OK I know I watch too much TV, because I happen to know that NBC is doing a green week. They have done things like leave the lights off in the studio during Sunday Night Football halftime and post game. They said that saved enough energy to power a household for a month. The contestants on The Biggest Loser worked out for a whole week without electricity. And so on. I always say that I'm an activist at heart. Things like global warming always pull at my heart strings, but not enough for me to do anything about it. You could say I'm a passive-activist (he, he, he). Anyway NBC green week got me thinking about somethings that I can to better to conserve, recycle and reuse. So here's my list (by no means am I doing this to toot my own horn, rather to keep brainstorming about ways to improve).
When we moved into the house in March we saw that we had grape vines. I was kind of grouchy about it at first because I thought it would just be messy and annoying. However when the grapes started growing, we got excited. We were able to can about 24 quarts of grape juice. It was our first experience with something like this and we loved it. It was nice to get something from your own property, i.e. free!
While my parents were here, my dad helped Roger build a garden box. Gardening wasn't something I was ever too interested in doing, but lots of people do it around here and I now think it's way cool. We have a little yard, but we will make the most of it. We also started a compost pile. Roger will probably build two more boxes in the spring. We are just doing a little at a time.
This is now my new favorite thing. Giant Eagle has these reusable bags that you can buy to cut down on the use of plastic grocery bags. We all know it takes forever for those to decompose. These bags are quite a good size so I won't need as many.
I'm sure I am making a lot of people laugh with this post because these things are probably not that significant, but it's a place to start. Our borough doesn't offer recycling, but there are places to recycle paper and some plastics nearby. Little by little we are doing better.
What tips and ideas do you have to make a difference, big or small?
5 comments:
I don't really do anything to conserve, which you know, but on oprah someone said that it is helpful to even just unplug things that aren't being used (toaster, blender, lamps) I always just leave everything plugged in. So since then I have tried to unplug things that aren't in use. It's suppossed to save quite a bit of energy!
I echo Brittany's comment and here are some other things we do that both conserve energy and $$. Rechargeable batteries, I recently purchased some gladware to use for packing lunches, sandwiches, carrots, etc instead of using ziplocs all the time, um, that's all i have right now.
I'm excited for your garden, I LOVE gardening, grew up doing it and love it, love it, love it.
Way to go green! Growing up in Oregon it was bred in me, so after moving to the sticks, it has taken a little more effort (no curbside recycling, etc.) Good job on garden, I remember when we were there visiting you told me you were thinking about doing that. There is nothing better than growing you own food and enjoying it. Makes you feel good inside!
Good reminder to be better about this. I'm pretty pathetic; the best advice I can offer is turn the water off while brushing your teeth. I'll have to see if I can't improve a bit on that...
I watch too much TV too because I have been thinking about this as well because they were doing that. I really want to try to get canvas bags for the grocery store.
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