What do you do to be more eco-friendly?
coasterqueen wrote: This is such a popular topic - being eco-friendly that I am curious as to what everyone does in their own lives to be eco-friendly. I know I don't do a lot, but I am doing (so far) what is working for my family. Kylie keeps telling me more of what I could be doing, so we attempt more and more when we can. Darn kids!  J/K. I'm glad she is taking the issue serious and learning what she cans. I also know when she's an adult and has her own family she'll learn what will and won't work for her family as well -- so her opinions might change by then.
So what do you do in your lives to be eco-friendly?
I'm hoping I can learn a bit of what I can do that I'm not thinking of -- barring that it's something I can live with. 
Mommy2BAK replied: our local news station does a segment each night on how to be more eco friendly, they actually have shared some intresting simple tips. We've changed all of our light bulbs to those one kind, we are turning off the water while brushing teeth, waiting until we have full loads of dishes or clothes to run the dishwasher/washing machine (only on cold water), turning off lights and opening blinds more on sunny days. Just little things 
mommy~to~a~bunch replied:  You all know what a freak I am  !! But we recycle, buy in bulk, reuse glass jars (for the bulk products), cloth diaper, breastfeed, use CFL light bulbs, use cloth shopping bags, try to eat as much organics as we can, use natural bath & cleaning products.
But we also have 2 SUV's & like to eat out once in awhile  , so we are far from perfect!! You just have to do what you can .
luvmykids replied: I don't feel like we do enough, but like Mollie said, you just have to do what you can, every little bit helps. We also use the CFL's, rain barrels, all the things Tamara mentioned.
Another thing I learned is that some appliances, even when "off" still draw power so I have started using power strips, like for the TV, VCR, etc and when I go to bed I turn the actual power strip off. It makes a tiny dent in the electric bill, which is a selfish motive, but it's also using less energy so I don't feel too bad being selfish on that one 
PrairieMom replied: This has really been a focus for me and my family lately.
We have a long way to go tho.
we have CFS and turn off lights when we leave
Use daylight when possible.
wash majority of laundry with cold water.
Line dry in the summer.
keep the thermostat at 70 in the winter and 78 in the summer
recycle about 80% of our trash.
Vermicompost in the winter. (my worm farm) 
Compost for organic gardening
shred office paper/ news paper / junk mail for composting
registered at greendimes.com to stop junkmail.
Signed up for online billing to stop paper bills
use cloth grocery bags
donate old clothes to good will instead of trashing them
about 1/3 of the food I buy is organic
I have a hard time buying local, esp in the winter
I also drive a gas guzzler, but in my town everything is so spread out that I HAVE to drive, our public transit is horrible. In the summer I ride my bike lots tho. I have a trailer that I can haul both kids with.
Okay, that is a long list. Maybe I am doing better than i thought. LOL.
I am a naughty naughty Disposable diaper-er tho. IF i have a #3, I plan to CD.
mommy~to~a~bunch replied: Hey Tara, you're not naughty ! You mentioned other things that I forgot, like the paperless billing/online paying & clothes line drying. It's like second nature, I didn't think about it.
A&A'smommy replied:  wow I'm really out of loop here!! Great Topic Karen I could really learn from this thread!!!
luvmykids replied:
TFS that!  I do the online billing too....another area where it's selfish of me and the eco benefits are just the icing on the cake I hate checking the mail 
PrairieMom replied:
mommy~to~a~bunch replied:
OK, maybe you are!! I don't want to know LOL.
TheOaf66 replied: I eat more than my share of meat which thins the cow population that poisons the air with their noxious gasses and eats all the grass
mommy~to~a~bunch replied:
You'd get along great with my DH. BTW, your avatar is hilarious!
Danalana replied: I don't litter!
I can't think of anything else, except turning off the water while I'm brushing my teeth 
coasterqueen replied:  I'm trying to think of everything we do.
We use the CFS light bulbs. We haven't changed all of them out but as they burn out we replace them with the new ones.
We are starting to use cloth grocery bags, decreasing our use of plastic ones. What plastic ones we do use/have we do recycle them.
We recylce aluminum cans.
We try to compost in our garden.
We use organic dirt, no chemicals on our garden.
We do not use chemicals on our house/yard for bugs, grass, etc.
I try the turn off water when you brush theory, but doesn't work with our kids that well. 
We buy as much organic as we possibly can, which is more than non-organic. We buy our meat and eggs from a local farmer all year-round. We buy organic veggies/fruits and other stuff at grocery store organic section, farmers market, and what we grow ourselves.
We donate and always have our clothes. We used to take them to consignment shops, but haven't done that in a long time.
Dh and I are riding together to work as much as we possibly can to save on gas. We ride together about 4 times out of the 5. We started this a couple of months ago.
We keep the thermostat at a temp (I would like it warmer in the winter and summer if possible, but we don't).
I manage loads in washer/dryer and dishwasher the best way to save on water, etc.
I line-dry in the spring/summer and fall months.
Turn off lights in rooms when not in there.
We do some paperless billing and online paying. Dh does more of that than I do with bills. Mine I usually have to take a check to the bank.
That is all I can think of right now.
Maddie&EthansMom replied: My husband is very green....I'm getting there...slowly but surely. I actually do quite a bit, but I know I could do more.
