Green Check

Yesterday was Live Earth ... I managed to catch some of the bands, and was able to hear some great music. I will admit that Kanye West and The Police didn't mesh well in my book, but I'm not a big Kanye West fan either.

I've always been rather "earthy" but I got serious about it in high school. I don't know if it had anything to do with the big 20th Anniversary Earth Day celebration, or if I just knew enough and was more aware of it all. My family was not a big recycling family, and we didn't have recycling available to us where we lived. My step dad now recycles because he has curbside available where he lives.

There are several sites available that let you calculate your carbon emissions and also allow you to purchase carbon offsets. I calculated our carbon footprint, and not to my surprise, it's much higher than the average. The culprit: the Mom car. A 2004 Chrysler Pacifica AWD that gets 17 mpg. So not only is my car draining my wallet with the price of gas, it's killing the environment too. Lovely.

But, I do what I can to make differences in other ways. At our house we:

• change to CFL bulbs when the old bulb burns out
• I take my own bags to the store instead of using their plastic. If I forget, I request paper.
• use cloth napkins
• hang our clothes to dry, either inside on a clothes rack or outside in the sun
• cloth diaper, part time
• breastfed
• leave the AC at 77 or 78 in the summer and the heat at 65 - 68 in the winter
• turn lights off when not in the room
• compost our food scraps in our worm bins - I use the resulting compost and worm tea in the gardens
  
• recycle our pool water to use in the garden
• grow some of our own food - vegetables that are canned or frozen for year round use
• recycle almost everything we can. I am very proud of the fact that our family of four only produces one kitchen garbage bag of garbage per week! We often have two full recycle bins.
• but at the farmers markets and freeze or can for year round use
• use refillable water bottles as opposed to off the shelf, single use bottles
  
• actively recycle electronics and books. When I see computer monitors and parts on the curb I stop and pick them up and then take them to the monthly recycling event.
• give things that are no longer needed away on the Freecycle list or at the Goodwill store
• use as much of something as I can - I took a pair of old sweat pants and turned them into two door drafters, and the only garbage left over was the elastic at the waist and ankles. I turned the pockets into cloth napkins!
• use natural cleaning products - baking soda, vinegar and ammonia

I'm trying to figure out how to make a lid for a rain barrel. It's actually a 50 gallon aluminum industrial mixer waiting to be converted into a rain catcher, and if I can do that, then I'll have one of them!

I know there is more that I can do ... the biggest problem is the car. We aren't in a position right now to trade in and get something more earth friendly ... I drive the best that I can, do regular maintenance to make sure it runs well and make as few trips as possible. Luckily DH is only a twenty mile round trip to/from work, so that helps on his end. It's my fifty miles round trip twice a week that doesn't help, and I'm not in a spot to take the train, although I work on the train stop. Maybe after the kids go back to school in the fall I can look into taking the train, but my only concern is that if they need me to get the kids for some reason, I'll be stuck at work, unable to get to them because of the train. It's something to think on.

Thinking Green is a way of life for our family ... can you make it part of yours?