It’s World Environment Day. This year’s theme is Melting Ice – a Hot Topic? which is a pretty important topic concerning the ecosystems of polar bears (thus this poster). Do your part and check out the information on the site. For ideas on how to celebrate, take a look at The World Environment Day Alphabet—77 Ways To Celebrate and try to integrate a few into your eco-ways.
Today I have given up batteries. I will, of course, use what remains in the house until they are finally dead and then appropriately recycle them, but I will no longer buy any nonrechargeable batteries from this point forward. I already have a recharger and a number of rechargeable batteries on hand. So it’s a small start.
Also when my other electronic batteries are no longer useful, I’ll recycle these too with the help of information at BatteryRecycling.com. For other recycling needs, I’ll refer to my local government’s list.
I finally got around to making some reusable produce bags using Circle of Life’s pattern. I am very excited about using these. I found the pattern makes some small bags so I want to make some larger ones for things such as corn or more than a few apples.
I’ll make the larger ones out of a blue tulle that I bought at JoAnns. I also brought a reusable canvas bag with me for all my shopping today (and this time I didn’t get thwarted.
Filed under: reduce
I love music. I’m talking LOVE here. Like “L” is for the way … so when I found out Dolores O’Riordan was coming out with a solo album, I was stoked. I immediately jumped on Amazon to pre-order and await the arrival of my new disc. And then I started this challenge. I couldn’t very well purchase something that was going to require an Amazon box to ship it in plus the packaging. And then of course there’s the CD’s packaging and the CD is made of plastic. I just couldn’t do it. So instead, I downloaded the entire album from iTunes. Who knew technology could help in the eco-world. So today’s one green thing reduced the amount of waste and production for the CD and shipping, and the carbon emissions from the trucks to deliver it. Gold star for the eco-day.
Filed under: recycle
It seems silly now, but because of the convenience of the bathroom waste basket, I would throw out the toilet paper roll when all the paper had ran out. How wasteful!! But now I have seen the error of my ways and I am placing these little rolls in the recycle bin. Phew! That would have been a pretty bad eco-blunder.
I’m thinking the next step would be to find toilet paper companies that use recycled cardboard for their rolls. That would be a step toward a good thing. I will save that hunt for another day. For now, here’s to recycling some cardboard rolls!
Filed under: recycle
Check out all the recyclables I brought home from work today. As part of my attempt to do green things during the work day, I collected these items over the past week or so and I usually bring them home the night before trash day. However, they’d piled up so much that I needed to bring them home early. You can’t even see everything in the bag here but there’s a lot. All of which would’ve been thrown away since my company can’t recycle (We’re in a high-rise complex building and the building doesn’t have recycling set up yet. This is weird and concerning considering the building is in Chicago city limits and there are pretty good recycling programs in the city.) So I brought all my stuff and placed in the recycling bin. (Fortunately, the town I live doesn’t charge for recycling, just trash, so this effort is free too.)
I ran over to the local grocery store, reusable bag in hand and I thought I was doing well. I had a small basket full of items (only needed one produce bag—I forget to bring my reusable stash with me) and I headed to the checkout. I asked the nice young man at the bagging station, “Can you put everything in this?” “Sure,” he responds. I’m smiling and I’m happy. I’ve done a small good green thing. I saunter out pretty proud of myself
I get home, still happy as a clam (although I had to fill up my car and the price stung and the lack of options made me smolder). I began unpacking my items. WHAT? I cried. What was in my awesome reusable bag? A plastic bag wrapped around my meat. Ahh! I was thwarted! I thought I did good, but I wasn’t paying close attention. It was nice that the young man didn’t want any meat juices to spill out on any other items, but now I had a grocery bag and a produce bag. Two bags! Even with my reusable. It was a sad moment.
For my one green thing today, however, I am vowing to take reusable produce bags with me to the store (until I get around to making fabric produce bags I found at Circle of Life Foundation, which is on my list). But until then, reusing what I have will be the baby step. Maybe this weekend I’ll get to the fabric produce bags.
I’m giving up my beloved paper to do list for an efficient, conservation pda type. I’ve actually had my PDA for some time and generally use it for list type items but always seemed to come back to the pen and paper. It might be the writer in me (actually I’m sure it is) that keeps me connected with the scratching of parchment for sentimentality’s sake, but I feel that now with this eco-quest, I need to put down the pen and take up my stylus sword.
Wow the drama, but this sort of occasion needs some dramatization. This is a big deal for writers. You just don’t understand. Working completely on the computer doesn’t work. I know, I know, printout are awful but if you’re not an editor, you don’t understand. You miss so much on the screen. It’s like the nuances of the ink and letters on paper hide themselves on screen until they can fully ripen on the page. So that’s why I’m moving to the pda list to cut down on paper as much as I can. However, I feel this may be a work in progress item on the eco-wishlist.
I’ve unplugged the cell phone charger. Phew! Who knew it was such a waste? I sure didn’t. But I’ve taken to only plugging it in when I’m charging. What I used to do is charge it all night and grab it on my way out. Now I’m charging when it gets low, not leaving the charger plugged in all the time.
I still haven’t graduated to turning off my TV/VCR/DVD, etc. but they are all on power strips. My computer is on two, but I can’t reach one of them where it is located now. That’s a green thing for another day. So is turning off the computer. But my attempts at work have been fairly successful. Except my greener settings seem to make my Mac act funny. I will, however, continue to turn off the computer each night before I leave.
Filed under: energy-saving
No longer will I use the “hot” or “warm” settings on my washing machine. According to Green Is Sexy, heating water accounts for 80% to 90%. Well that’s just too much in my view. On the other plus side, my clothes are sometimes fairly delicate and the cold water helps everything in the wash get along without having to run a bunch of different loads depending on the type of clothes. I just run full loads of whites, darks and delicates on cold and watch as my clothes come out all nice and wonderful.
I also don’t dry my delicates. Those are hung or laid to dry naturally to preserve their wear so I’m cutting some energy usage there too. The rest is just too much to air dry so I use the dryer to get them as dry as possible and let them air dry any further after that.
