Earth Day Thoughts and Its Importance !

I do pretty much everything you do. I cut old (non usable) clothes up to make cleaning rags. I compost. I replaced all of my old appliances with energy star appliances and my old toilets with low flow. I bring bread bags to work and use them for diaper disposal. I wash and reuse Ziploc bags. I try to do all my errands in one trip so I drive less. I use the library or buy used books. I buy second hand whenever I can.

I love Earth Day and teaching my son to take care of God's creation.

What I HATE about Earth Day is that it wakes up the tree hugging fanatics and invokes too much emphasis on loving our planet more than taking care of people. Hug a tree in park to prevent the building of low income housing right on the bus line? Seriously?

My habits are not close to yours.... I am not a tree hugger.

I go about my day as I need to and work at my convenience as far as laundry, dishwashing, shopping, goes.

We have a huge bin for garbage and a huge bin for recycles that goes out weekly. Everything goes in one of those bins for Tuesday pickup.

I do reuse the plastic grocery bags as liners for small trash cans in the house.

I do donate clothing, toiletries, etc to the women's shelter often.

Not as much as you but you gave me some great ideas!!!

Visit our local parks when they put on events for earth day and let the kids see why it is so important.

Look up ideas to conserve water, both inside and out, and let the kids get in on the research. Perfect example, turn off water while brushing your teeth!

We recycle a lot. I even take my items home from work to recycle them.

We buy from our local farmers' market whenever possible

We also give tons of items to our local shelters, kitchen tables, lamps, bedding, food, toys, clothes, you name it. I won't give it away unless it is still in good condition, so I hope some good people have gotten some use out of our items!

I reuse containers such as cottage cheese and sour cream

I use fly lady purple rags instead of paper towels when possible

We also use non toxic laundry detergent, either homemade or Molly's Suds.

We grow our own garden! This year, we are doing TONS of herbs to start.

I haven't switched to using my own grocery bags instead of plastic, just hasn't worked for our lifestyle yet, but I would love to try it.

I make sure to turn off all lights, even unplugging items when we are not using them - it drives my husband nuts when he goes to turn on the lamp and it is always unplugged!

Earth day is my birthday, so I have always felt a special connection. =) I am quite a realist though. I don't drive a prius, nor will I ever, and I won't be giving up my Pilot anytime soon, but I do think we need to be kind to our mother earth if we expect her to take care of us.

I love our beautiful earth but I can't save it alone and I know full well that anything I do "green" that there are tens of thousands more people undoing my small efforts. It is quite expensive and inconvenient to "go green" in every aspect of our lives. Many nations around the world don't do a darn thing to be green...many people in our own nation don't do a darn thing. It is frustrating..

I applaud your efforts!! But I will admit the whole "go green" mantra makes me roll my eyes at times. It has become so chic,hip and PC to say one is "green".

In my county they have totally outlawed the plastic grocery bags. I think it is a shame. I used the bags to help me be "green". I recycled them. I used them for so many things.

Sooo, there are my thoughts you asked for.

I do things that are "green" but I do them because I enjoy them...not to follow some movement. I don't look for ways to be green..I look for ways to save money and time. If it will do that then I will consider doing it.

Here are some things I do that others might consider "being green"
I compost our food scraps and have a vegetable garden.
We re -use, recycle and rot...and limit our trash
We turn off lights and water when not needed.
We put in a whole house fan in every house we have lived in so that we rarely use our air conditioner in the California summer heat. Not alot of people know what a whole house fan is...but when they come to our house they are blown away how cool we can keep our home.
We trade clothes with friends and donate off things we don't need to other countries.
We re use gift bags,tissue paper,bows
We wash our clothes in cold water, and run big energy sucking items in the evenings.
We turn off our sprinklers in the winter. I hate seeing sprinklers on around the city when it is raining. C'mon...the govt and local businesses are ramming this "go green" slogan and they can't even change their sprinkler schedule.

Happy Earth Day!

Did you know you can recycle clean aluminum foil?
And ziplock bags as well.

Good for you!

I do what you do. I also take my own bags to the grocery store, department store, etc. Yes, plastic can be recycled, but there is a cost to the environment in producing them. I find the canvas bags hold more, break less often, and don't tip over in the car as easily.

I use see-through mesh bags for produce purchases - you can buy them in the grocery section, but a friend of mine used old sheer curtain fabric to make some. You can use a drawstring or just a twisty-tie. They are see-through so the cashier can easily see the label with the PLU number on it.

I find most things that say "dry clean" can be hand washed or washed on gentle cycle.

I use baking soda to clean my formica counters, the porcelain sink and the bathroom.

I don't use paper towels - I use the washable, reusable cellulose wipes or the cloths, and put them through the washing machine every week. I don't use paper napkins - again, I use cloth. They take up virtually no room in the washing machine so it's not like I'm running extra loads.

I open my dishwasher after the rinse cycle, pull the racks out, and let the dishes air dry. It adds moisture to the air (especially important during dry winters) and saves a ton of electricity.

I line dry my delicates on a drying rack - saves drying time and makes bras and panties last a lot longer. If I don't feel like setting up the drying rack or don't have a lot of stuff, I just clip two items to every skirt hanger, and hang a third item around the hanger hook - then they just hang in the laundry room and dry overnight.

I have at least one yard sale every year. You'd be amazed what people will buy. I also have a "free" area for stuff I think has no value (or hasn't sold in prior yard sales) - somebody always takes most of it! We also have neighborhood yard sales to get several families involved and increase the traffic - and the neighborhood kids usually scoot from one sale to another, claiming things for free or for ten cents.

I compost - a lot. I keep a plastic container on the kitchen counter for food waste: vegetable trimmings or leftovers that are no longer edible, the stuff I find at the back of the fridge that's, um..., past its date, stale crackers or bread, egg shells, coffee grounds, etc. - anything but meat, citrus and heavy oils. When the container is full, it goes out into the compost bin. I add grass clippings and raked leaves, any old soil from potted plants that have been transplanted, trimmings from house plants, etc. Anything big I cut up into smaller pieces - bananas peels, melon rinds, etc.

To start it, I threw in a few shovelfuls of dirt from the woods to be sure there are worms, microbes, and other things necessary for decomposition. Every so often I turn it and stir it a little - that circulates everything, and gets the earthworms working throughout the pile to break everything down. It provides so much extra soil for gardening. Moreover, it significantly reduces waste. I even do this through the winter. If it's really cold or snowy and I don't feel like going to the compost bin, I just stack the full containers in the garage so they're out of the house, and when we get a mild day, I take it all out at once.

My neighbors have a couple of rain barrels attached to their downspouts - you can get them in garden centers and through gardeners' catalogs. Then they collect rain water for water plants and shrubs, reducing their water bill substantially. There's even a spigot for attaching the hose. They float a little canola oil on the top to prevent mosquitos from laying eggs. That's next on my list.

We reuse most of all our plastics. Like yogurt tubs for crayon holders. Instant coffee containers to help feed dogs. Bring my own bags instead of using store bags. I bring a reusable coffee cup to starbucks ;) Take-in my older son's collard shirts to fit my younger son.