Going Green
We've switched from plastic store bags to cloth grocery bags. No more paper napkins for us. We've bought cotton, in a varity of prints, so none of them "go together" or clash. Oh yea...never shall a paper plate enter my home!  We are crazy recyclers. These changes didn't come over night, and there are still things we are working on. But...my one of my hurdles to overcome is paper towels! Tony thought we should go with handi-wipes, but I'm not sure. I thought of getting "bar rags" (they're like towels). Have any of you made this change, and what are you using. |
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| Pantlegs and shirtsleeves.
Why not? They're gonna get washed anyway. |
Ron wrote: Pantlegs and shirtsleeves.
Why not? They're gonna get washed anyway. Cuz we use those for Kleenex  |
| If you can get a man to stop using paper towels, I think that alone warrants you an award! No matter how many dish cloths I put out to clean with, James will grab a roll of paper towel. It's a huge argument between us because the amount of waste kills me! |
| ...and, have you noticed, they NEVAH take 1 sheet? They ripped off about four to wipe a teeny-tiny spot! |
debcram wrote: ...and, have you noticed, they NEVAH take 1 sheet? They ripped off about four to wipe a teeny-tiny spot!
I think they use the spare sheets as a barrier between them and the mess to be cleaned. If I ask James to wipe Clyde's butt if something's going on back there, he grabs about 20 paper towels. Inevitably, he never actually gets Clyde clean because he can't see what he's doing under the paper towel. |
| We have cut back our consumption of paper towels too. I did just buy another roll a while back but it was Seventh Generation 100% post consumer recycled paper. I feel okay using that and since we aren't using them for every little thing they last us quite a while. Probably where the most use of paper towels in our household goes to the first scoop cleaning up after when some animal barfs on the carpet.
Nice to know someone else out there is making changes too  . Lee and I have slowly been in the process of changing different things in our lifestyle. Makes you feel good when you are making better choices for yourself and your health and the health of the earth. |
ButtersStotch wrote: debcram wrote: ...and, have you noticed, they NEVAH take 1 sheet? They ripped off about four to wipe a teeny-tiny spot! I think they use the spare sheets as a barrier between them and the mess to be cleaned. If I ask James to wipe Clyde's butt if something's going on back there, he grabs about 20 paper towels. Inevitably, he never actually gets Clyde clean because he can't see what he's doing under the paper towel. HA HA that is SOOO funny!!! I will agree with that. Lee refuses to take eye burgers off Edgar and a butt cleaning....  |
| I tried switching to washcloth type rags but went back to paper towels. The rags just skeeved me out. I always buy the select-a-size and usually just use the half sheet. This morning I started the last roll from my case of 8 and realized that I bought them in October. So I use about a roll a month. I read an article recently about a reporter who wrote about "going green" and she said she uses a roll a WEEK. And she's single. |
| Paula, that's incredible that you use so few! We don't use that many. And, I too, get the select-a-size. This has been my hold back item. As previously mentioned, I don't like to wipe the dogs dirty tushes with something I'd have to wash. But, I think I can cut down on my consumption of them. |
| I'm Queen of the Bar Towels, but for floor wipes I still use paper towels. With bar towels you still need to wash them, dry them unless you hang them up. Paper is renewable and you could compost them. I don't dislike paper as much as I dislike nonrecyclable plastics. |
| Since the day those darned plastic bags showed up in stores, I've hated them. Not only because of what they are, but because you can't properly pack them. I was a big hold out for "Paper, please" when they first came out. I really love the cloth bags! |
| The whole plastic bag thing seems silly for me in our situation -- our trash is sent to an incinerator that generates electricity from the excess heat... as plastic bags burn really well, I'd have to think they are good for the incineration process; they will help other things burn and reduce the amount of outside energy needed to incinerate everything.