I believe in it, I just like to grab what's easiest sometimes b/c I'm lazy.
mckayleesmom replied: We recycle
turn off lights when not in use
make sure faucets aren't dripping and are off when brushing teeth
I have been buying SOME echo friendly cleaning supplies
I do still use the plastic bags from the grocery store...but I do reuse them as garbage bags....do I get a point for that??
mommy~to~a~bunch replied: Oh, I forgot to mention that I have reusable water bottles now too. I have 2 for the kids, and 1 for me. I need more for the kids LOL. Anyway, they are SIGG bottles, the kids have the 0.4L, and I have a huge 1.5L for myself. I LOVE drinking water, so this helps keep some always around.
I am on the search for a safe sippy cup for Abby. I've found one at http://www.thesafesippy.com , but they are out of stock til who knows when. Might get the 0.3L SIGG ones for her, I don't know yet. It would only be used for water anyway.
Cece00 replied:
I've ordered my recycling bin- we just got new ones in the city but they are taking up to 2 weeks to deliver them to everyone.... 
I dont use canvas shopping bags yet, although I am considering it (I would just need SO many, as I grocery shop for 2 weeks at a time) but I do recycle and reuse my plastic bags
I try very hard not to waste water & electricity, turning off lights not being used, unplugging things I am not using (phone chargers, etc)
I am going to try a garden in our yard this year....I might try compost, too...I'll need DH and my dad to build me some sort of bin for that...
We reuse water bottles for DH's lunch...he brings them home & I wash & reuse, and he also uses a reusable lunch bag
We recycle batteries & oil through DH's work
We recycle yard waste & old tires & old appliances & paint through the city
When I run out of the like 50 lightbulbs I have in my closet, I will buy some CFL's
I try to cut down on my driving as much as I can, and my kids rode the bus this yr (I used to drive them to school....almost an hr total driving twice a day)
DH carpools to his meetings when they are in another city
I'm sure I could think of more but I think thats good for now.
Nina J replied: I am trying to get more eco-friendly, but I still have heaps more I could do.
We recycle
I only use cold water for washing
I use eco-friendly fabric softener and detergent
I use reusable shopping bags.
I keep water bottles and some soft drink bottles for water bottles.
I take short showers. I am trying to get them as short as I can, right now I am about 10 - 15 minutes.
If I need to shop, I ask friends or relatives if they also need to / want to go shopping. So we take one car.
I donate old clothes to charity rather than throw them out.
A&A'smommy replied: oh well I do more than I thought...
we don't use lights if we don't need them (like during the day)
we shut off lights when we are not in the room
turn water of when not using it (ie washing dishes, brushing teeth)
I am planning on starting a garden this year (its going to take time to get everyting I need plus I have a small yard so its going to be interesting)
we do ALL paperless billing
now that i know about the light bubls I think I will start buying those now and I would like to start doing reusable bags but I will have to think about that more because we buy grocieries for a WHOLE month so you can imagine thats a LOT
coasterqueen replied: Crystal (CeCe) - We shop only every two weeks, as well. I know you have more bodies to shop for than I do, but what we did is buy like 5 bags to start out with. We started 2 weeks ago. I need about 5 or 6 more so this grocery week I'll buy the rest of them. So if you want to go cloth bags, just buy a few each time until you get all of them.
mommy~to~a~bunch replied:
That's a great idea Karen. I saw our store just started selling them for $1/each. They have the store logo on them of course, but it's better than the paper or plastic.
coasterqueen replied:
Yeah, we bought the store ones with the logo on them. I just couldn't afford to buy all of them at once. It was one of my excuses before for not doing it. Another good thing for us in using the cloth is we can take them to the farmers market this summer to shop. When we'd shop there they'd give us our items in plastic bags and it was pretty cumbersome to carry them. With the cloth bags, it will be much easier. I was quite surprised at how big the cloth bags I bought at the store, they actually do hold a lot and the cloth handled bags were a lot easier to carry into the house, than the plastic ones are.
mommy~to~a~bunch replied:
I was surprised how much they held too. I'd say the equivalent of 2 plastic bags or so. And the handles are much more comfy; they don't dig into your skin the way the plastic ones do. I use mine at other stores too, like Target, KMart, etc. or wherever you'd get plastic bags.
PrairieMom replied: target has some really cute ones for sale in the section where they have the $1 items, I think they were $2.50 - $1.00 a piece depending on how big they are. I have about 11 bags now. I grocery shop once a week, and can get $150 worth of groceries into 5 bags. ITA that it is so much easier to carry my stuff into the house now.
TheOaf66 replied:
and true
Maddie&EthansMom replied:
we have some Target ones. I'm thinking about making my own......someday.
kit_kats_mom replied: we do lots of things. The thing that got me to post here though is that I keep a whiteboard taped up inside the cabinet door above the phone. We use it to jot down notes, messages etc and we save a lot of paper.
Our biggie that we are working on now is getting rid of a whole car. Dh's office is moving a lot closer in April. When it does, we are going to park his car and pretend it doesn't exist. We will keep it till school starts (just in case that's just too hard to p/u & d/o everyone) but if it's not too awful, we will sell it. Mainly I'm excited about the idea because it will save us $350/mo in a payment and insurance alone, not to mention maintenence costs.
|
