Jun 26
Save the World
Posted by tata on Thursday Jun 26, 2008 Under GreenI’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):
- Article: Consumption by the numbers
- Video: Guide to responsible consumption
- Find nationwide information on recycling @ Earth911
- Learn: How to compost
- Bucket of Boogers - Make your own laundry detergent
- Article: 10 ways to go green and save green
- Howstuffworks: Ten Things You can do to help Save the Earth
- Website: Planet Green on Discovery
- Website: Treehugger
- Get involved: Carbonrally
- Energy audit tool: The Home Energy Saver
- Find locally produced food @ Local Harvest
- Calculate Your CarbonFootprint and
- Learn how to Reduce Your CarbonFootprint
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!
August 10th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
This is a great post, thanks for letting me know about it! I couldn't use the cloth diapers either. I think as long as you try to do some things or make an effort then you are doing great. It is hard to do everything right, just the effort & thought makes a difference!
July 1st, 2008 at 2:50 am
I have been recyclying my butt off since we moved here! I recycle plastic and paper and cardboard and sometimes glass and aluminum. I also use reuseable grocery bags. We do not use paper towels or napkins, which I have never kept on hand because I am a tree lover.
I am also good at keeping lights off.
You have alot of good suggestions!! Oh, and we have severely minimized our driving, if there is one good thing about the high cost of gas it’s what it might do to benefit the environment!
OH I SOOOO want a clothes line! Our dryer sucks, actually I think it’s the wiring in this old house (base house, so I can’t do anything about it) it takes my dryer THREE cycles to dry! I hate it. I really think I am going to rig up a clothes line in my yard.
anyway, thanks for this post!!! It made me think more about what I can do!
June 27th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
Awesome! You too, BHF. I think I might post my “green” list on my blog. If someone just happens to stroll by and read it, maybe they’ll be encouraged to make a few changes. Every little bit helps.
June 27th, 2008 at 3:11 am
Dayum Tata, your blog is all pro now.
Thats awesome.. you are leaps ahead of me on a a few things even-which has to be loads harder to do in an Apt.
I put Rory in cloth at home, and from the time once she was one,she poo trained really early- and after she poo trained we stuck with disp for bedtime if at all.
- You might be surprised how switching to cloth can help potty training come faster
-There are low flow shower heads thats aren’t “slow flo”misty crap shower heads– so I have heard ,at least. I dunno how they compare water wise to the crappy ones tho. not even sure what mine is LOL.
You could(if you haven’t) get a newer sink faucet thats lower flow (but still has good spray)..if you have an older model one they waste loads,but don’t push it like a newer.(made a difference for us).
- save up for the lights, its worth it if you pay electric.It saves us bunch each month.
- I still have occasional bottled water(getting rarer and rarer), but I reuse my bottles as much as i can, and then recycle.
-bout that, do they have a drop off in your area?? Might be hard to arrange or a distance-sigh - i am still looking for a place to drop off glass recycle cause they don’t pickup that.
- love making my own laundry detergent I have done it for like a year now. It has saved us.