Goin’ Green
Lately I’ve been trying to ‘go green’ on some things around our house. We always recycle our cans, plastics, etc (and we have to pay for it whether we use the recycle bins provided by our garbage company whether we use them or not so we might as well use them.) But it constantly bothers me to see how many things are still wasted on a day to day basis. Plastic bags, paper, etc. It started with purchasing reusable grocery totes. Then we started purchasing energy saving light bulbs and replaced our shower head with a more efficient one. All of our appliances are energy saving but we still have a long way to go.
I’ve been reading more and more about it lately and have been digging this site that offers a ton of eco products. They offer everything from energy saving appliances to solar powered products. Last week when we had to replace every bulb for the outdoor lighting at our house I was really wishing we had solar charged lighting instead. I know we’d save a lot of money in the long run not having to replace the bulbs nor running the electricity to power them. You can ask anyone in my family. I go a little nuts when people leave lights on needlessly!
GreenandMore appears to practice what they preach by following green practices on-site such as no plastic ware, using recycled office supplies and kitchen goods, 100% recycled cardboard boxes, etc. I thought it was pretty cool that they support environmental charities such as Oceana and Healthy Child Healthy World.
Lastly, I’ve added a new blog to my reader: GreenMusings.com which offers green lifestyle tips including ways to reuse and recycle. Every little bit helps, ya know?
What are you doing to ‘go green’?
I tried solar lighting for a while but they are never bright enough. I also tried using paper bags at the grocery store but it only lasted about a week or two before I went back to plastic. I’m a green failure.
LOL Lorelei. I can’t stand plastic bags at the grocery store.
You could try using fluorescent light bulbs in your light fixtures
They use 1/4 of the energy and put out the same light. (I just wish they worked with dimmers)
Since we just bought a house, and we need to replace the ‘rented’ water heater, we were looking at getting a new fancy-shmancy Solar Water Heater (INFO)
Turns out these are about $7000 installed, and renting would be a killer monthly payment. Instead, we’re opting for a Tankless Gas model (INFO)
The price for the Tankless Gas model is less than half of that, so it works out alright.
As a note, when we were talking to the provider of the solar units, we were advised that a solar model “would pay itself off in 7 years”. decent deal I think.
We’re also going to be doing far more recycling at the new house, you’d be really surprised what is and is not recyclable these days. Check your with your Local Municipality to find out what can be done here. Also, see if they provide a ‘Green Bin’ which is essentially a composting option. Yea, sure composting smells, but it’s actually a far better way to get rid of all the excess food stuffs that don’t need to be sent to the dump.
Eventually Kim and I want to install a Turbine, for generating power. Here, if we do this, we can actually end up putting power back into the “Grid” and in turn, the City/Municipality/Electric company would Pay US for our usage. A pretty sweet deal.
Natural Lighting options are also available. They have what are known as “Solar Skylights” commonly, or “SolaTube” … You can read/see more here: http://www.solatube.com
These things look very cool, and can add more light that conventional lighting systems, in many cases.
One other, very simple thing we’ve started, is we’ve got canvas grocery bags… Our grocer actually discounts our bill, and credits our ‘points’ cards for using the canvas bags, based on the number we use.. 1pt for each bag we use that day. It’s so simple, and it makes a difference when it comes to plastic manufacturing, and consumption.
There are so many more little things, and so many more things we are planning to do over the next few years to get to our eventual goal, of being as Green as can be. (dreaming of 100% green efficiency)
Jay
I’m going to start calling you, HippieJay
That’s Great…. /sarcasm.
But you won’t see me wearing tye-dye ever…