How Green Are You?

[DoggiesAreTheBest]

If there already is a thread on this topic, could someone please post the thread. I searched but came up empty!

I would assume that a group of people who loves animals and rescues, woul also be involved in practices and habits that are friendly to out environment. What type of things do you do to lead a greener life?

[finn's mom]

I don't do nearly enough, but here are some of the things we do at our home:

recycle
use reusable shopping bags
very little chemicals for cleaning (i use almost exclusively vinegar, baking soda, and lemon juice for cleaning)
non toxic, environmentally friendly detergents and soaps for laundry and dishes
unplug stuff when not in use
one of our two cars is a hybrid

I'm getting a book called "green baby" for ideas on saving resources and using less chemicals for when our baby arrives...one thing I have read from several sources refers to cleaning baby using the "top and tail" method. Not really fully bathing baby in a bath until he starts crawling. Just cleaning the parts that need cleaning. I didn't read too far into it, but I think it was just with a warm wash cloth.

[anna_66]

We recycle everything we possibly can (paper, cardboard, aluminum, glass, grocery bags,)
Use rechargable batteries.
We also use energy-efficient light bulbs.
I try to make sure all my running around is done in one trip as to conserve gas.
We keep our heat set at 70. We also just got new energy-efficient windows...which I LOVE!

[finn's mom]

Oh, yeah, we use the energy efficient light bulbs, too! I really hope when we build our house in a couple years that we can do a lot during the construction (like the energy efficient windows).

[Cookiebaker]

I quit buying papertowels, and started using microfiber towels instead -- they are found in the automotive section at Walmart, and come in different colors. I use the orange ones for baby related, blue ones for cleaning the bathroom, yellow for the birdcage, and green for the kitchen. They are super absorbant and clean up spills quickly.

I use cloth diapers instead of disposeables. It is SUPER easy and not alot of work. Besides that, they have already paid for themselves 2x over.

I also recycle everything possible, turning off lights, installed a wall heater in one room and turn down the heat in the rest of the house, sold my van and bought a small car. Those are just a few ways that I can think of at the moment.

[Maya & Inka's mommy]

- I recycle everything I can!
- I use reusable shopping bags, boxes.
- We have a place in the garden where we put all thing to make compost. We use it later to furtilize the garden
- We buy glass bottles instead of plastic ones
- We put the heating lower
- No lights on when not necessary!

[lizbud]

I don't do as much as I could but, I do use the 5yr energy light bulbs,
have a car that gets great mpg. I don't really recycle much but there are
folks around here that pick up scrap metals & pop cans to recycle for cash.
I always think that I'm contributing to a good cause.

[Karen]

More of a pinkish beige - oh - you meant "green" the other way!

We recycle paper and plastics and everything else permissible, I use the reuseable shopping bags, and pass along books to others, too, after reading instead of discarding them.

We have cars that get decent MPG, and shut lights off when leaving a room ...

All the usual stuff. And our city collects "yard waste" so it all gets composted, and we can then go with buckets and get loam and mulch for free!

[IRescue452]

Reduce, reuse, recycle
I use non-toxic and organic cleaners (and I don't mean Green Works which is not chemically safe at all, it just reuses the bottle)
I buy organic produce, but I get the paper or plastic bag so I can reuse it on cage-cleaning day.

I do not however use energy effecient light bulbs, I have very sensitive eyes and I can't see at all under them. The light output for the amount of watts is actually less if you read the entire box.

[Taz_Zoee]

I don't do as much as I could/should. But this thread is great to get ideas on what I can do.

We recycle everything possible. Try to keep lights off when not in use. And our heater is set on a timer so it goes lower when we are asleep and in the middle of the day when it's not as necessary.

[Sonia59]

We try to do all the usual things that the others mentioned: saving power and cleaning chemicals, reuse and recycle as much as possible.
For the laundry I use balls and only half the dose of soap.
Like Karen, our city also collects garden waste for composting, but we don't have access to it.
We choose cars that are consuming less gas. We do not use the cars for small trajects, we walk (we like walking anyway!).
When we have the choice we try to buy stuff with the smallest amount of packaging around.
For vegetables and fruits, we try as much as possible to buy local products. No strawberries in winter! We are members of a group that buy vegetables to a local farmer. Once a week we get bio vegetables directly from the local farmer. They are always different and always in agreement with the season.

[RICHARD]

When I see that the batteries in the remote controls are getting down to the end of their life-one remote has a red light that flashes to let me know the batteries are dying!- I put in fresh batteries and save the old set to use in my wall clock!

There is enough of a charge in them to keep a low voltage clock going for a few months!

Check it out!

[Edwina's Secretary]

-I drive a hybrid car (no, it does not use electricity!),
-we installed low water usage toilets,
-use cloth napkins instead of paper at the table
-I take reuseable bags not only to the grocery but for any shopping - department stores, etc.
-We are replacing light bulbs as they go with energy efficient
- we recycle as much as we can
- we have a programmable thermostat but have not turned on the heat or air conditioning more than five days since we have lived here (something good about SoCal...)

[Karen]

Hey, does one get "green" points for the fact that I shovel instead of using a snow blower? One should! And, if we shovel at the right time, we don't need to use salt or ice melt later, depending on the storm, of course!