Last year, we made the relatively painless switch to reusable grocery tote bags, compact florescent lighting, and paying our bills online. This year, our list of realistic resolutions includes...
Paper Towels - We just can't stop using paper towels...not yet, anyway. We do plan on testing out a healthier option this year but, until we cut the cord completely, we're buying recycled. Switching to Seventh Generation's Unbleached 100% Recycled Paper Towels will save 1 million trees and 2.6 million cubic feet of landfill space.
Produce Bags - Since we've kicked the plastic grocery bag habit, it makes sense to banish plastic produce bags as well. A set of 5 organic cotton sacks can be purchased at EcoBags and the more more you buy, the cheaper they are.
More baby steps toward green after the jump...
Aluminum Foil - Another product we want to check out is 100% Recycled Aluminum Foil by If You Care. This product uses a whopping 95% less energy to produce than standard foil.
Lose the Paper Trail - We may already be paying our bills online but we still receive the paper notices. This year, we're making the jump to electronic billing and bank statements. We're looking forward to less paper clutter in 2008.
No More Junk - On that note, we're tired of our mailbox over-flowing with junk mail. This is the year that we opt out of the junk. The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse website is full of helpful tips and directories on how to eliminate all those annoying pre-approved credit offers, undesired catalogs, and coupon flyers.
Originally posted by Jessica on AT: Chicago.
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Comments (6)
Ive made a lot of progress, but I have a lot more to do. Ive cut way back on my paper towel usage by using linen napkins.
i thought i was making great strides with cutting down the household paper towel usage and have even starting making my own cloth napkins, then i gut a puppy. housetraining has greatly increased our paper towel usage once again. hopefully he'll get it soon and we can get back on track.
i've signed up with greendimes and hope to see my volume of junk mail greatly reduced.
The only thing I use paper towels for is cleaning windows. I still haven't figured out a way to eliminate use of them entirely, although I cut it down to one towel per window pane by using a microfibre cloth for the first bit of cleaning. I'm hoping that a squeegee will replace the final wipe with the paper towel.
My other resolution is to replace my standard cleaning products with greener ones, starting with oven cleaner which I'll have to get soon.
I have a question...
What do you do for "green" garbage bags? I always just used old shopping bags before switching out to reusable totes... and now, I actually refrain from using the totes sometimes because I need some bags for the trash...
Produce bags have been a tough one for me. I'm finally getting the hang of always having a shopping bag, but carrying 2-4 extra bags for impromptu veggie shopping can be annoying. Sometimes I remember to bring along those weird cloth bags that my Earth shoes came in (individually bagged shoes?), which make nice bags for garlic and potatoes.
Until I kick the habit, I'm either re-using those old veggie bags or going bag-less all together. Cashiers usually frown at my free-range lemons, kale, lettuce and onions. I'll spare them the handful of green beans though.
I use net bags for my produce; their more compact. For windows, old newspapers work the best. They actually leave less streaks than the paper towels. My grandmother taught me this trick - that's how she saved money when working as a housekeeper. I try to pickup discarded newspaper for this purpose.