I am slowly discovering that I am really a little hippie at heart. Not so much in the free love and drugs kind of way, but in the peace and tree-hugging sort of way.
As a result, I’ve tried to put my money where my mouth is, and so I own a hybrid car, bought a high-efficiency washer and dryer, and only purchase LED light bulbs. These are large, and hopefully only occasional, instances of green choices– but they are the easy part. One purchase, and you get to pat yourself on the back for being “environmentally friendly.”
I’ve found that the real challenge is changing your lifestyle, and doing your best to be the greenest you can be in all of the little everyday things. If you’re up for a challenge, here are the things that we (my poor husband and I) do in our household to save the planet, one little choice at a time:
- Use your local library.
- Between my husband and I, we own a LOT of books and DVDs. In an attempt to reduce our clutter, we have resolved to try and borrow books and DVDs from the library before we purchase them to add to our collection (This goes double for cookbooks).
This decision prevents us from ending up with books/DVDs that we aren’t crazy about–
which end up either just collecting dust, or being listed on Ebay for a fraction of the original cost. In addition to reducing clutter, it saves us money, and reduces the amount of raw materials needed to manufacture the items by using a shared copy. Also, libraries are the best!
- Between my husband and I, we own a LOT of books and DVDs. In an attempt to reduce our clutter, we have resolved to try and borrow books and DVDs from the library before we purchase them to add to our collection (This goes double for cookbooks).
- Sort it all out — It takes 2.
- I think a lot of times people fail to recycle because they are lazy. I know that I’m guilty of it. So, in recognition of that, I have tried to capitalize on this laziness in a way that helps the environment: everywhere we have a trash can, we also have a recycle bin. This includes the kitchen, the bathrooms, and in my car. It minimizes the distance component, which makes making the green choice easier and it means that I generally have to empty the bins half as often! Everybody wins all around!
Disclaimer: these aren’t my bins, but aren’t they cute?
- I think a lot of times people fail to recycle because they are lazy. I know that I’m guilty of it. So, in recognition of that, I have tried to capitalize on this laziness in a way that helps the environment: everywhere we have a trash can, we also have a recycle bin. This includes the kitchen, the bathrooms, and in my car. It minimizes the distance component, which makes making the green choice easier and it means that I generally have to empty the bins half as often! Everybody wins all around!
- Sort it all out – Go the extra mile.
- Sometimes you need to take your recycling matters into your own hands. At our last apartment, there was no curbside recycling service available. The city had a recycling center, and it was up to us if we wanted our items to get there. And if we decided to make the extra trip, we had to sort our items by category once we got there. So, I put two sets of these babies on our wedding registry:
Although no one purchased them for us directly, they were the first thing we bought with the Amazon gift cards we received. I promptly then labeled them: #1 Plastics, Other Plastics, Paper, Cardboard, Glass, and Aluminium. Obviously, you would label yours according to your needs. My only further comment for you is that if you do choose these bins is to have the heavier materials (glass, paper) in the bottom bins.
- Sometimes you need to take your recycling matters into your own hands. At our last apartment, there was no curbside recycling service available. The city had a recycling center, and it was up to us if we wanted our items to get there. And if we decided to make the extra trip, we had to sort our items by category once we got there. So, I put two sets of these babies on our wedding registry:
- Bring Your Own Bag.
- We must own at least 25 reusable grocery bags of all shapes, sizes, functionalities, and patterns. Although I did buy a couple of them when reusable bags became all the rage about 10 years ago, I’ve found that I’ve acquired more free ones than I can ever practically use by going to conferences in my various fields, or as a “gift” for making a large purchase at one store or another. So, for any non-impromptu shopping trip, there’s really no excuse for me to use paper or plastic bags. Shopping at Aldi helps reinforce this idea for me, as paper bags cost extra!
- We must own at least 25 reusable grocery bags of all shapes, sizes, functionalities, and patterns. Although I did buy a couple of them when reusable bags became all the rage about 10 years ago, I’ve found that I’ve acquired more free ones than I can ever practically use by going to conferences in my various fields, or as a “gift” for making a large purchase at one store or another. So, for any non-impromptu shopping trip, there’s really no excuse for me to use paper or plastic bags. Shopping at Aldi helps reinforce this idea for me, as paper bags cost extra!
- Recycle the paper/plastic bags you do end up with.
- Sometimes I’m spontaneous and stop by the grocery store on my way home from somewhere else. Sometimes I’m just forgetful and end up kicking myself for leaving the reusable bags at home when I swipe my first item at the checkout. So when we do end up with grocery bags, we try to reuse them. We use the paper bags to collect our recyclables inside the house, and often reuse them until they rip. As for the plastic bags, I have devised a system: I bought two differently-patterned plastic bag collectors like this one off of Etsy:
In one of the collectors we place all of the plastic bags that do not have holes in them. These often get used to line small trash cans around the house, or to clean out the cat litter boxes. In the other collector we place all of the bags that already have holes in them. Once this bag is full, I empty it, stuff all of the plastic bags inside one plastic bag, and then take it to my local Walmart to recycle. Pro-tip: If you stash the bag of bags next to your reusable bags, you’re more likely to remember to take them with you on your next grocery trip!
