Have you all been receiving a million Earth Day related emails? Me too. But, I happen to enjoy them!
We really do try to do our best for the environment here at West Street. One of our good friends, who will remain nameless {it starts with a “T” and ends with an “im”, just in case you are trying to guess} gave us a bit of a hard time during his last visit to West Street.
We were not properly recycling things that we could very easily be doing so. He even used his daughter {our god-daughter, so he knew it would work} to convince us we needed to do a better job. “You should be recycling for G’s future”…he doesn’t know this {until now}, but I felt HORRIBLE after he left. He was so right! So, our new kitchen already has a place for multiple waste bins that will incorporate more recycling into the West Street household.
This, along with the many Earth Day related promotions I have been reading, has got me to thinking, “Well, what other small and easy changes could I make that would actually make a big impact?” There are a few things I can certainly live without, will probably not miss one bit, but will be better for me, for the environment, and for G!
1. Plastic and paper bags at the grocery store
I urge you to take a look at some of those Earth Day emails you are receiving. A lot of them are offering FREE reusable bags.
Did you know that twelve million barrels of oil were used to make the 88.5 billion plastic bags consumed in the United States last year? And it takes four times more energy to make paper bags. {Source}
Some stores actually pay you to use reusable bags – for instance, at Target, you will receive $0.05 off your total for every reusable bag that you use.
Just store a few reusable bags in your car and take them into the grocery store with you. Just make sure to wash them out every once in a while!
2. Bottled Water
Again, it takes a lot of energy to make the bottles for bottled water and the empty ones create a lot of waste.
We just installed a refrigerator that has a water and ice dispenser. Couple that with reusable bottles {for on-the-go water drinking}, and we will easily be saving a lot of waste and energy.
Even if you do not have a refrigerator with this option, simply incorporating a reusable bottle and filling it with water from your sink will make a difference. Instead of spending money on the bottled water, invest in a water filter for your sink or buy a Brita pitcher!
We do have a few water bottles to use up, but I will be saving those for guests when they do not have a reusable water bottle with them to take water for the road!
3. Junk Mail
Junk mail has always bothered me. I didn’t even understand WHY I was receiving some of the junk mail promotions that I was {how on Earth did I get on some of these mailing lists?!?!}. I have finally found an answer!
You can create a free account at CatalogChoice.org, search by company name, and request they stop sending you their promotions! You can also send in your junk mail envelopes to CatalogChoice.org to have the request be put in for that particular company to stop sending you promotions and such.
See, how simple are these things? And, for the most part, they are all FREE to do. Just some more Earth Day “food for thought” for you, compliments of West Street Story!
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