Well, in honor of Earth Day, I thought I'd copy NBC and make it an Earth Week. We've had a good time as a family learning about the earth and the things we can do to help it. So here's what we did this week:
-Bought 5 reusable mesh bags from Reams. We already had some, but they were teeny and didn't hold much. I can now easily do all my shopping for the week and fit it into 3 or 4 bags, so I'm using them more.
-We already had our computer stuff on a power strip, but not the TV stuff. This week we put it all on and of course, turn the strip off when not in use.
-I used to keep our home heated to 68 degrees during the day and at 66 at night. For the last few weeks we've kept it at 66 during the day and 62 at night (frankly, the heater shouldn't be being used AT ALL this late into spring, but that's a whole 'nother story)
-We've set up recycle bins (really they're garbage cans) in all rooms of the house, so it's very convenient to recycle no matter what room we're cleaning. Our poor recycle bin is always stuffed to the max come trash day, and there's always more waiting in our smaller bins to put it as soon as it's empty. Our garbage can, on the other hand, is almost empty most weeks.
-We've composted our scraps. We've been doing this off and on for years, but decided to do a better job of it, again by finding a way to make it more convenient. (yep, I'm lazy, and I'm proud)
-We donated $$$ to the Arbor Day Foundation to plant 6 trees. Four are in "honor" of each family member, and the other two are to offset the emissions from our upcoming trip. Those planes are terrible!!! (there are really cool calculators online to help you figure out how you can offset vacation emissions!!)-We bought earth friendly dish washer detergent. It works better than the other stuff anyway! We bought ours from Shaklee, but you can also buy natural household cleaners from Seventh Generation.
-And of course, we've been talking to the kids about the earth. I got the Planet Earth DVDs from the library and Munchkin and I watched them as often as we could. It was a great chance to show her and teach her of the beauty of this earth, and why it's so important we treat it well.
Anywho, that's been our week. It's been a fun and educational one for us.
6 comments:
I think it is interesting how the green movement is all the rage again (hello '70s!) But it never was more obvious to me than when I was showing Ethan our new computer game Sim City and he flipped out when he realized he was creating pollutuon in his "city." It was more distressing than crime, traffic, education,etc. Guess the greenies are getting the message out.
I am quite impressed by your efforts. We do what we can, but I have never offset my carbon emissions from flying for work. Good job guys.
Way to go! We recycle quite a bit around here as well. We are the same way with our recycle and garbage cans. Our recycle is always full and the garbage can gets put out every three weeks or so as opposed to weekly for the recycle. One thing we have done that has helped a ton with the overflow of recycle is taking our paper and boxed to the local elementary school. It's win-win! I get rid of my overflow and the school gets money.
Tonya, thanks for the tip...I didn't realize the schools got money for the paper they have recycled.
Jacob, I'm convinced you do enough to offset your emissions just in your daily living!!
We do several of those things, but I know there's always room for improvement. I've been trying to figure out a way to easily do compost....any ideas on that?
Way to go Cox family!!! I wish I could say we are right there with you....sadly that is not the case -YET ;) You have given me some great ideas though....
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