Although lessening my carbon footprint is a consequence of this, and not the motivation behind it. The motivation (for the first two, at least) is simplicity. I make do with what I have, and don't feel the need to get new stuff just to have it.
We just bought a push lawn mower. Got rid of our microwave. Use only "green" cleaning supplies. recycle everything we can. turn off lights and turn the water off when brushing our teeth!
I never realized that people leave the water running when brushing teeth. Well, I guess I did, but only because I constantly see that as one of the water saving tips.
the canvas bags. I also hang dry my clothes. Oh, and I live close enough to work that I walk every day (and even now, when I'm housesitting 2 miles away, I am taking the bus except on days when I'm at school later than the busses run).
Someday, I'd like to grow my own garden, live in a small house with only one car for our family, and maybe even have some solar cells on the roof. I'd like to compost, and I would love to have a compostable toilet to reduce our water use.
we recycle about 75% of our waste... we freecycle everything that's not ready for trash or recycling...or donate to goodwill...
try to buy new things with less packaging... water filter on our sink instead of bottled water... buy used electronics when possible... use rechargeable batteries when possible... and dispose of non-rechargeables in the appropriate locations... cloth napkins...hankerchiefs...
we hope to put solar panels on our house... buy a hybrid or alternative fuel car some day...
i'm starting to feel a little better :) we also have the old style reel mower... and use vinager, baking soda and borax as our primary cleaning products and borax in the laundry instead of bleach...
and we're getting an on-demand hot water heater when i get my tax rebate :)
it's hard to watch shows on being green...starts to get overwhelming especially when you're on a tight budget and can't afford to always buy local or green...
Our home uses tank water (which collects run-off from our roof) for the toilets and the washing machine. We have no dryer or microwave (which wouldn't have occurred to me as 'green', but someone said it above me!) I've planted a veggie garden, and we compost al our scraps. We turn our tv, dvd player and PS2 off at the powerpoint when we're not using them, rather than leaving them on standby. We isolate the lights in our living space (one big room is our lounge, dining and kitchen... we can choose just to have the dining section lit - if we're watching tv, we just have a lamp on). Even though it's getting cooler, we've yet to use the heating - we have a bunch of polar-fleece "Nana rugs" for our knees/shoulders. Our hot water and cooktop are natural gas, not electric. We pay an extra $2/week to get "green" electricity -- for every kilowatt of electricity we use, our company promises to purchase one kilowatt of power from renewable sources (there's a solar farm in town
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Comments 9
Although lessening my carbon footprint is a consequence of this, and not the motivation behind it. The motivation (for the first two, at least) is simplicity. I make do with what I have, and don't feel the need to get new stuff just to have it.
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Got rid of our microwave.
Use only "green" cleaning supplies.
recycle everything we can.
turn off lights and turn the water off when brushing our teeth!
It's a start.
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Someday, I'd like to grow my own garden, live in a small house with only one car for our family, and maybe even have some solar cells on the roof. I'd like to compost, and I would love to have a compostable toilet to reduce our water use.
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we freecycle everything that's not ready for trash or recycling...or donate to goodwill...
try to buy new things with less packaging...
water filter on our sink instead of bottled water...
buy used electronics when possible...
use rechargeable batteries when possible...
and dispose of non-rechargeables in the appropriate locations...
cloth napkins...hankerchiefs...
we hope to put solar panels on our house...
buy a hybrid or alternative fuel car some day...
that's off the top of my head...
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i would like to compost as well and we are planning to switch to canvas grocery bags soon...
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we also have the old style reel mower...
and use vinager, baking soda and borax as our primary cleaning products and borax in the laundry instead of bleach...
and we're getting an on-demand hot water heater when i get my tax rebate :)
it's hard to watch shows on being green...starts to get overwhelming especially when you're on a tight budget and can't afford to always buy local or green...
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