- We say no to paper towels, napkins and paper plates! Cloth napkins and real plates are so much prettier anyway. I mean why in the world did we register for them if we aren't going to use them, right?
- When painting, we use low or no VOC's paint.
- We wash our clothes in cold water - ALWAYS! (I use Third Generation laundry detergent.)
- We rewear our clothes again before we wash them. We use our towels AT LEAST three or four times before washing. Most of the time I use the same towels all week!
- an easy one - We TURN OFF LIGHTS and unplug appliances not in use! (And we ALWAYS use energy saving light bulbs.)
- We do NOT use plastic bags. We bring your own bags to the grocery store. I am STILL using up plastic bags from THREE years ago (before I started bringing my own bags). If you DO have plastic bags, they make great lunch sacks or poop bags for cleaning the litter box or cleaning up after your pup in the park. (However I would NOT reccommend using the same sack for both lunch AND a poop bag. Yucky!)
- We recycle everything that can be recycled! If friends come over to our house, they KNOW not to throw away glass, plastic, cans, paper, etc. Just make it a household habit. You would be surprised how much can be recycled if you just take the time to do it!
- set the thermostat up high (78 degrees) in the summer and down low in the winter (66 degrees). You can put on a sweatshirt in the winter - I promise you will not freeze. And honestly 77 or 78 degrees in the summer is NOT hot. And just think of the $$ you will be saving!
- I make our cleaning products using natural products like vinegar, lemon juice, baking soda and water! This is so much safer for pets too.
- We buy our produce locally at the Farmer's Market. Yum! It's so much better tasting!
These are just a FEW of the things the Buies do at our house on a daily basis. They really are easy and you can start them today! Other "green" things I WANT to do oneday but haven't yet:
- Buy a rain barrel to preserve the fallen rain to water our yard.
- Start a compost pile.
- Trade in my SUV for a vehicle that gets better gas mileage
- Plant a vegetable garden and an herb garden
- other suggestions?
Happy Earth Day!
2 comments:
This is how I recycle in Mozambique: I throw EVERYTHING I don't want in the trash and it goes on the street in a bag. After that MANY different people go through it and take what they want. Some eat old pieces of food, others take the jars or containers, etc etc. Then it goes to the garbage dump where people LIVE and spend their days sifting through mountains of garbage, looking for things they deem useful for their lives. And for food to eat.
I've been known to put gospel tracts in a ziploc bag in the trash so that someone rooting through it might find it and read it.
I enjoyed reading your post! Thanks for making the world a better place!
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