Attention: All homebodies, couch-potatoes, and outlet store kings and queens. It's the perfect time to be attentive to reducing your waste (Your waist may need reducing too, but that's a subject I won't touch.) This type of waste reduction is good for public health, as well as the financial health of [insert local information].

Packaging is one of the chief contributors to California's, and the nation's, waste management dilemma. It accounts for a least a third of the volume of America's trash. Much packaging has valid uses. But much of it also is completely frivolous with no real functional value. Many products, for example, are sold in packaging that has no basic purpose other than to attract attention or make the product appear larger. The volume of this waste is frequently, and amazingly, excessive.

Excessive packaging practices are not only wasteful and environmentally unsound, but also costly, to you, the typical consumer. The Environmental Defense Fund notes that $1 of every $10 we spend on food, for example, pays for packaging. When evaluating which of several products to buy, a cost-conscious and environmentally careful shopper should therefore consider the product's packaging characteristics before buying.

Several terms have been coined to describe this "stop waste before it happens" approach. The terms are "waste prevention" and "precycling." These terms refer to how shoppers should think about their purchasing decisions: avoid overpackaged, disposable, and nonreusable or nonrecyclable products. Avoid, avoid, avoid, avoid.

If enough shoppers eschew mispackaged and overly packaged goods, manufacturers will eventually get the message that something's wrong with their products and modify them if they want to stay in business. And, whenever it's possible (such as in locally owned stores), shoppers can tell their retailer how a product's packaging affects their purchasing preferences. If enough people do this, stocking patterns will change, and your community will be doing its part to better the world we live in.

In addition, shoppers can decline bags in which to carry their purchases whenever they can handle the purchases without them (carrying a canvas tote or a previously acquired shopping bag is helpful).

When packaging cannot be avoided, its recyclability should be considered. To recycle corrugated boxes -- boxes contracted into parallel grooves for added strength -- remove all packing materials and flatten them before placing them on the curb for pickup. Noncorrugated boxes such as those for food, shoes and holiday gifts may be put in with recyclable paper.

Avoidance or reduction of waste is the highest form of recycling in the broadest sense: it keeps resources out of the waste stream and in the "useful stream." Consumers should keep this in mind when making everyday purchasing decisions.