earth day here dawned as a fantastic spring morning. this is the best time of year (my opinion) to live on the mid-atlantic coast... no humidity, no mosquitos. just hours and hours of gentle breezes, cool mornings, play-full evenings. the perfect time of year to celebrate our great mother earth.
it was fun to go back to my post from last year, a datestamp for my *greenness* in the year 2007. what am i doing differently? have i changed my families ecological footprint? here's what i was thinking last year:
i can be doing a lot more. i feel my awareness is keen, my follow-through needs to be kick-started. (i know i shouldn't buy products encased in layers and layers of packaging. has that ever prevented me from buying something? no.) my town doesn't have curbside recycling, so i don't recycle. yet, i drive by the free recycling station twice a day!! i know i should buy local produce to cut down on the fuel and packaging it takes to bring california strawberries to my grocery store. we don't have farmer's market, but why don't i check out one of those local farmstands? or the farmer in his pickup on the side of the road selling silver queen corn??
unfortunately, the financial impact of going greener affects many of my decisions. right now, it is just plain expensive to execute my three R's. personal feelings about al gore aside, i applaud the fact that environmental concerns are FINALLY getting main stream attention. i think it's important for *hollywood* to spend as much money on global warming concerns as they do on darfur. or AIDS in africa. or breast cancer awareness. it's just as important!
it IS just as important!! and, while i can't check off every item from my reduce, reuse, recycle to-do list, i have made some small, but major, changes in my habits.
love. my. grocery bags. this variety is available at my local grocery chain (i think i paid $1 for each bag. PLUS, i get greenpoints every time i use them). for a long time, i talked myself out of bags, thinking i would never, EVER remember to put them back in the car after unloading my groceries(!) how long did it take me to develop this great new habit? approximately one week. the bags always go straight back into my car. *poof* - another mental hurdle overcome!!
one day this past winter, when jack was home from school (i bet you know why he was home from school!) he helped me setup a recycling center in our garage. last year, we weren't recycling at all, because there was no curbside pickup. again, the mental hurdle was proving to be an insurmountable stumbling block. now? now we recycle, and drop it off once a week. we have cut our family trash in half. in HALF, people!! PLUS... i no longer feel guilty when i'm driving by the recycling center twice a day.
we can do more. we WILL do more. this earth day, i am proud to be excited about the small steps we are taking now. i am a member of *the green generation* and it feels good!!
what about you?
31 comments:
Nice job, Lelly! [I haven't made any progress this year]
The grocery bags would be a good step for me to take.
I don't know why blogger does what it does sometimes, but my new SPT is up, and now it is coming up at the top of my home page.
I need to buy some of those reusable shopping bags.
Wow for someone who doesn't feel like they do their part, I think you are doing a fantastic job! Go Lelly!
You are doing a Great Job Lelly! I have thought about those bags & thought the same thing. I'd waste the $ buying them to never use them. I guess I should make the leap though.
Thanks for all your creative thinking!
That's awesome, you are doing a great job!
Your post will inspire more than a few, I'm sure!
I'd totally take advantage of reusable grocery bags if I didn't use the plastic ones as bin liners. I figure since they're being reused for a good purpose (and saving me from buying other trash bags) it's excusable that I still take them when shopping.
Lelly, you are an inspiration! "I think I can, I think I can..." I've always been a little bit of a Kermit..."it's not easy being green." But I think I'm going to try some of your nifty ideas. I love the grocery bag idea. I know my local grocer sells them. Time to kick it into gear!
wahoo for progress! that is awesome.
i wondered about those fabric-y bags. do they hold up?
i have the canvas trader joe bags for TJ trips but the big grocery trip is the one i cringe about due to the volume they use each trip
(it took forever to get blogger to let me add pics today? i know i haven't posted any in a while but what is going on with that?)
Whew, you guys are awesomely green!
I always talk myself out of those bags, Lelly, but now you've really talked me into it. Do they get grungy like the grocery carts?
cute sp! You have motivated me...I just might get some of those grocery bags when I go to the store today :)
I love your bags, and your recycling bins.
Where did you get them?
I am ready to move to our next step into recycling- we actually have enough to recycle to warrant having separate containers for each. (I really didn't think that we would!)
I love that you were able to make it a habit of putting the bags in the car. I really need to do that!
Thanks so much for this important challenge. It has made me think about what we are doing and what we can do better.
Your recycling bins and shopping bags are great. One of my goals now is to buy some of those bags and keep them in the car.
I too love your bags. I have truly never seen them at grocery stores where I live. Las Vegas is not very big into recycling. Good Job.
Now those shopping bags are the right size. The ones they sell at my stores are so small I'd need 20. Can we buy those somewhere online?
Thanks for doing this assignment. Made me realize I'm not doing as much as I think I am. I have good intentions but that does no good if you don't follow through. I'm going to start being more pro-active. Thanks for the inspiration.
Good for you. I keep thinking about buying those bags, but then, I don't, because I think, "why don't they provide them for you to use." It's my very cheap side coming out in me.
I loved this post more than any Lelly. Because I was 100% not looking forward to the guilt of this SPT topic. I'm not so Green. But everything you did are things that I could easily do in my life. I am definitely going to get those grocery bags. Thank you!
That's amazing that you've cut your garbage output in half! It never occurred to me that so much could be recycled!
good job on going greener. i feel terrible about the recycle deal. we do recycle cardboard, which we seem to accumulate a lot of. the recycle bins are only a coule of blocks from our house and so it's easier to recycle, but it's still not enough in reality. good job! earth day used to be a big thing in school, not so much in adult/work world.
Love your recycle bins. My husband and I have searched for ones like that for a long time. Where did you buy them?
Great job! I keep wanting to buy some of those grocery bags, but had the same concern as you. We recycle...or rather save recyclable goods. We have bags and bags of cans and plastic bottles that have yet to make it to the recycling center. They're not in the trash, though!
You have made great strides this year! Good job!
I have bags just like that that I love and use for everything!
It sounds like your family is making great progress in being green...wish we could say the same. Maybe next year!
Check me out, doing an spt on tuesday :).
I'm proud of you for making the effort to recycle. If I didn't have curbside recycling, I don't know how motivated I would be. I've thought about those grocery bags, but since I do most of my shopping at Costco where I don't get bags I don't feel to bad. But seriously when I go to the regular store and get 5 items and the cashier starts using up 4 bags I cringe and try to encourage less bags. It drives me crazy.
Thanks for this challenge. It was fun to stop and think about Earth Day and what it really means.
Late, but HERE-Ha!
I think it is so neat to go back and see the progress you made over the last year! It is always a good feeling to see that you are never done growing or changing~ When we feel like we are a hamster in a wheel it is nice to know things are REALLY being accomplished!
look at you making your own recycling receptacles! Inspiring.
Hey, this is a first for me...it is such a commitment for you to recycle on your own!Great!
Those grocery bags are great. I really wish the stores where I lived would jump on the reuseable-bag bandwagon.
You are certainly doing better than I am!
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