In honor of Earth Day coming up on Thursday and since I didn't have any of my own ideas, I stole the idea to list ten ways you can be more green from my fellow blogger over at Carole Knits.
1) Bring your own bags to the grocery store instead of always getting paper or plastic. Most stores sell them for a buck a pop, so if you forget one at home, just pick up another (this is why we have about 10 or them floating around our apartment these days).
2) Buy Produce Locally. This summer, once the farm stands get up and running for the season, shop there instead of the grocery store. Of course make sure that said farm stand does their own farming. My favorite place to go is Ferjulians. They have great selection and if you time it just right, you can get corn that has just been harvested!
3) Stop using paper towels. You can knit, crochet or weave nice dishcloths out of cotton that you can throw in the washer to clean them for use on another day. If you aren't a crafty type, you can buy some as well (people suggest microfiber because they attract dirt).
4) Wash only full loads of laundry or dishes. Why waste all that water on only a little bit of clothing or dishes. Just wait until you can fill those machines all the way.
5) Use rechargeable batteries. This is something I have to get better at. We do have some rechargeables for things around the house, but my camera takes AA's and I am always buying them rather than getting a charger and a couple sets to rotate through.
6) Freecycle your unwanted items instead of throwing them away. Freecycle.org is a non-profit movement of people that are giving and getting stuff for free in their neighborhood.
7) Now that the weather is getting nicer, hang your clothes up to dry. Now, I know I can't do this 90% of the time, but I almost never dry any of my jeans or cotton t-shirts. The shirts always seem to shrink no matter how low the heat is and my jeans, well, they just never seem to get dry in the dryer. So, very often I do two loads of washing and only one of drying.
8) Purify your water instead of buying bottles. We are very lucky that we have good and tasty water where I live, but if you don't, you can buy a Brita pitcher one of the filters that screw onto the faucet. By filtering instead of buying all those bottles, you are saving all the plastic that would normally get thrown out.
9) Donate old clothing that doesn't fit or you have fallen out of love with. As long as your items are in good repair, there is someone out there in need who could use them.
10) Use Pyrex glass dishes or Tupperware for leftovers instead of plastic zip lock bags or disposable containers. Ok, I don't do this all the time or even most of the time, but I do try. Often I try to bring my lunch in a reusable container, though sometimes it just isn't in the cards.
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