- Sometimes I’m spontaneous and stop by the grocery store on my way home from somewhere else. Sometimes I’m just forgetful and end up kicking myself for leaving the reusable bags at home when I swipe my first item at the checkout. So when we do end up with grocery bags, we try to reuse them. We use the paper bags to collect our recyclables inside the house, and often reuse them until they rip. As for the plastic bags, I have devised a system: I bought two differently-patterned plastic bag collectors like this one off of Etsy:
- Enforce a “No Ziploc Bag” rule.
In our house, we have a no ziploc bag rule. We use only reusable tupperware for lunches and storage. We do have 1 box of bags in the house for those rare only-a-bag-will-do moments. Other than packing liquids in our luggage for flying, and piping icing onto cupcakes once, I can’t honestly remember the last time I truly needed to use a plastic bag! Again, in addition to being “green,” this tip will save you some green!
- Try to avoid paper towels.
- There are a lot of messes that can be resolved with a dish towel just as well as with a paper towel– especially in the kitchen! I’m trying to train myself to default to dish towels, and to only use paper towels when necessary (I still deem any cat bodily-function mess cleanup as paper towel necessary). We own a lot of dish towels (most of which I didn’t purchase myself and I’m not always sure where they came from). By always having a clean dish towel available, I tend to use them more.
I usually wash the dirty dish towels with the bath towels to make a full laundry load. Again, this green tip should save you some green!
- There are a lot of messes that can be resolved with a dish towel just as well as with a paper towel– especially in the kitchen! I’m trying to train myself to default to dish towels, and to only use paper towels when necessary (I still deem any cat bodily-function mess cleanup as paper towel necessary). We own a lot of dish towels (most of which I didn’t purchase myself and I’m not always sure where they came from). By always having a clean dish towel available, I tend to use them more.
- Buy your eggs from friends.
- Is it just me, or are all of the post-college 20-somethings all getting into raising their own chickens? I feel like I have a disproportionate number of friends who are now in the process of raising their own chickens– which is great for me! As a vegetarian, it is important to me that I do my best to avoid supporting factory farming with my money– which is hard to do at the store because there are very loose stipulations for labeling your eggs “cage-free” or “free-range.”
By buying our eggs from friends, we know that the chickens laying the eggs we eat are happy, healthy, and are enjoying all that barnyard life has to offer– for about half the price of the store’s questionably “Cage-free” eggs. Plus, our friends seem to like earning a little extra money and freeing up space in their refrigerators! And as if that wasn’t enough to convince you, depending on how your friends handle their eggs, if they do not wash the eggs before giving them to you, they are fine to leave out of the fridge for about 4 weeks.
- Is it just me, or are all of the post-college 20-somethings all getting into raising their own chickens? I feel like I have a disproportionate number of friends who are now in the process of raising their own chickens– which is great for me! As a vegetarian, it is important to me that I do my best to avoid supporting factory farming with my money– which is hard to do at the store because there are very loose stipulations for labeling your eggs “cage-free” or “free-range.”
- Plan your produce use.
- To reduce food waste, we only buy food we have a plan to use. Between my husband and I, we pick out 2-3 recipes a week and only buy the produce for those recipes, because otherwise it has a tendency to go bad before we get around to eating it. I’ve also tried, with occasional success, to try and coordinate those 2-3 recipes so if one calls for 1/2 of an onion, so does another– that way the whole onion gets used.
- To reduce food waste, we only buy food we have a plan to use. Between my husband and I, we pick out 2-3 recipes a week and only buy the produce for those recipes, because otherwise it has a tendency to go bad before we get around to eating it. I’ve also tried, with occasional success, to try and coordinate those 2-3 recipes so if one calls for 1/2 of an onion, so does another– that way the whole onion gets used.
- Compost most scraps.
- Starting last spring, we started composting all of our kitchen scraps. Veggies, egg shells, coffee grounds, my loose leaf teas… with that and recycling, we put next to nothing in our trash can! If you have a place to take the compost after leaving your kitchen, I’ll swear by this little, almost entirely odorless compost bucket: Full Circle Fresh Air Odor-Free Kitchen Compost Collector – 1.5 gallon
- Starting last spring, we started composting all of our kitchen scraps. Veggies, egg shells, coffee grounds, my loose leaf teas… with that and recycling, we put next to nothing in our trash can! If you have a place to take the compost after leaving your kitchen, I’ll swear by this little, almost entirely odorless compost bucket: Full Circle Fresh Air Odor-Free Kitchen Compost Collector – 1.5 gallon
That’s it for us at this point– but we’re always open to learning about more ways to reduce our impact on the environment. If you do anything different, I’d love to hear about it in the comments! Maybe we’ll be able to incorporate your tips into our daily green routine!
The Angsty Cephalopod's Musings 