A few months ago I wrote about Zwaggle. Zwaggle's an online community of socially responsible parents who want to do their share to give back to other parents, their kids and the environment.
This month The Parent Bloggers Network is teaming up with Zwaggle to highlight ideas on saving, sharing and simplifying. If you've been following my Three R Thursday posts, you know this is a topic near and dear to my heart.
I thought this would be a great opportunity to list some of the practical things our family is doing to save, share and simplify.
- Carrying reusable bags.
- Using recycled toilet paper.
- Eliminating paper towels.
- Using phosphate-free laundry and dish washing detergent.
- Switching our light bulbs.
- Using biodegradable trash bags made from corn starch.
- Eliminating our junk mail.
- Listing items we don't use on Freecycle and Paperback Swap.
- Using eco-friendly toothbrushes.
- Eliminating sandwich bags.
- Choosing safer eco-friendly products for our children.
- Turning off our car engines.
- Using socks as Swiffers.
- "Greening" up our family holidays here, here and here.
- Purchasing organic food whenever possible.
It's not been difficult to make these simple changes. I am proud of the progress we've made and look forward to watching this list grow. I know we can do a lot more. I'm always interested in how other people are saving, sharing, and simplifying. Please feel free to share your ideas here, or you can write a post for The Parent Bloggers Network (of course there are prizes available).
7 comments:
I'm the moron of green, but I'm learning and aiming high. Thanks for all the info and links.
Turning off our car engines.
is only good for older cars. newer cars - I believe, last 10 years - idle at a much lower rate so are more efficient.
The car uses up a lot more to turn it on then idle.
Same with normal light bulbs (huge to turn on), BUT the new energy bulbs when you turn them on require almost the same to maintain them = very little.
So please do a little more research on cars to help me know what year cars became more efficient and how much energy is used to turn on your car VS leaving it on.
Thank you
Biodegradable trash bags are something I need to add to my list of Earth Day resolutions. Thanks for your list! I'm looking forward to hearing other people's additions to it.
One thing we do that I didn't see listed was compost our food waste. When food goes into a landfill, it cannot biodegrade properly. Instead it rots and emits dangerous greenhouse gasses.
I have a little roll of cornstarch bags that the city sent to me, along with a snazzy little bucket for food scraps. (We can throw our food scraps into the yard waste bins here, and then buy them back later as dirt. Sweet, yes?) My quandary - I NEVER use the bags because they ALWAYS get damp (it's food scraps!) and then it ALWAYS smells like rotting oregano AND it melts. (Like...a bag made out of cornstarch might.) Any suggestions? I'm also aware that my vast pile of diapers heading out of my house, double bagged in plastic bags, is not helping the Green Cause. But, I do what I can!
You guys are doing GREAT! And you forgot to say you are *considering* cloth diapers. ;)
That is great! I can check a few of those off your list as well, and I am gradually making other changes as I learn from your blog as well!
Thanks for sharing your list! Mine isn't nearly that long - hopefully it will be soon.
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