Let's talk about green living

[aprilludgate]

I truly suck at this. Do you take your lunch to work every day? I looked at these lunchboxes a few months ago, and I thought they would be really "green." But I never went forward with that thought.

www.lunchboxes.com/bento.html

[lilibet]

Recycle, reusable bags, fill up water bottles instead of plastic ones, cloth napkins instead of paper and rags instead of paper towels almost all the time (really only have paper towels for dog messes), I try to keep the heat at a lower temp (dh fights me on this), I try to plan all my errands to reduce driving (no public transportation), and I've been trying to reduce the package waste we bring in to the house.

[Deleted]

we recycle everything - i mean EVERYTHING. we use rags rather than paper towels. we wear sweaters rather than turning the heat up (lol).

i always go blank on this question. haha

[cahabalily]

I think you need to parametize that goal a bit. Are you focusing on water usage, carbon footprint, etc? Usually when you purchase store bought 'green' items, there's some give and take along the manufacturing process in other categories.

I make my own laundry detergent and try to keep lights turned off when we aren't in the room. I also pester H about keeping the laptops powered off instead of in sleep mode.

[speckledfrog]

A small thing I do is take my recyclable cups (or lids) home with me to recycle instead of throwing them away at the reastaurant.

[Deleted]

- I bring my awesome French reusable bags to grocery stores (France banned plastic bags in supermarkets a couple years ago). I get a 5 cents discount for that at a couple places!
- I use energy efficient bulbs. My nighstand bulb is 4+ years old and is on at least 4 hours every day and is still going strong.
- I recycle every single package
- I try to buy local food as much as possible and I get organic. If I buy eggs, I always buy range-free.

[Deleted]

The best green thing is: Reduce.

Bring your own shopping bags everywhere.

Bring your own produce bags. In addition, Whole Foods has paper bags available for produce.

Which brings me to plastic. Buy less of it. There's no reason to use plastic wrap. Use aluminum foil or parchment paper. Make sure your parchment paper is unbleached. Buy your beverages in paper cartons or glass at the grocery store or elsewhere. Do not buy bottled water. Get a water filter. Get a Klean Kanteen use that for your water out and about.

Buy organic. Buy seasonal produce when/if possible. Eat less or no red meat. Eat less fish?

Recycle.

Use eco-friendly toothpaste and shampoo/conditioner/bodywash.

I don't wear makeup or nailpolish or perfume, but there are greener versions of those.

Buy Made in America if possible which supports our economy, but also means that the carbon footprint of your products is less.

[joenali]

We have yard and food waste pick up. So we separate our recycling, trash and food waste. Our garbage can is the smallest you can get and probably don't need weekly pick up. We also don't use paper towels or napkins, only rags. We have glass food storage containers instead of plastic. We try to buy things with minimal packaging, but sometimes it's hard.

I think our biggest and easiest thing to do is our food waste. All food, pizza boxes, egg cartons, coffee filters etc go in the food waste bin.

There is also a plastic bag ban here, so we take our own bags to the grocery store or we have our groceries delivered.

[bazealina]

We recycle everything possible..
We also compost everything that we can. I have a compost bin and use tht every year in the spring around our flowers. Therefore I don't need to usefertilizers. I don't put any chemicals in our yard or garden. It is more work but it still looks awesome.

[fierypajamas]

I was just about to suggest composting and gardening.

[mamasaurus]

Switching to greener soaps and cleaning supplies is an easy first step. Regular detergents and soaps can be very hard on waterways. Getting power strips so you can turn off all your stuff when you go out is another.

[jenna]

Dec 26, 2012 18:44:02 GMT -5 @bazealina said:

We recycle everything possible..
We also compost everything that we can. I have a compost bin and use tht every year in the spring around our flowers. Therefore I don't need to usefertilizers. I don't put any chemicals in our yard or garden. It is more work but it still looks awesome.

Which bin do you have?

[statlerwaldorf]

We compost and use it in our garden. I use reusable bags. I try to buy local and in season when I can. We've gotten a lot better at using our leftovers and having less food waste.

[fuckyourcouch]

recycle, reusable bags, energy efficient lights/appliances, not running AC or heater excessively, try to not waste fuel (i.e. plan trips), no excessive water use, make my own laundry detergent, buy local, ethically sourced food when possible, etc.

[Deleted]

We:
bring our own bags when shopping
use a high efficiency wood stove to heat our house
Cloth diaper
Obviously this isn't a common thing, but we have bees for fresh honey and to help pollinate our fruit trees
Recycle everything we can
Compost
Grow our own fruit/veggies and I either freeze or make canned tomatoes, salsa, jam, etc to last through the year

[sunshinedaydreams]

Hang clothes to dry rather than running the dryer
Wash everything in cold water
Turn the water off when soaping hands, brushing teeth, lathering shampoo, etc.
Diva cup
Preserve brand toothbrushes (made from recycled yogurt cups and come with a pre-paid mailer to send them back to be recycled again when you're done)