It's Easy Being Green!

Earth Day was Sunday. It sure has changed from its first celebration in the 80's. Back then, it was almost "hippie fringe" and no self-respecting upper middle class suburbanite could be bothered to pay attention. Happily (or unhappily since it's a looming environmental crisis that is making people wake up and smell the ozone), it's mainstream these days. Heck, Martha Stewart and Oprah BOTH made it a focal point of last week's shows.

We do pretty well around our house. Some of our efforts are more involved--organic gardening, recycling, composting--all things that you might consider too. I'll blog about them in the weeks to come.

There are some simple things I've vowed to pay more attention to though.

• Making sure lights are turned off when we're not in the room. I've always thought we're pretty good about this. When I pay attention though, we're really not. We've resolved to do a much better job. I'm even going to look into these to help save energy costs from our electronics and appliances.


• Cut down on paper towel use. I already use the ubiquitous "tea towel" as my napkin during most dinners. I'm now going to go out and buy some rags that we can use to clean counters and windows rather than going through roll after roll of paper towels. However, I'm not joining the Sheryl Crow "one sheet of toilet paper" bandwagon.


• Look for eco-friendly cleaners. We already use the dis soap put out by Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day. Added bonus is that it smells great. Now I'm going to look for other options for the laundry and to replace the Clorox Clean-Up we use on our countertops. Maybe Shaklee has something. (Speaking of laundry, I'm also thinking about drying our sheets on clotheslines outdoors. Since we feed the birds, we'll have to come up with a strategic place for the line...)


• Switch to compact fluorescent bulbs. I've heard there's controversy over how environmentally friednly these bulbs actually are (apparently they include mercury which can be a problem when you discard them), but they are supposed to provide great light and save significant amounts of energy. I'm doing a test case on several of our lamps in the next couple of days.


• Use a canvas bag at the grocery store. If asked, I'll choose a paper bag over a plastic one, but I might as well take a canvas bag that I can reuse over and over again.


• Cut down on junk mail. While I already shred and recycle our junk mail, I'm going to check out Greendimes. They say they can cut down on your junk mail by 75-90%. Worth a try...

If all of you reading this blog would agree to just ONE of these things, we'd already be taking steps to make the world a better place...and guarantee that it will be here for future generations. Will you join me?