Jun 26
Posted by tata on Thursday Jun 26, 2008 Under Green
I’ve been thinking about going greener a lot lately.
When I was a kid, when my shoes were damaged or my watch broke, we took the item(s) to be repaired. We didn’t throw them away and buy new ones. Nowadays, consumerism is promoting a disposable nation - from one-time use cameras to individually-wrapped cheese slices. The average American produces about 4 pounds of garbage per day. There are approximately 300 million people in our country. That’s a lot of garbage.
Here are some of the things we are doing to help protect the environment.
- We use cloth grocery bags and are pretty dern good at remembering to use them.
- Still nursing! No bottles or cans of formula. No BPAs, either.
- We buy a lot of household items in bulk (e.g. detergents, toilet paper, etc.).
- I purchase a lot of second-hand/used items (e.g. furniture, clothing, etc.).
- Recycle magazines.
- Shower every two days, very quickly and efficiently.
- Change air filters monthly.
- Cutting paper use by doing everything possible online (e.g. bill-paying, bank statements).
- Turning off lights when not in use.
- Turning off water while brushing teeth.
- Husband turns off the water while he scrubs in the shower. I’m not there yet.
- Turning my computer off at night.
- Using www.blackle.com instead of google. If you haven’t yet, you should check it out.
- Setting all PC screens to black whenever possible (e.g. my desktop wallpaper, blog, etc.).
- Using DivaCup instead of pads or tampons.
- Using cloth napkins instead of disposable ones or paper towels.
- I use services like FreeCycle and Cheapcycle to get rid of perfectly good items.
- We only wash clothes in cold water.
- Our windows are covered in plastic to help stop drafts/air leaks.
- Doors are sealed, too.
- Purchasing items without a lot of extra packaging.
Problem areas:
- I use disposable diapers. That ain’t gonna change ’til I get this boy potty-trained.
- I’ve been on a meat kick since getting pregnant with him. Lots of red meat.
- Waste reduction:
- We have no room to recycle and our complex doesn’t offer recycling, although while researching I found out that the city’s trucks do come by here. I will look into this more tomorrow.
- I’d also like to compost, but again, there is no place I can do this.
- I don’t go out much, but when I do, I drive. Even to the Rite-Aid that is within walking distance.
- I still have the occasional bottled water.
- Because I shower so infrequently, I refuse the low-flow shower head.
- I tried going ‘poo-free, but it was too high-maintenance. I still only use shampoo once every 10-14 days, which I think is pretty reasonable.
Areas of focus that will hopefully change soon:
- I can’t convince Husband that our water heater needs a blanket and I don’t have the ingenuity to do it myself. Yet.
- Cleaning the coils on the fridge every 6 months or so.
- No good light bulbs. Yet.
- All of our appliances are not EnergyStar appliances (nevermind that most of them don’t belong to us).
- When we finally get a house, I’m going to compost, recycle and garden.
- Making my own laundry detergent.
- Using a clothesline in the summer.
- Purchasing locally produced food items.
Some great info on consumption and going green(er):
And for those of you that live in this fair city, check out what’s happening locally:
If there are things you do to go green that haven’t been mentioned here or know of any relevant websites, articles, videos or tools, please post ‘em!
