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I’d like to think we are fairly environmentally friendly in our household. We recycle, use refillable water bottles, use energy friendly light bulbs, I drive a small car (which I am LOVING right now), etc. But there are many things we can improve on. So, in honor of Earth Day, I thought I would share some habits I am going to try and change. Here goes:
1) Use less paper towel: Wow. I do not even want to get into the volume of paper towel we go through in a week. It’s crazy and I know it’s horrible. They are just SO handy and work perfectly. But I do need to try to use less. I know it’s unrealistic to stop all together, so I am just going to try to cut down. At least by 1/2! Does anyone have any suggestions on what I can use as replacements. I know the obvious things (towels, sponges, etc.), but what else???
2) Generate less trash: Between the paper towel usage and who knows what else, we have a lot of trash every week. We recycle everything we can and have even made a few trips to the local recycling center when we have had too much stuff for the recycling truck to take and we try not to throw anything away that could be recycle, but it’s hard!
3) Support “green” products / companies: I would really like to see products use less packaging. I know, I know. They want my eye to be drawn to the packaging. However, once I buy the product, I take it out of the packaging (or recycle it if I can) and throw it away in like two minutes. Such a waste. I can only hope that Companies start to realize how wasteful this is and come up with a solution. I know I would fore sure support it. Lululemon, for example, puts your purchase in a cute reusable shopping bag. Does any other place do this? Those shopping bags are a huge waste too. Give me a discount and I will bring my own bag to the store!
4) Bring my own reusable bags to the store: This shouldn’t be that hard, but for some reason, I always forget my bags. But I am going to start leaving them in my car after I unpack them, so I do not forget anymore.
What are you doing to help the planet? Anything you are going to work on getting better at??
good points
You know I love this post right!? Great goals Jennifer. What about some of those towels like sham wow or something like that that soaks up a lot? Idk I just use sponges and towels. I would say recycled paper towels but they don’t exactly work the same…
I knew you would Amber! It’s going to take work for me, but I am going to try my hardest!!!
I haven’t bought paper towels in…I don’t know…two or three years. I stopped buying them because Ryan was being stupid with them. He’d use them for everything, even the times when he should have used a wet rag (example: pancake syrup on the table…he’d use a paper towel and couldn’t understand why I was pissed). Anyway, I got annoyed that he was not using them judiciously, so I just stopped buying them. It was probably four months before he even noticed.
The only time I miss them is when I’m frying bacon; paper towels are pretty handy for absorbing the grease. That said, in the place of paper towels, I use Gerber flat cloth diapers. You have to wash them a time or two to get them to fluff up, but they work great. Thin, soft, and cheap (I think they’re like $12 for a dozen). Best all-around clean-up rags ever.
I wish I could get us to stop using paper towels. However, I have enough time trying to get B not to use the dish towels on the floor, the dogs, while painting, etc. I do get angry whenever I forget my grocery bags. Those stupid plastic bags I cannot stand and they never pack them right!