Growing up, my dad would often take us to pick up garbage on Earth Day. Littering is one of his largest pet peeves and he cannot stand to see all the garbage left behind after the snow melts. His truck always has some empty pop bottles or other items in the back that he has picked up.
What do you do to try to protect the Earth?
We could always do more, but a few things we have been consistent with are:
1. Shutting off lights.
2. Recycling
3. Using reusable grocery bags or not taking a bag for a small item
4. Using refillable water bottle, reusable lunch containers, and travel coffee mugs
Our grocery store has really been encouraging using the reusable grocery bags, in fact, the city is working on a plastic bag ban. I would say we now use reusable 80% of our trips. I've also been trying to carry a couple of pouch bags in my purse (the really thin bags that fold into a 2x2 pouch). Eric got me a nice Dekalb one at a farm show this winter. (It has a flying ear and everything!) That way, if I forget our big bags or just stop after work, I still don't have to get a lot of plastic bags. I reuse the plastic bags as garbage bags if we do get them. I love using the reusable bags....easy to carry & can fit more into each bag.
A few goals to work on:
1. Use less water (take shorter showers). Maybe the baby will force me into this anyway. But then I'll be doing more laundry so it might just even out. But the water usage per person might be better!
2. Maybe hand wash dishes more often as our dishwasher at our rented apt. runs for 97 min and it is as loud as a diesel engine! It has to be a water waster.
3. When we get a house someday, I would like to have a rain barrel for watering.
3. When we get a house someday, I would like to have a rain barrel for watering.
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| Mushroom in New Zealand |
Happy Earth Day!
The Eau Claire Leader had an article that said they thought there was less garbage to pick up so maybe people are getting better about littering.
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