In Celebration of Earth Day
When I think about our planet and protecting our home, I mostly focus on minimizing our family waste. With a severe drought in California and the streak of hot weather we’ve been having I can’t help but obsess a little over our warming planet. It is not the legacy I want to leave my children. What kind of gift is that? In recognizing earth day, and celebrating the importance of it, my post tonight is going to focus on the things my family does to help our environment and the things we need to work on. I’ve linked some articles to each bullet point if anything peaks your interest.
This year, I pledge to change some things I don’t do well. I am going to cut back … way back. I want to hear from you! I’d love to add ideas to my list and hear your solutions to our everyday, environmental challenges.
Some things we already do fairly well:
- Vegetarianism – When I was in fourth grade, I decided to stop eating meat. I did it because that’s when I realized I was eating an animal and it made me sad. Over the past three decades, my philosophy regarding vegetarianism has grown. It has become more of an environmental cause.
- Down-size – When we bought our home, we weren’t looking for a large house to accommodate our growing family, we were looking for a walkable neighborhood, a well-built home and an established community. We moved from a 3000 square foot home to a 1400 square foot home to start our family and eventually raise our three children. From an environmental perspective, a small home causes us to be mindful of how we are using our space and careful with our choices. It does not allow for the accumulation of a lot of excessive stuff.
- Adoption – This may seem like a strange thing to put on a post about the environment, but hear me out. The world is tremendously over populated. There are many children waiting for a forever family. Having biological children is completely understandable. But if you want to have a large family, consider adoption too. It is without a doubt the best decision we have ever made.
- Be Waterwise – We don’t water our yard. We have select drought-tolerant plants and have removed all of our grass from both our front and back yards.
- Go Solar – We have solar panels on our home.
- Electric Car – Vijay’s commuter car is an electric car.
- Fast food – We try to avoid fast food for both health and environmental reasons. My biggest downfall is Starbucks. Of course you can bring your own cup, but honestly I forget to bring it half the time! One of our favorite restaurants gives a discount if you bring your own containers for take out (or left-overs if you dine there). I hope more restaurants start doing this.
- Shop local and use reusable bags – Whenever possible I try to shop local. I also shop the periphery of the grocery store. If you skip the middle aisles it is not only generally healthier, but usually involves less packaging.
- Recycle – We recycle as much as we can … so much in fact that on trash day I’m trying to find room in our neighbors recycle bins because we have so much overflow. Anything that isn’t a disposable recyclable, we repurpose, resell and donate.
The things we need to improve:
- Trash – This is currently our biggest down-fall. Vijay and I used to put trash out once every two or three months. Even then, the bin wouldn’t be full. But then we got cats, and kids, and stuff … lots and lots of stuff. My initial goal is to fill a maximum of one bin each month. If we are successful, I will increase my threshold.
- Our other car is a minivan –at 20 mpg, it feels like a gas guzzler! I try to walk to school with the kids as often as possible and walk to the store when I know that I can carry home what I’ve bought. But some days I’m lazy, or I feel like strapping my three little wiggle worms into a car seat is easier than walking, or it’s hot. My goal is to walk to local activities (school, store, park) twice as often as I do now.
- Travel – This is a hard one! We love to travel. Travel provides a valuable world view and shapes our lives in a very meaningful way. But, there are things we do to travel responsibly. We already purchase carbon offsets with our airline tickets (offered at check-out on individual airline websites). But my goal is to also check out offset sites such as carbonfund, and to better understand my own carbon footprint and what I can do to improve it.
- Packaging! We make so much trash! Today when I got home from the store I paid extra attention to the packaging, careful to research what I could recycle. I ended up with about a fifth as much trash as I would have had I not paid attention. I always bring reusable bags for shopping, but I am going to try to give purchases much more thought, especially when there is a lot of packaging involved.
- Compost – I am not doing this at all yet!! So, this is an easy fix! I’ve ordered a bin and it’s arriving next week! Watch for my post when I get a successful clump of dirt to add to my plants. My goal is to successfully compost our organic waste.
- Poop – We are stepping up our potty training efforts! I’m pretty confident that diapers are the only thing I regret about having children! They are disgusting, landfill-loading, literal pieces of shit. My goal is to have our littlest Chennamchetty out of diapers by August. *I may have to revise this goal, but I’m going to try!
I want to hear from you!
I’m pledging to cut back! Way back. I want to keep our trash bin in the back yard on trash day! What are some things you are doing to help our planet and humanity? I want to get inspired by you and add your ideas to my personal list!
Happy Earth Day!
Happy Earth Day.I learned to recycle on my grandmother’s county farm back in the ’40s and ’50s when no one had trash removal services. Every screw top jar was reused for canning our produce, mixing paints (both house paint and kids’ water colors) or shaking a smoothie. Our paper napkins went from the table, to nose, to the toilet (where “If its yellow let it mellow. If it’s brown flush it down” ruled) .
The only cleansers that I recall were brown soap for everything except your body – and even then we used it for poison ivy and insect bites – vinegar, varnelene (whatever that was). As for paper towels? NEVER. No Saran Wrap…reused waxed paper and rubber bands did just fine.
We took a bath twice a week or just hosed off in the yard after gardening. If you wanted a bath, you had to remember to light the water heater and you used your own towel from Saturday to Friday. We air dried our hair…hair dryers drew too much current . Didn’t hear about hair sprays until the mid-’50s and then only for special occasions. Everyone kept a washable cloth hankie in a pocket…no tissues. And of course, the ulimate in recycling: darning socks, using castoff socks for cleaning, printed feed bags for dresses, strips of fabric for braided rugs, and for bandages.
And composting was not only an art but a competition among our neighbors…who had the finest, darkest, and largest amount by Fall. You could tell by the most abundant window boxes, and herb and seedling cold frames (reused window sashes).
Thank you Elizabeth for prompting all these wonderful memories. And don’t forget to throw your coffee grounds in the rose beds! Love, Aunt Janet
It is so wonderful to hear all of the things your family did! They are great ideas and I am going to take some of them to incorporate into our lifestyle! I wish everyone would do these things now instead of opting for the easiest, usually disposable alternative.
Thank you for sharing your experiences. I only wish everyone were as thoughtful as you and your family!
One small detail that I learned from a friend who grew up on a farm in South Africa where rivers and lakes do not abound as they do where I come from: Northern Ontario, Canada. I keep a pail in the shower to save the cold water flowing from the hot tap before it gets to the right temperature. Then I use that water for the plants, mine and my neighbors.
Thanks for your earth care.
That is a really great idea! Can do that in the kitchen sink also!
You are doing a great job. We find that our utility bill is higher at this home. We are 15% higher than comparable neighbors. Heating is definitely the issue. We found that part if this house doesn’t have insulation. We are excellent recyclers and find homes for items that we no longer need. Facilities that work with homeless and help them get into a home will often take many items. We donated tools that we would no longer be using. Native plants are the best because they belong in your area and benefit bees, butterflies and all wildlife there. Kudos to you for removing your lawn. We should appreciate our environment in it’s natural state. You’re setting an excellent example.