I watched a show on Earth Day about saving the Earth. I can't explain to you how eye opening it was. I had no idea to what extent we are destroying our Earth.
Just the amount of trash alone is unreal. I will never look at my trash the same again. Have you ever stopped to think just how much trash your family creates? A typical family creates 29lbs of trash per week.
Did you know that there is a trash pile in the Pacific Ocean twice the size of Texas? Eighty percent of it is plastic. There are places in the ocean that this trash pile reaches 90 feet deep. Most of it came from us...on the land.
Now I'm not a granola eating, recycle my every bit of trash, not brush my teeth to save the water, turn off the lights and AC kind of person. I just really want to keep doing the little bit I can and a little more.
There are a few things we were already doing, and some of these started with the effort to save money at first. I stopped using paper towels was one thing. We only use cloth napkins. And I don't use paper plates at all. We recycle our newspaper and aluminum cans. As light bulbs go out around the house I change them to fluorescent. The kids take timed showers. Sometimes they go faster than the time given because they race each other. No running the water while brushing teeth.
But I'm wondering....what else can we do? There has to be so much more.
I'd like to recycle more of our trash. But what? And how?
I want to start actually using those reusable grocery bags I've bought but don't know where they are.
I need some ideas that will work well for a busy family. Or any other energy saving ideas. I'm always looking for energy saving because that = money saving. And who couldn't use a little more of that?
2 comments:
It is astounding the garbage created! We didn't faithfully recycle but started about a year ago. We have 3 bags going at all times; cans/metals, plastics, and paper/cardboard. It's amazing how little trash we throw in the trash can since recycling! If everyone did that, it would be amazing! There are some countries where it is law to recycle.
We're doing all that you are. Short of hugging trees and talking to plants, we want to take care of what God has given us!
We use those reusable grocery bags. It took a few trips back to the car for them to teach myself to remember to take them in. Put your big girl on that one. She'll make sure you don't forget! After we bring in the groceries, the bags go right back into the back of the Suburban. I have 6 or 7 of them. A full cart can be bagged into about that many.
We recycle plastic, aluminum cans, newspaper/magazines, cardboard, and glass. We have a container for the newspaper/magazines in the garage. And I just found some Glad recycle bags (blue with handles) that go in a 30 gallon trash can. Right now we just use the bags to gather cans, glass, and plastic, but it would be so much better if we had trash cans set up! I gather up the recycling about once every 6 -8 weeks and take it to the recycle center. Our trash production has gone WAY done.
Oh, and we started composting. That's been fun.
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