It's all over the TV. Ways to "go green." And Mike and I, being the selfish people we are, have talked about ways we might be able to change. But we have some requirements. First, for Mike, it must make sense. For me, it must not be too inconvenient. And for both of us, it shouldn't cost too much. So what have we decided to change?
We'll be buying some reusable bags from Whole Foods. I saw some here that I like, but they're so expensive. I can't imagine that the ones at Whole Foods would cost so much, since they will have the Whole Foods name on the side. This will help our selfish sides because we're being over run with plastic bags, even though we do use them to pick up Maggie's poop on walks, but the dog doesn't poop THAT much.
Second, we thought we'd like to try our hands at composting. But man, oh man, the expense and the choices! What in the world! My dad and brother both compost, each using just a bucket in the kitchen and then they each have their own compost bins that they made themselves. (And they started composting long before it was popular.) Now here's the thing, building such an area and then going out and stirring the junk just doesn't seem like something we would do. So there are tumblers which seem way more up our alley. We like the idea of composting because we do throw away a lot of kitchen scraps and Mike would like some good compost for his garden. But then we have so many questions??? Do you put dog poop in there?? Leaves? How long does it take? When do you know it's ready? And then there's bins that use worms, but I cannot handle knowing there are 10,000 - 20,000 worms in my kitchen!
And at some point in the future I'd like to get a water filter and stop buying bottled water. We currently switched from individual bottles to gallons and we refill the gallons at the store.
Feel free to share any ideas of going green that might fit our requirements...or to offer any expertise on any of the above topics.
Quinn
Liam
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2 comments:
We use our plethora of plastic bags for cleaning out hobbes litter box. Again, he doesn't poop that much. It is a little easier to "go green" out here, we have the Prius, we have the ability to buy organic and earth friendly products at our Albertsons or Safeway (Dominick's and Jewel for you Midwesterners). We don't use our lights if we don't have to (switch to the compact flouresent), we unplug most of our chargers, we use filtered water, the weather never neccesitates air conditioning or heating (maybe we heat the condo for 1 month out of the year), and best of all.....our electric utility gives the option to use renewable energy which only equates to like 5 bucks more a month because we use so little.
Go green, move to Portland :)
I don't think I would compost either. Too much work....but the benefit for the garden could sway me.
Dan
Um, I felt overwhelmed when I first wanted to "go green." Especially with global warming, etc. So start small!!! We made tiny changes for health reasons first--Dan went vegetarian on me, I only buy meat when I know where the cows lived and what they ate (grass, not by-product)...I know nobody wants to hear it, but the contemporary meat/mass production farming industry gobbles up way more resources than people do. LOCAL is key. I know the meat I eat is from Oregon country, and summer is a great time to go to farmers markets and buy local produce. That way you know where the food is coming from, if it has pesticides, and that the minimal amount of fuel/resources was used to bring the food to your table.
I slowly switched out products around the house--kitchen cleaner, dishwasher cubes, hand soaps, shampoo, toothpaste, etc. to companies that use recycleable containers or containers made from recycled materials, not tested on animals, and non-toxic. Some of my favorites are: Burt's Bees, Mrs. Meyers, Earth Friendly Products, Tom's of Maine, etc. In Sherwood, these are available at grocery stores and even Target now, slowly. I just started with one thing and then added slowly, as to avoid increasing prices all at once.
Any large bag will do with groceries...Or just grab the same ones you used during the last trip. We use plastic for Hobbes' litter box (which is a whole other issue...we've never switched to anything like wheat or paper pellets) Paper bags we recycle and use to hold other recycle items.
Other tips: Shorten your showers, turn the water off while you brush your teeth, turn lights off in the house when you don't use them, unplug electronics at night (this also saves money), any new painting projects use low-VOC paint, by grains and cereals in bulk, grow your own veggies in the backyard garden, change bulbs out to compact flourescent, print on both sides of paper, buy used & sell used, & check out gDiapers!
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