Set sprinklers to water the lawn or garden only - not the street or sidewalk.
Use the microwave to cook small meals. (It uses less power than an oven.)
Purchase "Green Power" for your home's electricity. (Contact your power supplier to see where and if it is available.)
Scrape, rather than rinse, dishes before loading into the dishwasher; wash only full loads.
Cut back on air conditioning and heating use if you can.
Turn off appliances and lights when you leave the room.
Green Gossip is an exclusive Earth 911 series that lets our writers talk about their experiences with everyday green issues. In this episode, Brandi Powell discusses her battle with the reusable bag.
Walking back to my car I could see them…lying there limply on the seat. I couldn’t believe I could do it again, but I had. I left them in the car, alone. How could I forget to bring them inside with me, what had happened to my dedication or my short-term memory?
I know now that my problem wasn’t my lack of wanting to be part of the green movement. My problem was, and still is, a lifestyle made up of multi-tasking, parenting and enslavement to time. So what is going to make my reusable bags a priority?
First, according to reusablebags.com, each reusable bag used can potentially eliminate an average of 1,000 plastic bags over its lifetime. Since on average my family and I will use up approximately 60 plastic bags on four shopping trips, I will easily hit the 1,000 mark.
But what’s on the other hand? Is using plastic bags really so bad? According to greenfeet.net , plastic we don’t recycle can be burned yielding from 10,000 to 20,000 btu per pound (60 percent of which can be recovered) creating electricity. In addition, an argument can be made that plastic bags, as a whole, make up 18 percent of waste by volume and seven percent by weight.
Even with these pros, I still feel that using that canvas bag would be a plus. So what is the thing that can turn my scattered brain into a green powered memory machine? One simple, indulgent word…fashion .
I could try bamboo in all its stylish ways. Plus, bamboo is naturally grown, which means it’s 100 percent biodegradable. It lives naturally without using any pesticides or fertilizers so people keep their hands out of it. Also bamboo is one of the fastest growing plants in the world. That makes for a great rate of regeneration!
What about the subtle flash of recycled cotton? Both highly sustainable and referred to as the most environmentally friendly fiber on the planet, recycled cotton is essentially the wasted clippings from pre consumer cotton. Recycled cotton is manufactured without chemicals or liquids during processing. The additional bonus: by recycling these cotton fibers we save millions of tons of waste from our landfills.
Of course you can’t forget your hemp, recycled plastics and linens. Choose wisely by using your personal style compass to navigate the many options you have. All choices will account for showing you care about the world around you. The added bonus: the baffled looks you’ll receive from baggers and cashiers. I relish those precious four or five seconds when I present my bag and request to “pack it full.” They move slowly, cautious of this change. They walk away getting used to the idea and I walk away knowing that I’ve saved 15 bags on a single trip to the store. Yea me!
