I challenge you to think.. REALLY THINK.. about the amount of garbage you produce. On Karen's recommendation I checked Garbage Land out at the library and am not even through the Introduction yet and am already REALLY THINKING about my / our garbage production and how I can decrease it. I am daydreaming about the Green Cone I'm going to purchase and install when we return from Texas in April.
We are all responsible for taking care of this planet of ours and each of us can make an impact by changing our own habits! I challenge you to change at least ONE thing... if that means using your dishes instead of paper (no names named), buying some fabric napkins instead of paper towels or paper napkins (doing this today), recycling when maybe you didn't in the past, using a 'to go' coffee tumbler at the coffee shop instead of getting a paper cup, taking your own bags to the grocery store.. whatever it is... chose just ONE thing (at least) and change it.. TODAY!
And read the book Garbage Land if you need some motivation!
I am going to buy some Chico bags (reusable grocery bags) from www.greenfeet.com. I am also going to get a bigger purse so that I can fit the chico bags in there and then I will have them when I am randomly at the store. Also with a bigger purse (I am thinking messenger bag type) I can just fit things in there instead of taking a bag.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this post Laura. I think people really do need to be challenged and to challenge themselves - after all, we are all on this rock together!
The amount of garbage we produce has always bothered me. We always decline a bag at the store when we don't need it. It's amazing how many vendors will automatically put your one small item into a bag. Book stores are famous for it!
ReplyDeleteI was listening to my new favorite podcast, More Hip Than Hippie and they were interviewing the guy who designs and sells Chico bags (named for the town in CA that he lives in) anyway, he said that grocery stores measure sucess (in part) by how many plastic bags they use!
ReplyDeleteThanks for this . . . I love challenges. I really need to be better about bring my coffee tumbler when I get it. I'm also a baggie/ziplock addict, but I did by some reusable sandwich wrap from reuseablebags.com. They too have some cool shopping bags.
ReplyDeleteOkay, so I'm not doing so bad after all. I've got the grocery bags (they sell 'em in the store here), the cloth napkins, mondo recycling, and no paper products. I'm a sucker for the coffee cup. I don't know. There's something about that fresh paper feel of warm coffee. Married to a GREEN NAZI has helped tremendously. My two favorite things when we met were CLOROX and VELVEETA. ew. My Mr. is taking his LEED AP exam this weekend (for the 2nd time) to become a green builder. The northeast is a little behind, but we're working on it. May I suggest all Ecover and 7th generation products for cleaning?
ReplyDeleteKatie.. yeah for your own person Green Nazi and that's awesome that he's taking an exam (didn't know you had to do that) to be a green builder! And double ew on the Clorox and Velveeta (what IS that stuff anyway... just eat the cheese! ha ha)
ReplyDeleteI used to use the 7th Gen stuff... now I use Shaklee... it's 'green' and helps cut down on the plastic bottle waste! ;)
Hi Laura, our friend made This Video it seems to go along with the challenge.
ReplyDeleteBrandee.. that's a great video... I'll pass it on!
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