All this talk about global warming and treating our Earth better got me thinking...what do you all do to help the Earth?
Do you recycle? I am feeling like I don't do as much as I probably could. I know there are special light bulbs you can buy and a bunch of other stuff. Who has tips? I'd like to do more. And I'd like to raise my son with an awareness about this.

I agree with you, Kristi, I could do a lot more than I do. Anything is a step up from nothing. I wish we had regular recycling pick-up in my area. One small thing that I do...and I mean REALLY SMALL... is that if I go into a store and buy one or two small items, I ask them not to put it in a bag. It cuts down on my trash at least. Also, I do reuse the plastic bags I do take home and take back to the grocery store the ones that collect. Most grocery stores have a bin to deposit them in.

Another thing that has been on my mind lately is possibly trading in my gas guzzler for a hybrid vehicle. I do LOVE all the room in my SUV, but I hate to think how wasteful 12mpg is when I could easily double my mpg. It would be an adjustment. Convenience VS Conscience. Uggghhh...it's tough. I feel so guilty.

Kristi, I have felt the same way. About 6 months ago, we made some changes at our house. As much because of the price of gas as for the environmental impact, we had already downsized the SUV for a Camry (plenty big for a family with 2 kids in carseats), and we are fortunate to have cubrside recyling in our neighborhood (but for those who don't, you can take your newspapers, plastic, cardboard, cans and magazines to Tuscaloosa fire stations for recyling). We have been replacing our burned out lightbulbs with the compact fluorescents and turned down the thermostat on the hot water heater. Beyond that, though, I was starting to be troubled by all the plastic bags we were accumulating, and there was no way I could reuse all the bags that weekly grocery shopping and trips to Target were generating. So, I decided to stop using plastic bags. I bought a couple of canvas ones at Publix and a lightweight one at Manna; plus we had a few that we had acquired through the years at conferences or wherever. I now take my own bags just about everywhere I go shopping. The challenge is remembering to put the bags in the car if there is any chance I might need them. And there are some cashiers at Target that don't know what to do without their plastic bags, so they make me bag my own stuff, which is a skill I'm having to learn. Grocery stores, though, generally handle it pretty well and will bag as they usually do, just in my bags instead of theirs. There are some cool bag options at www.reusablebags.com
The other major change we've made is eliminating plastic water bottles. Our weekly recyling was comprised of way too many plastic bottles, even if we refilled some a time or two before chucking them. So now everyone at our house has their own bottle (link above also has some good info and options for reusable bottles), and in the almost three months since we made the switch, I have only bought bottled water once, for my son's birthday party. It has been much easier thatn I'd thought it would be. We just refill our bottles from our filtered refrigerator water or from the Brita pitcher.
The sacrifice of convenience has been much less than I expected on with the elimination of both plastic bottles and bags.
Here is a link to a few ideas on small "green" changes we can make at home.
http://lighterfootstep.com/ten-first-steps.html

Green is a tough thing! I do things like recycling certain items, but there are only a few that are taken curb side. I know, I know, I should drive all of my recycle items to one of the dumps or centers, but it truly is tough. Driving the right car would be awesome if my finances allowed me to buy one at this time. Using the same shopping bag over and over is very do-able. The thing is this, once you have a baby almost everything you come in contact with is disposable. Now more than ever I feel like I am tossing and tossing and tossing things. Have you noticed the world is going disposable on everything too. I think Ziplock just came out with bags to cook in so you won't have to clean your dishes. I looked on the bottom of a glass coke bottle just the other day and found that it was not even acceptable to be recycled in the state of Ga. I had to go to a North Eastern state to even get my nickle back or have it accepted for recycling. Funny how media preaches for us to do our part and then commercials come on and go against just that. I am actually a resident of Georgia and in the drought situation we have right now the pain to cut back is very real and immediate and mandatory so we don't run out of drinking water by Christmas. I look at my daughters faces and don't ever want them to be the people doing without because of me and my generation, but 20th century people are a bit spoiled.

My mother in law said to me not long ago that she was brushing her teeth one morning with her, then 8 year old granddaughter, in the bathroom with her and when she left the faucet running Heather looked up at her and said this, "Mimi, please turn off the faucet, that is my water you are wasting.". From that moment she never let the water run while she was brushing again and it made her rethink our resources.

Like LawMommy, I bought bags to do my grocery shopping in... but have only used them once. I cannot remember to put them in the car. I got mine at Toys-R-Us. 1.99 for a quite large bag... bigger than the publix ones I've seen.

