Earth Day

In honor of Earth Day, I'm going to mention a few things that we've been doing to be better to our planet, and a few things I really want to do. I've been wanting to write about recycling for a while now, but I just keep putting it off. Now seems like the time to do it. We've been recycling for a few years, and we've done it off and on since we got married. In Alaska, we could have just put it all in a tub they provided, and set it out by the road once a week, but we didn't. Drove my mom crazy!! We like to wait until we have to do the hauling, apparently. :) When we moved to the 'Boro, we tried to be consistent with recycling, but we weren't too great at it. Plus, our local dump only took a few things, and then I was left with the rest to just throw away. It really started to bother me that we were throwing all that cardboard away,(and aluminum cans and something else I can't remember). So, finally I decided that I would take over, and take them to Sam's, which has bins for everything. It's not close or super convenient, but it makes me feel better. And it's teaching the kids, because they're learning not to throw away something that can be recycled. It also helps with our trash... A LOT. I love looking at all the trash cans in our neighborhood, and noticing that ours is one of the few that isn't overflowing. (we usually have two or three bags of trash for the week.) Then I think about all the stuff in their cans that could be recycled, and wonder if I should offer to take their recycling too! (i'm not to that point yet, but i've seriously considered how much i could fit in the van!) Anyway, it's been good for us, and good for our environment. And it's super easy to do. I know it takes a little time, but it's so worth it.

We've made other little changes that help us to be more eco-friendly as well. Things like changing our old light bulbs to the new ones that are supposed to be better, longer lasting and save on energy costs. I don't recommend getting cheap ones though, because those haven't lasted very long at all. We'll end up spending more to replace them with good ones, that will actually last longer.

We've always tried to be aware of turning lights off, not leaving water running while you're brushing your teeth, and other simple stuff like that.

Some stuff that I would really like to do is learn more about composting. We also would love to have a garden. A rain barrel is something I've been thinking about as well. I could go on, but you get the idea.

I know there are many other ways to go 'green'. Any suggestions?