Evan and I had GREAT fun celebrating Earth Day!!!
Sadly enough, we've never taken the time to recycle. Whenever we have an event at our house I'm stricken with guilt every time someone asks, "Do you want me to throw this [can] away, or do you recycle?" I've been really feeling a moral duty lately to begin to make some changes in our lives and not to live so vicariously but instead to take into account the impact that we have on our plant. It occurred to me within the last week, probably because of all of the global issues in politics and the awareness ads on television that we really do have a negative impact on the precious earth that God created for us. Not to mention the negative example that we're setting for Evan, that was the big one that opted the change. I want him to become aware of our impact and learn that we can make a difference.
After school, we went to the store and bought Rubbermaids to use as recycling bins. We used black chalk board paint to paint a square on the top so that Evan could write, what would be kept inside of it. We watched a video on recycling cans on youtube and he thought it was really cool. I explained to him why we need to recycle and he was really into it. Part of his daily chores now are taking out the recycling.
While we waited for the paint to dry we began making a paper mache Earth. Evan had so much fun getting messy and he was so funny trying to eat our homemade flour/water paste. The next day, he painted his earth and it now is proudly on display in his art room.
While we were at the store we also picked up some of the new energy efficient light bulbs. We plan on switching all of our bulbs out, but we are going to "grandfather" them in as our bulbs burn out. Did you know that these new bulbs are supposed to last up to 5 years and save over $100 in energy bills, not to mention they release 76% less green house emissions than standard bulbs do? Yeah, they cost more than standard bulbs but Wal-mart and other stores often have then on sale, plus you can click here for a coupon to use.
We also entered a contest at Kroger.com to create a reusable bag. We created a bag by uploading a photo that we took in Russia. (A photo of our bag is below)
Other thing change that we are making is to try to only buy concentrated products whenever possible b/c the packaging is smaller it equals less waste. CVS has concentrated ALL Clear buy one get one free this week.
My friend Renee, whom I used to teach with will really get a kick out of this one. I'm trying to use less paper towels and use rags and dishcloths. (Yes, Renee I did have to go buy some) I've never been much on rags and towels b/c they aren't disposable and I seem to think paper towels have less germs. Oh well, I'm giving it a try.
Yes, We still buy water bottles like crazy but we are recycling them now. I did some research and a plastic water bottle will sit in the landfill for 100 years! I also read that in the U.S. alone, we use 1 billion water bottles a week and 76% of them are not recycled!! No wonder our landfills are overflowing!
Another change... In the next couple of weeks I plan on purchasing reusable shopping bags for my groceries. You can get a pack of ten for $20.00 at BagsOnTheRun. A plastic bag sits in the landfill for 1000 (yes, 3 zeros) years.
There is lots that I would love to change but right now just can't. For example, our diaper situation. While I was pregnant I wanted to use cloth diapers but decided I would wait until they got a little bigger so that I wouldn't have to purchase so many different sizes. Now that they are a little bigger, I can't justify the time that would be spent washing them. Our laundry, without 20-25 cloth diapers a day piles up so, that I can't imagine adding that many diapers to the laundry.
We challenge you to make just one change to make a difference!!! Here are some things you might choose to do. Change your light bulbs, combine errands by driving less, take Bob the Builder's advice and Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, buy concentrated items, use less water, turn the thermostat up or down 2 degrees, (we haven't done that one yet), turn things off when not in use. If you already do some of these things or if you begin, post us a comment. Evan and I think it will be fun to see what our friends and family do to help save God's precious earth.
Happy Earth Day 2008!
Our Bag...
5 comments:
You go girl! I even have your former students recycling their paper at school! We set up a special can just for paper. Now they ask all the time, "Can this be recycled?"
Now, if only I can start to shop more organic . . .
Those are really great ideas! We are trying to unplug all of our items that aren't in use (toaster oven, coffee maker, cell phone chargers, etc.) to reduce the energy that we were consuming. It is amazing how much energy is consume dby just leaving these items in the outlet even when they are not in use!
Many of those things I've been starting to do more also. Just be careful with those new lightbulbs not to break them or toss out in trash - they contain mercury (I think that's a big drawback to them but I do use). I also have been replacing my cleaning products, including dish washing soap, with enviro friendly ones -- not going to make my own :) -- they cost a little more but I figure it's worth it in the long-run. I also bought a different car for the summer when I'm doing more running around! Won't get rid of my gas-hog SUV bc I love it but for all the short trips around town I'm using my VW Bug - getting about triple the gas mileage! And Farmer Market season is coming to Wisconsin now so I plan to do more purchasing there instead of the grocery store. I also plan out my menus for the month ahead of time -- saves me sanity at night, money in groceries and less gas for grocery trips (since our store is 6-miles away!). Ok, enough on me... I guess I'm "greener" than I thought! Will love reading more comments on this!!
Brandi,
I am quite proud of you. You finally converted. I'll have to come over and do your dishes sometime to give a demonstration on how those things called dishcloths work. Just kidding! My mom actually sometimes throws her sponges in the dishwasher to keep them clean and sanitized. You could try that maybe. Good luck with all of your new ideas. The future generations will appreciate it. Take care! Give all the babies and the big boy hugs for me.
Renee
We started down this same road last fall. The first month we replaced some of the bulbs with the new ones (we have quite a few lights with dimmers so unfortunately can't replace those per the label warnings) we saved about 20% on our electric bill! That was the first month! We've since replaced a few more, and for the time in memory, our bill hasn't gone up each month, and generally goes down a bit. Not much, but this is huge since in a home where we have no natural gas, and EVERYTHING is electric, our bill has gone up just about EVERY month for the past 6-8 years!
Another thing I do is hang our clothing on huge drying racks. This I began more so because I hate how clothes shrink so much with constant drying, and like the fact that except for for Mike's work (dress) pants and dress shirts, very little needs ironing this way. For years I put the clothes in the dryer for 5 - 10 minutes just to get them fluffed up, then remove everything except for socks, boxers and white tees, and towels. The rest I've hung on dryer racks in the finished basement under a heat vent in the winter, and outside in the spring, summer & early fall. Love it! But now, I try to do laundry more routinely, so that I can hang ALL the clothes on the racks. When they dry, I fold/hang them, and do another load to put on the racks. I have definetly found a savings on my bill!
Here in MA we also return our bottles and cans for a 5cent refund. We are boaters and have many friends at our marina, who, for reason feel its too much hassle to recycle while on the boat/at the marina. A few years ago I mentioned that I could probably put Skip through a year of college with just the deposit money alone that people routinely "threw in the dumpster" on their way home each weekend. A few people started giving me their bottles and cans when they were leaving, and soon it became know we were the "recyclers" on B-Dock. Okay, this is the kicker - on the Fourth of July that year, we took home with us, about 10 trash bags of bottles and cans, totalling more than $60.00! And even better, we took our experiment one step further by starting up a savings account JUST for bottle/can money. Got about $500 in the account!
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