Bring Your Own Bag.
There’s been a lot of buzz about grocery bags lately. In March, city leaders in San Francisco approved a ban on plastic grocery bags, and other cities are considering a ban as well. Even if your city doesn’t put the kibosh on plastic grocery bags, consider instituting your own personal ban.
Let’s say you go grocery shopping once a week, and every time you go, you leave the store with five grocery bags. That adds up to 260 plastic bags a year. On average, only 1% of plastic bags get recycled.
My local grocery chain sells reusable bags at the checkout. If your local store doesn’t sell them, or you’re looking for something more stylish than what they offer, check out the friends of AL bag, or browse the huge assortment of bags at ReusableBags.com.
Another Eco-Friendly Tip from Allie
Moving? Sending a package? Don’t bubble wrap it! Make your own packing cushions.
Empty your paper shredder into a plastic grocery bag and tie the top closed. Use to cushion fragile items during shipping or moving. It’s a great way to turn junk mail into something useful.
Another Eco-Friendly Tip from Allie
Meeting a friend for lunch? Going out to dinner? Bring along a reusable food storage container to take your leftover food home with you. You’ll cut down on Styrofoam and plastic usage, and you won’t have to worry about your chicken parmigiana leaking on your car seat.
Check out this collapsible set by Rubbermaid.
Another Eco-Friendly Tip from Allie
And I’m not talking tabloids.
Spring is a great time of year to change your cleaning habits. Think about how many rolls of paper towels you’ll go through washing those windows, dusting the furniture, giving your kitchen the good detailing it really needs. Before you start your scrubbing, go through your closets. Clear out your holey t-shirts, mate-less socks, and frayed towels and give them new life as cleaning rags. I keep a bin for clean rags under the bathroom sink, and a laundry bin in the kitchen for the dirty ones. Throw them in the wash in a hot water cycle, and use them over and over again. You’ll cut down on waste, and save money too!
Another Eco-Friendly Tip from Allie
Do you have the bottled water bug? It’s a hard habit to break. Staying hydrated is important, but think of all the bottles you go through in a week!
Get a good reusable water bottle, like the one above from Nalgene. I have two, so I can keep one in action while the other one is in the dishwasher.
If you don’t like the taste of tap water, try using a water filtration pitcher.
Update: Due to the discovery of BPA in polycarbonate bottles, I now use a stainless steel Klean Kanteen.
Have you seen these funky looking light bulbs in stores lately?
They’re compact florescent light bulbs, or CFLs. They’re a little pricier than the incandescent bulbs we’re all used to (around $4), but they’ll save you money in the long run. Over the life of the bulb, you can expect to save $30 in energy costs – they use 2/3 less energy and last ten times longer. CFLs come in warm colors, so you won’t feel like you’re still at the office.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, if we all switched just one bulb, we would prevent greenhouse gases at a rate equivalent to taking 800,000 cars off the road. Saves you money. Saves the environment. Well worth four bucks, don’t you think? Pick one up on your next trip to the hardware store, or order your Mini Compact Fluorescent Spiral Bulb today.
Another Eco-Friendly Tip from Allie.
Did you have a family member who sat in the corner at a party or holiday event, carefully folding up wrapping paper for future use? Maybe it was a grandma or great aunt who lived through the Depression and learned to save anything that was usable, maybe it was just someone who was thrifty and knew how to pinch pennies. What ever the reason behind it, saving wrapping paper makes good green sense.