Post by: Megan Stremmick
You may have seen the Oprah Earth Day episode a while back with Julia Roberts talking about and showing examples of how she composts at home. It was a great episode that you can still see on Oprah.com, and after watching it I can remember feeling inspired to turn myself into an environmentally conscious, compost loving, Prius driving conservationist. Then…the reality of my life began to take hold and my car that was already paid off and still ran well seemed more economical than purchasing a brand new Prius and the idea of fitting in composting to an already overflowing schedule just seemed down right daunting. I started to feel guilty as if I was being socially irresponsible by not planting my own organic garden in the backyard but then I realized that there are plenty of other things that I was already doing and could start doing that would not be so overwhelming.
Get Back to the Basics— Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle
Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. These are self explanatory things that we have all been learning since we were young and they are easy to put into practice. Take stock of how much you consume and what you may be wasting. When you are at the store and buying groceries for the week are you sure you’re going to eat all of that produce before it goes bad? When you grab a paper towel to dry your hands, could you have just as easily used a dish cloth? You have friends and family over for a get together and they all know where the trash can is but do they know where your recycling can is? Did you know you can recycle that piece of foil that was covering your leftovers in the fridge when you couldn’t find the matching lid for the Tupperware.
If It’s Yellow Let It Mellow
Ok, I wouldn’t recommend you go that far, especially with curious little one’s wandering the house, opening lids and putting there hands and faces into things…yikes. There are other ways of cutting down your water consumption however, so let’s start with the dishes. Many people have a dishwasher these days but even if you do chances are you are still washing plenty of things in the sink—non-dishwasher safe plastics, big pots and pans, and those beautiful wine glasses that your aunt Nancy gave you as a wedding gift. I catch myself turning the water on hot and letting run while I scrub away at the sink and the majority of that water is not even helping me clean, it’s just running down the drain while I use a little elbow-grease on my dirty roast pan. Now I fill one side of the sink half way with hot soapy water (preferably the disposal side so that the bits of food that you are scrubbing off don’t clog the sink) and use the other side to rinse off the scrubbed dishes with clean water. This way you scrub-a-dub-dub without the water running then just rinse all at once. The same concept applies when you brush your teeth or wash your face, do you really need it running when you brush or lather?
Bag It!
Reusable shopping bags are popping up everywhere from the $.99 bags at the checkout to the trendy “that would even be a cute diaper bag” bags that can run upwards of $20 and a variety in between. No matter what you choose I recommend getting enough for even your biggest trips to the store, you know, the times when your cart is overflowing because you haven’t shopped in three weeks and the household is down to a brown banana, an apple with a mysterious bite out of it, limp celery, cereal but no milk, and a couple boxes of mac ‘n cheese. You just keep the bags in your car (put all of the bags into one and keep in your trunk or back seat) just don’t forget to bring them in the store with you. I am so adamant about using mine now that once I was in the check out line, forgot my bags in the car and ran out to the car to get them. When everyone in line realized what the hold up was for none of them minded in the least, I even got a couple supportive comments like “hey, that’s great dedication to our environment”. So pass on the paper or plastic and use your own.
How are you celebrating on the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day? Let us know on Twitter or on Facebook!