In honor of Earth Day I thought I would share a few ways we are trying to live green. We fall short in many ways, but there are lots of easy things to do that make a difference.
But, before I get started, a picture:
1) Recycle - we started recycling in Charlottesville and have continued at our new home. In Cville you have to pay for every trash bag you set by the curb by placing a sticker on the bag, but recycling is free. At $1.25 a sticker, we started recycling as much as possible and cut down on our sticker usage tremendously. I thought this was a brilliant idea. You pay for what you dump. The less you dump the less you pay. What a great incentive. Once we were in the habit of recycling it was easy to continue. So much of what we use is recyclable - coke cans, milk jugs, baby food jars, cereal boxes, pasta boxes, newspaper - this list goes on and on.2) Rain Barrel - our new rain barrel is installed and is working great.
We had our first rain after installation last Monday night and the barrel was full by the time we awoke Tuesday morning. We have gotten a lot more rain since then but don't have enough room to store it all! Can't you just hear Adam pleading his case for more rain barrels?3) Light Bulbs - When we moved in we changed all of the light fixtures from incandescent bulbs to fluorescent bulbs. The statistics say that each fluorescent bulb will save $30.00 over its life and will pay for itself in 6 months. We later found out that the incandescent bulbs we bought should not be used with dimmers, and our two multi bulb light fixtures in the entry way and dining room are both on dimmers. But, I guess some savings is better than none!
4) Reusable Grocery Bags - this one is so easy to do but also so easy to forget to do. I have 3 plastic grocery bags stuffed with other plastic grocery bags waiting to take to be recycled because I always forget to bring in the reusable bags. One of the grocery stores in town even gives a 5 cent credit for each reusable bag you use. Any tips for how to remember to actually bring the grocery bags into the store to be used?
5) Less Gas Consumption - I do my best to consolidate errands for the week (at least as much as I can pack in before it is Carter's nap time) and I try to walk to stores in the area when possible. Again, this probably doesn't amount to too much savings, but I always tell myself every little bit helps.
There you have it. Our little attempts at living green. What do you do?
I'm Green all the time.
ReplyDeleteIf that barrel was found in the backwoods of Alabama some would say you were making moonshine
ReplyDeleteI forget my shopping bags all the time. I have tried to get into the habit of unpacking them and returning them to the car so they'll be there next time, but sometimes that step goes by the wayside! Sounds like you are taking lots of small but important steps...
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