I know it may be difficult, but if you can save your aluminum cans, there is a recycling center off of 359 that will pay you for them. They will also take old metal appliances and just about anything metal, and will pay you for it. He does building maintenance, so he replaces alot of appliances, and makes about 3 trips a month. We make a little bit of extra money that way, maybe 150-250 on a good month. I know it requires a little more time, but what could be better than making money and saving the environment at the same time.

I agree it's hard to remember to put your shopping bags back into the car. I have a collapsable box that I use. After unloading the groceries, I put my car keys in it so that the next time I go to the car I have to touch the box and hopefully remember to put it back into the car.

We also try not to purchase disposable items. But I must say where my 3 year old daughter is concerned this is a challenge. I was sending her snacks to school in tupperware but noticed that she wasn't eating them. She wants her raisens in a box, the teddy grahams in the bags, and so on. At home it's okay for her but when she notices that her friends have something different of course she wants what they want.

I also try to buy organic when I can. I am increasingly concerened about how our food is grown / raised. All of the pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, etc are not good for us or our environment. Hopefully, if everyone demands that our food is not grown in such harmful ways then organic will become the rule and not the exception (and hopefully less expensive).

quote:

Originally posted by Ronaldsmom:
I know it may be difficult, but if you can save your aluminum cans, there is a recycling center off of 359 that will pay you for them. They will also take old metal appliances and just about anything metal, and will pay you for it. He does building maintenance, so he replaces alot of appliances, and makes about 3 trips a month. We make a little bit of extra money that way, maybe 150-250 on a good month. I know it requires a little more time, but what could be better than making money and saving the environment at the same time.

We take our recycling there, too! and we try to make it a fun thing for our three-year-old: Plus, the change it earns is all his, so hopefully it will become a part of our family routine (and help him earn at least some of his "allowance" himself!).
The cars we drive are small, too, but we can't afford new cars or (my dream!!) hybrids, so we try to drive as little as possible (which we have to do, anyway, with the cost of gas these days!).
I also hang my laundry outside whenever I can, and use my heat & air as little as the family can stand.
I don't think we could do the cloth bag thing, though. I don't think my husband could handle it. But we use our plastic bags instead of buying trash bags, so maybe it's okay.

First and foremost, if you are really interested in making a change, you have to see "An Inconvenient Truth". I have changed almost all of my light bulbs to compact florescent bulbs and like LawMommy I use my own bags at the grocery store. Another idea is to put your thermostat on a timer and turn down your water heater (this helps tremendously on your utility bills). Alabama Power also has a renewable energy program that I enrolled in over the summer. You pay $6 extra a month for it, but it's for a good reason. Also, use less water, don't buy disposable dishes or silverware...the list goes on and on. There are endless ways that you can make your impact on the earth smaller.

I saw this from Mary Jo Modica in yesterday's paper. We started composting about a year and a half ago, and it has greatly reduced the amount of garbage leaving the house - not to mention the fertilizer benefit for the garden.
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20071119/NEWS/71119013/1005/SPORTS0106

Ronaldsmom, I am going to head to that recycling center you are talking about soon. I just need to figure out exactly where it is. I have two huge bags of bottles/cans that I need to get rid of. It's amazing how many bottles/cans one household can go through!

I wish I could help tell you how to get there.I know you exit off of 359, but I don't know what the street name is on the exit. My husband is always the one who takes our recyclables. I can drive there, but I don't know the street names, so I would have a hard time giving directions. You know how that is, when you know where you are going, but are clueless how to tell someone else how to get there. I will talk to my hubby tonight and see if I can get concrete directions to you tomorrow.

April-mommy to Ronald-11 months old

Oh I am the queen of knowing where something is but not knowing the streets to get there! LOL
Thx!

FYI: I wound up taking my bottles and cans to the city's recycling post beside the fire house on New Watermelon Road. There are bins set up there and you just separate them yourself. But there's no bin for glass.

Just a side note: it's so odd to me not to be able to get a deposit on your bottles and cans here. Back north, there are machines in all the grocery stores and you get receipts that give you money off your groceries.
I know there's a center someone was talking about that pays you for them. But I called and they said they pay by the pound and I didn't feel I had enough weight-wise to warrant trekking all the way there. I'd prolly spend more in gas money to get them there! So I just hit up the city one by my house.
Oh well. I'm still happy to do my part for the environment!

Here is a local story about recycling your Christmas tree if that's something you think you might want to do....

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20071228/NEWS/266039656/1007