I know the green movement is huge right now and I'm a big believer in global warming. If you've never seen An Inconvenient Truth, you need to, because it's hard to argue with those facts.Of course I recycle, cut back on water use and use environmentally-friendly products, but some other basic changes I've made include:
Composting - we've just started this process in our house and my son is so excited we are going to be making dirt (see pic)! Of course, he doesn't quite understand what having to wait a "long time" means. He likes to check the composter every day to see if we have dirt yet. It's a pretty easy process and kinda fun actually. You can find lots of resources on the net about how to compost, but I got my original idea from the book Gorgeously Green by Sophie Uliano. It has some great ideas of how to make your life more green, the girly way!
I've changed the lightbulbs in my house to compact flourescent bulbs. They are actually starting to make these in different shapes and sizes now vs. the basic spiral that has been out for a while, so it makes it easier to use these all over the house.
I've started washing all of my clothes in cold water. Evidently, your clothes get just as clean, you save money on your energy bill and it saves energy. In fact, washing clothes in cold water lets fabrics retain their color and strength longer.
I've also signed up for Greendimes, a company that removes your name from junk mail lists, reducing direct mail waste and they plant 5 trees in your honor. I signed up for the paid plan, and they sent me a really cool t-shirt, several compact flourescent bulbs, a reusable grocery bag - and they do all the work of removing you name off the lists for you!
So basically, it IS easy being green, if you make an effort to make some basic changes. You might decide it's kinda fun!
Great post - such an important topic. We also had a sort of conversion experience after watching An Inconvenient Truth recently. We gave up our newspaper subscriptions and are reading the papers online now. We started separating our food scraps and putting them into food waste, which Seattle offers, but aren't actually composting. (My older son's school separates out food waste and is very green oriented, so I was kind of shamed into doing it :) .) I hadn't thought about washing in cold - thanks for the suggestion!
ReplyDeletePS - another equally important connection to the environment is buying local...I just read Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable Miracle and she sold me!
ReplyDeleteAwesome! A note for you to consider... another good option for composting is via vermicomposting, which your son might enjoy, and it produces "black gold" for you much faster than via regular composting methods. My 2 daughters learned about it at a class they took, and loved it! We bought a few very large plastic containers from Lowe's (there are "worm bins" you can buy, but it's much more cost-effective this way), drilled holes in the bottom of two of them, and got them started. You've got to keep the bins in a temperate area, because the worms needs to be someplace where it's between 60 and 80 degrees F, like a kitchen (makes it really easy), laundry room, garage, etc. We have ours in the kids' bathroom, because they're in charge of "feeding the worms" -- and I promise you, not one worm has ever escaped!
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of resources to get you started... I just typed in "vermicomposting how-to" or something along those lines on the Web and found a huge amount of information on it!
Great job doing your part! I'm so glad my University has recycling bins everywhere, now if only I could get them to compost...
ReplyDeleteLooks like you've made a lot of green changes recently. Awesome!