Earth Day Plans 4/22/2013

Here are some ideas that can be used all the time, not just on Earth Day!

 

Keep a trash bag in your car so that you can pick up trash when you see it as you're walking by.  You may want to keep some hand sanitizer with you as well.  If you're in a public area, most likely there will be a trashcan around for you to throw it in.  Go the distance to keep your surroundings cleaner.

 

Conserve and reuse water.  When taking a shower, time yourself so that you know just how long you're in there.  The next time you hop in strive to make it a shorter time.  If you can handle the chill, try turning off the water while you suds up.  At the sink you wet your face and wash your face, proceed to brushing your teeth, then afterwards rinse your face followed by rinsing your mouth...or buy a natural toothpaste you don't have to rinse.  At the toilet...LET THE YELLOW MELLOW!  I do this all the time, so often however that sometimes I forget to flush after going #2...but I catch it quick enough!  When doing dishes by hand you should soap up your sponge and scrub all of the dishes at once and then rinse them all at once so that you don't use extra water filling up the entire sink plus rinsing.

 

Drive less by staying in or car pooling.  Plan all of your errands on one day and travel in a circle from one place to the next so that you minimize back-tracking.

 

Adopt an animal!  Earth isn't just about the ozone, the ground and water, it's about prolonging the life within it!  Go to a shelter and adopt someone on the euthanasia list.  If you do not have the time to take care of an animal for a prolonged amount of time, foster an animal until you can find a better suited home. 

 

Our house gets a ton of clothing magazines and even mail that is in my past grandma's name.  Do this to your email accounts too, find a way to unsubscribe to all of the junk mail that comes your way.  Hopefully there's a way to do this for credit card companies as well!!!  Those are the worst!

 

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.  Duh!  Reduce the amount of waste you make and amenities that you use, from electricity to water.  Reuse plastic bags as trash bags or bags to put clothes in to donate.  Recycle as much waste as possible!  If your town doesn't provide this for you, provide it for yourself.  It wont take long to accumulate enough stuff to make it worth the trip to the dump.  Up cycle too!  Take things that look like trash and turn them into art!!!

 

Compost as many scraps as possible.  Some acidic things are not good to be used in your garden as compost but you can still chunk them into a corner of your yard to decompose that way.  Create a box out of wood or chicken wire and have it in a place not too far that you forget to use it.  Research all kinds of awesome methods.  Now days they make really cute sink-side canisters for you to dump scraps quickly so that you don't have to accumulate bugs or walk outside every time you cook something.

 

Buy local.  Our local high school provided some of the plants we used in our garden.  There is also a man that sells produce by the train tracks (we've never gone to him though).  

 

Use a reusable bag as much as possible.  Find a way to not bother with trash bags at all.  Trash bags just become trash themselves, think about that. 

 

Donate gently used furniture, clothing, appliances, etc.  If you want the newest thing in fashion or in the techy world go for it, support those people, but don't get caught up in having when you have plenty to be giving. 

 

Turn off lights, TVs, and fans when you're not in the room.  Time your use of electronics that suck energy straight from the source.  It's easy to get caught up in a marathon of some show you just discovered, but heading outside with a good book and bug spray is a good alternative. 

 

I hope that I can follow through with these things my self.  It seems silly to talk it up and then proceed without any changes.  I will do my best to update y'all with any progress I make!