry of newsprint and seeds, which are sprayed all over hillsides and used by highway departments to quickly create wildflower fields. So, when you’re done with the Sunday paper, recycle it and help beautify America.