In honor of Earth Day (or Earth week), I would like to share The Green Book. I saw this little gem when it first came out in 2007 and at the time, it was just the right dose for me. It has a brief glossary, gives some things we can all do, and then there is a celebrity in each chapter that kind of tells their story on how they are being green…. Ellen DeGeneres, Will Ferrell, Robert Redford, etc.
What else this book does, though, is give you small bites of things you can do for every situation. I was happy to learn I was doing some things really well, and doing things I didn’t even realize would make an impact. Let’s take the first chapter about your home. We recycle, which lots of people do, and it seems like an easy thing to do these days. Just this weekend we made a run to the big recycle center in Hamilton County to take lots of cardboard boxes we have from buying in bulk and recently having a birthday party. The thing I did that I didn’t even really think about was the fact that we have no plastic shower liners (or curtains). This helps keep unnatural vinyl plastics out of landfills. PVC plastic waste amounts to 1.23 million tons per year, none of which is recyclable. Then there is the thing I’m still working on… turning off the water while brushing my teeth. I personally brush and let the water heat up because right after brushing I wash my face and I like the water hot. If I’m not washing my face, I turn the faucet off, but I do have that guilt of letting it warm up. This could help me conserve up to five gallons of water per day.
Other things I do that I think are easy…
- I drink tap water when I’m out. I do buy bottled water from time to time, but I reuse the bottle; either to drink more water from, to use to water plants, to use when I go on long walks with the dogs (they love to drink out of water bottles) and when I buy water bottles I try to buy Ethos from Starbucks.
- I download tunes and books. It’s not especially easy for me as I love to have the real thing when it comes to books, but I’m learning to adjust. I have an iPod and a Kindle and I use often. I also go to the library often and share books with friends.
- I use magazines for gift wrap. Remember this past holiday season I showed you my gift wrap? It’s really fun.
- I use a digital camera. Yeah, I also just really like the convenience of digital, but the chemicals used in developing film require special treatment and disposal.
- Recycled paper. We use recycled post-it note paper and file folders at our office. We also have a bin where I take home our items on the weekends to recycle them here since they don’t offer the service at our building.
What are you doing at home or at the office you can share? I’m going to add something new to my green list this week in honor of Earth Day. Not sure what yet, but I’m excited to pick a new habit. Here’s to being green!
