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Well, tomorrow is Earth Day!

Now, because I'm an old hippie, and remember the first earth day very well, our home (our planet) is important to me! Each year, we try to take on another affordable project to do less harm to the earth and our environment. I've been doing this since 1969, and making one change a year.

I'm not a fanatic, but it is important! Not so much for me, but for everything and everybody that will share the planet for years to come.

After almost 40 years, and so many new conveniences, it gets hard to choose that project. Like I said, I like those fast, easy new items that make life easier! We all get sucked into fast and quick these days!

This year, I finally took a very good look around my home and discovered just how many items that are made of plastic! I was totally shocked when I saw how much plastic that we use every day!

My project this year is to cut back my use of plastic! I'm going to take JD's tip and buy the produce plastic bags for storage and freezer bags. I'm also going to start making juice and such from frozen concentrate and using the same plastic pitchers over again (just like the old days). I'll either go back to having water delivered or try one of the filtering products on the market. Anything that I mindlessly tossed in the recycle bin or garbage will now get a second look!

There is something that we all forget. When we go for convenience, we do sacrifice cost! This basically makes those big businesses sort of govern us. Just something to think about! Most products can be packaged in glass, just like the old days. It's cheaper, but not as convenient, and it's recyclable!

All plastics are petroleum based, just like the gas we use in our homes and in our cars.

Anyone else have have green tips that will keep our earth safe and save us some money at the same time? You're more than welcome to chime in!

Maureen

Hi

Happy Earth Day!

We are going to work on using less ENERGY (electricity and gasoline).

Also I'm going to make sure we properly handle all the toxins we have. Our county landfill has a special section for toxins such as motor oil, and batteries. I have a lot of old paint to discard.

Take care.

Harry

Hi Harry,

Check with your local landfill. If you have water based paints to get rid of, you might be able to let the water based dry out and then just toss in the garbage. We're able to do that here.

I have to make a trip to the local recyclers in the next few weeks. I get huge amounts of cardboard with the floral business and have to run that down every few months. I'm planning on finding out what plastics can be recycled and which can't. No one here in Nevada recycles the stuff! We have a bin for aluminum and one for glass... but none for plastics! I want to know why we aren't recycling plastics here! Most states give you cash back for plastics! Not Nevada!

Another thing that is on my list, is why do they give you a tiny 2' x2' basket to put this stuff in and then only pick it up every two weeks? The soda cans alone fill those up in no time flat!

Oh, another thing that I will be doing once the weather clears up is planting a few more trees this year. We lost a few last year.

Maureen

Hi,

We too try to do what we can...recycling is high on our list.

Most of our landfills are fairly strict in keeping things separated. The main landfill that receives downed trees etc, chips it all up and makes mulch, free for the taking!

We do try to purchase items that are not excessively wrapped.

Another thing my Hubby and I do is take evening walks...we each grab a trash bag and while we are walking we pick up the trash as we go. It amazes me how many McDonald's, Wendy's and other fast food bags we pick up!

Now if you start this please be forewarned to protect yourself, we each have leather gloves and a pick up stick (similar to what the handicapped use to pick up items).

I will admit, that we do not do all that we could to help the environment, but we do try to do something!

We use our share of water, mostly for outside use, plants, pool, now the water garden. LOL, I do not feel guilty about the water feature. Alot of birds, wild rabbits, and even a few deer have dropped by to get drinks and the birds love to take baths there!

To help with the water consumption we are going to get a couple of rain barrels and put them in place at the down spouts of the gutters. This we will use to water the plants.

We do have all the energy saver light bulbs in the house, water saver toilets and shower heads. We recently put in all new energy efficient doors and windows, same with appliances. All this sounds good but a quick look around shows we could do more. Lots of things continue to use electricity even though they are not in use. Toaster has lights, microwave, digital clocks, VCR/DVD etc.

We are back to making sure that every trip with the car is efficient as well, planning the trip to get everything we need in one trip. For your vehicles make sure that all your filters are clean, tire pressures, tuned up etc, this helps with your gas mileage.

Ok, gotta get ready for work, everyone have a great day!

~Yanita~

Ditto on what Yanita said. I am going to do a survey of how many things are plugged in constantly and all those transformers drawing power. However, with our non-polluting hydro I don't feel too bad.
I recycle, compost, all electric, solar heaters, drive a Honda Fit that gets me 41 MPG. (Imperial)

As for a rain collector, it can be as simple as a $15 plastic garbage can. In this picture you can see my set up. I had to install a 22' eaves-trough and used a downspout at the end to collect the rain.
I used a milk jug for a spout, sump house, and a 141L garbage can.
Next I connected a heater hose for an overflow into the blue barrel and a tap to connect the gravity fed garden hose.
With only a mm. of rain it almost fills the garbage can.
I dip into the can to fill my watering can for flowers.

Click on the pic to enlarge it.
(That's a Black Cap Chickadee reminding me to put out the bird
bath.)

http://mobilehomerepair.com/phpbb/album ... ser_id=108

Well, we are recycling more, used only about $100 of gas to heat the house this winter, almost all our bulbs are now compact flourescents. We are insulating like crazy and sealing up the place. we are going to re roof the place and are thinking of a lighter colour to reduce air conditioning. We are going to put in about 100 cedar trees this year. Laundry is done in cold water. All the plants and lawn get watered from the river. I just have to figure out how to make that one solar or wind powered, but that's a budget thing at the moment. A whole bunch of little things add up, after all it was a whole bunch of little things that accumulated that got us in this situation. I keep researching wind power, I had to take down a bunch of trees for safetys sake and I am getting room to put up a wind generator. Don't know which ones are the best deals yet tho' so chime in somebody and give me a hint!! lol

JIm

Those CFLs (compact florescent lights) are truly amazing. I replaced two of the outside lights I leave on all night with them last month and just received my electric bill. It's an astonishing $10 cheaper than the previous month. While the initial cost is slightly higher than incandescent bulbs, they've already paid for themselves.

Around here, I try to reuse as much as possible. I have had the same jug from milk for juice for a long time. I use a rain barrel to collect water for my greenhouse, and I separate my garbage that goes to the dump. My empty bottles and cans usually go to a couple down the way, that are in need. Old wood gets cut up for my aunts fire stove. All the windows that are being changed , well the glass is taken out, and the metal is given to the dump manager for recycling.

Here is a dilemma I had with cloth or disposable diapers. I ended up using Huggies. The cost and chemical use on cloth was going to be worse than the disposable dumping. after research, Huggies were the most environment friendly way to go.

hey everyone! This is my first post and I'm so excited to be here. Getting back to the topic at hand--green day--sometimes I think everyday is green day for my family. I was certainly brought up in a"waste not want not" sort of envirment We found all sorts of ways to reuse everything we could.

Every time I try to use less energy, the boss gets bent out of shape!!!
CF light bulbs or LED lighting is the way to go. We have a florsent flood light that is great, 150 watts of light for 60 watts. I put LED lights in the Kitchen (under cabinet) and 3 if them light the kitchen very well for night time use. Greg

Hi Sherry,

Welcome to the site!

Please feel free to share the ways you and your family of been recycling...you may have some ideas that the rest of us have not even considered!

Hey Greg, to be certain that Sandy never gets bent out of shape! HAHAHAHA...

~Yanita~