BLULOW (All About Living Green)

To anyone who thinks that the recycling efforts are a bit overwhelming and is contemplating quitting the living green lifestyle, my suggestion is to take a walk around your neighborhood on trash day. Take a look at the contents in your neighborhood’s recycle bin (Just a look. Don’t go poking around in your neighborhood’s trash).

If I don’t walk the other 6 days of the week, I make sure to take a walk around the neighborhood on trash day to reinforce the need to think and live green.

If your neighborhood is anything like mine (and I’m guessing it is), the two major items you’ll find in your neighborhood recycle bins are:

1. Water bottles. Lots and lots of disposable water bottles. The good thing is that we are getting healthier by drinking our share of water, but the bad thing is we’re throwing away countless numbers of plastic water bottles.
2. Liquid laundry detergent containers and liquid laundry softener containers. Our clothes are cleaner, whiter, brighter, softer and smell great, but our landfills are getting fuller and fuller with the plastic from the detergent and softener bottles. I read that only 9.5% of the plastic we used is recycled. Here’s some info that bursts a few of the plastic recycling myths.

When I finish my walk I always wonder if my neighborhood is any different from all of the other neighborhoods around the country…probably not.

If we set our minds on buying reusable water bottles and making our own laundry detergent, we can make an impact on our non-reusable waste.

Buying reusable water containers is pretty easy to do. If you don’t have a water treatment filter on your home, or in your apartment, there are portable ones like the Brita filter where you can use tap water rather than store bought water.

As far as the laundry detergent goes, it’s really easy and economical to make your own (see my earlier posts on homemade laundry detergent) and I’ve found that adding about 2/3 cups of baking soda to my wash helps my clothes to come out softer.

I haven’t quite given up totally on softener, but I do dilute it 2/3 part water to 1/3 part softener. I admit, I’m hooked on the way softener makes my clothes smell.

Take a walk around your neighborhood on trash day to motivate yourself to continue your greening efforts.

Neither, thank you. I brought my own bag.

For the heck of it I finally got around to buying one of the cloth grocery shopping bags at my local Hannaford grocery store. I was only buying a few items and I thought, why not?

Well, I think its one of the best investments I’ve made in a while. Not only did Hannaford give me the 69-cent cloth grocery bag for free with my purchase (apparently, it was free if you bought a tray of fresh fruit), I realize a 5 cents savings each and every time I use my cloth bag instead of their plastic bags. That’s 5 cents per bag used.

My local Shop Rite offers a 2-cent per bag savings. Shop Rite’s prices are usually cheaper than Hannaford’s, so I’m not complaining about the 3-cent differential. The cloth bags eventually pay for themselves.

In addition to saving money by using the cloth grocery bags, the cloth bags are larger and sturdier. You can fill them up without worrying about them breaking. No more double bagging heavy items.

To top it all off, since they fit more groceries, that means fewer trips back and forth to the car when I get home from shopping. What a win-win-win situation!

The only challenge that I have with this new-found lifestyle is remembering to bring the bags into the store (I’ve actually had a cashier wait until I ran to the car to retrieve my cloth bags).

Before you stick your key in the ignition of your car, look around the car to see if you’re driving with unnecessary weight bearing items. The extra weight will cause your car to work harder and use more gas.

Look under the front seats, check the back seat, open the trunk, glove compartment, and ashtray. Look anywhere where you may be storing extra stuff. Do you really need $25 worth of spare change for tolls?

If you’re driving around with a couple of bundles to give away to the Salvation Army, do yourself a favor and drop it off. The Salvation Army will appreciate it and so will your car’s gas mileage.

After you’ve looked around the car and removed all of the unnecessary weight, then its time to start the car, put on your seatbelt and adjust your mirrors. While adjusting your mirrors, take a good look at yourself. Are you adding unnecessary weight to your car? Ouch!

Dropping those extra 5, 10, 15 or so pounds will not only help to improve your health but will also help to improve your gas mileage (It’s not always easy going green).

Living green is a one decision at a time process. Sometimes the decisions are obvious and other times not.

Yesterday I ran to the grocery store to buy juice. Not only do I go through the mental gymnastics on how to buy juice that will have the least amount of impact on my pocketbook, I also have to think about the recycling and health ramifications (I remember the old days when buying juice was a mindless task, not a full fledged mental debate).

With a plastic bottle of Tropicana Twister in one hand (to the tune of $2 for less than 2 quarts) and a container of powdered juice mix in the other (to the tune of $1.69 for 8 quarts). I picked the powdered drink for a number of reasons:

1. It cost less and produced more juice (I use the term juice loosely).
2. It came in a smaller container and thus produces less waste product.
3. It contained sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup (yes, sugar is the lesser of the two evils).

So, although I was mentally exhausted, I believe that I made the best possible decision given my choices. Making green choices is not always easy.

I came across this neat little pamphlet from the US Department of Energy called Energy Savers, Tips for Saving Energy and Money at Home.

It gives great practical tips on how to make your dollar stretch further and save on energy costs.

Did you know that draining a quart of water from your water heater every three months helps to get rid of sediment and thus improve your water heater’s efficiency? Check out page 17.

If you use a natural gas stove and the flames are yellow, did you know that means that your stove isn’t burning efficiently and my need an adjustment? See page 25.

There are tons of neat little money saving tips. It’s worth a read.