Happy Earth Day, everyone! I hope you are reading this on an energy efficient computer monitor, in the light of natural sun or those funny looking twelve-dollar light bulbs!
It’s been about a year or so since I decided to start doing my part to take care of our planet. I started with many small and easy changes, because I am lazy by nature and I always attack problems from the easy and most convenient avenue. Here’s what I’ve done so far:
I replaced my garbage can with two matching containers, one for regular garbage and one for recyclables. (I know you just had a stroke because I hadn’t already done that, but we all have to start somewhere.) I thought I was a fair recycler before doing this, but this one step has made recycling so much easier for me. Before doing this, I would have to walk the recyclable item out into the garage, around the car and put it in the blue recycling bin. Which is why, on many occasions, I accidentally just threw the item into the regular garbage because I hate going into the garage with no shoes on and in the dark.
I have purchased cloth shopping bags that I keep with me at all times. I use them anytime I shop, and especially for grocery shopping. I’m not sure if grocery stores are on a mission to suffocate the planet, but have you noticed how they put about two things in every plastic bag? What gives, grocery stores? I can usually fit all of my groceries in my five reusable bags. I am looking forward to the day when the grocery checker doesn’t seem totally baffled when I say that I have my own bags.
I turn the water off while brushing my teeth, and you have no idea how hard that is for me. I love the sound of rushing water while scrubbing my molars.
I try to consolidate errands. When I get in the car to go somewhere, I try to think of anywhere else I might need to go while I’m on the way. Thankfully, Target is almost always on the way.
I have slowly been replacing our regular bulbs with energy efficient bulbs, even though they take a while to light up and give off a strange color. That’s how much I love my planet–I’m willing to appear ashen and gray just for her!
I wash all my laundry in cold, and I wear all of my jeans twice before throwing them in the hamper. If my butt looks big it’s just because the fabric is stretched out. I’m helping the planet, people!
OK, those were the easy ones. I’m ready to add some slightly more difficult changes to my life. For one thing, I have been noticing the recent information about water bottles and the crazy wastefulness of them. I usually have a nice stash of (flavored) water bottles in my fridge, and letting them go will be difficult, but I can probably do it. With the help of some processed snacks in heavy plastic packaging.
I also have decided that I will install a clothesline at my new home because it is a better way to dry our clothes. And also because I have a romantic fantasy about hanging white sheets on a clothesline in a healthy breeze while my dear husband shows up unexpectedly home from the war. (Or the university.)
I also have a commitment to local food. I am going to make a goal of patronizing local farmer’s markets. Is there a better way to spend a Saturday morning?
I am going to live on less. Even though Oprah told me to do it and she is a big fat hypocrite, I am going to do more with less. (And if I wasn’t moving across the country, I would also do more with Les, my sister.)
And finally, I am going to take the creative challenge of the second of the three Rs—reuse. Before disposing of anything, I am going to ask myself if it could be used for any other purpose. Why buy tupperware when a cool whip container can do the same thing? And why throw away Happy Meal toys when they can be launched over the fence to maim the neighbor’s chickens?
Yay for Earth! Every step counts.
I gave up bottled water + bottled juicy drinks about a year ago, and I still occasionally have a sharp pain when I pass my very favorite Lemonade Vitamin Water in the store without purchasing it… but boy, it sure feels better not to have those plastic bottles around.
Once the liquid inside is gone, they just sit there and stare at you, and they silently whisper: landfill, baby. Landfill.
Happy Earth Day! Does my butt look big? Good, I am helping our planet. So many good ideas, my favorite being the romantic one where you husband shows up from the University.
wish I had time to blog about Earth Day but everyone seems to be putting all their good ideas out there so I probably wouldn’t have much to add. Except that I seriously hate clothes-lined dried clothes. Okay, mostly just towels. We had a clothes line in our basement to save energy and also because my dad had some nostalgic attachment to stiff, scratchy towels from his childhood. Unfortunately I developed a love for soft, fluffy towels straight from the evil dryer. [sigh] But I try in many, many other ways. And one thing I have not been seeing out there in the blogosphere is the importance of not littering and that you can actually help not only by not littering yourself but by participating in clean-ups. It’s spring, there are lots of them around. Ok, I should just write my own post instead of babbling on yours. Good job. The grocery bag and no bottled water are probably my two best habits – aside from not littering
I can honestly say that every time I pick up a piece of someone else’s trash on the street, the act is directly preceded by the phrase “Don’t Waste Utah” resonating in my brain. Those were some pretty awesome commercials to be affecting me so profoundly 18 years later.
Well, I don’t see a whole lot I can do as 15 (ALMOST 16!) year-old (you know, as far as the reusable shopping bags and such), but I’m sure there are still some things I can do. This is a pretty worthless comment but I had to say that I’m still laughing about the Happy Meal toy comment. Seriously, that’s gotta be one of the funniest things I’ve ever heard. It definitely ranks right up there with “I could beat the crap out of her” if you know what I mean.
Tiffany, you crack me up. So much so that you will instantly, and without any real thought on the matter, earn a place on my google reader.
Did you find me through Tib? Please say no. Just once I’d like to have something happen to me involving the internet that didn’t start through Tib. It makes me feel like such a poser.
p.s. Sleeping on sheets dried on the line is like sleeping between a piece of cardboard and a piece of sandpaper. have fun with that.
p.p.s. I’m sure re-using is a good thing, but having grown up with a hoarder of a mother, I swore never to re-use. That decision was solidified when I saw her washing maxi pads in the washing machine. Ew.