Can't think of a better use for a little oil than to carry my groceries home, be relatively clean, not need energy or water or detergent to be washed, carry my trash to the "transfer station" (or pick up after my dog and go to the transfer station) and then provide me with some electricity. Until someone teaches me otherwise! |
| Yeah for you for going green! I think it's a great idea to start small--that way you're more likely to keep it up rather than try to do 'everything' and then get overwhelmed and burned out.
Going greener was my New Year's Resolution. To try and make a conscious effort to do things better. And I'm so excited. Today was our first day of curbside recycling on my street. We'd been having to take all our recyclables to the dump ourselves (and we recycle a lot--we're Californians!). Since our neighborhood is new they weren't coming to pick our stuff up yet--it was so frustrating, though, because they picked up as close as the corner from our house... |
| My MIL bought me a book on how to clean green that I think has awesome ideas.
Unfortunately, we buy the big 12 pack of paper towels almost every 2 weeks. Mr. J will use two big pieces to blow his nose. I totally don't get it. First off, it hurts to blow with paper towels. Second... why two? Don't you watch the commercial? Can absorb all. I can't gripe too much because I'm not a fan of the recycled paper towels. I have to use twice as much for the same job. 
We do have 20-25 cloth bags for the store. I feel ridiculous bringing in so many, but we use a lot when we go. We eat a lot. I hoard food. |
| One thing nice about Michigan, we have a good incentive to bring our cans back since we have the 10 cent deposit on them. If you don't take them back, you lose your money. I usually take all of ours back once a month and it pays for next month's soda supply on its own (we drink a lot of soda!).
It's also really nice because you can pay homeless beggars off with them when they ask you for money. We have a couple that hang out on street corners on our way home from work so once a week, I clean out my car at the stop light and give one or the other my cans and bottles. I feel like they provide me a service because I never remember to take them out of my car on my own and they make it very convenient for me. |
barney1 wrote: And I'm so excited. Today was our first day of curbside recycling on my street. We'd been having to take all our recyclables to the dump ourselves (and we recycle a lot--we're Californians!). Since our neighborhood is new they weren't coming to pick our stuff up yet--it was so frustrating, though, because they picked up as close as the corner from our house... WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?! You JUST got curb-side recyling???? To me that's like sayïng, "We just got electricity". I don't even remember NOT having curb-side recycling, and now many cities in Ontario have curb-side composting too, which solves the paper towel issue. In our area, all food waste, paper towels, tissues, pizza boxes, soiled newspaper - ALL go in the compost, which is amazing and really reduced the amount of garbage you create. I could be wrong, but in my experience Canadians are ahead of Americans in terms of recycling and so on. Is this true in your experience?? Now I do have one small problem. We do use plastic bags for our kitchen garbage and for the animal poop (in our area that cannot be composted, but in many other areas it can). Because we use recyclable bags when we grocery shop, we frequently run out of bags for our garbage! We have biodegradable ones for Tucker's poop, but they're only teeny tiny. I must look and see if I can find bigger ones. Then we'd be all set!! |
Quote: The whole plastic bag thing seems silly for me in our situation -- our trash is sent to an incinerator that generates electricity from the excess heat... as plastic bags burn really well, I'd have to think they are good for the incineration process; they will help other things burn and reduce the amount of outside energy needed to incinerate everything.
Ron, I had never thought of that! I think ours goes to landfill. We have had roadside recycling for a couple of years, but roadside composting?! How does that work? Does everyone have another bin for compost? Does it get collected weekly? Does it SMELL? I think only 10% of our recycling actually gets recycled because the councils don't have the facilities. For that reason I am inclined not to bother at all. As for paper towels, I use half a towel at a time unless I'm cleaning barf. |
| Ron, how does the incineration process affect the air quality? Years ago leaf burning was banned due to air quality--I can't imagine mass burning of trash is very good for asthmatics or anyone else.
It's not just the disposal of plastic bags that is the problem, but the process to make them is very wasteful of resources. Plastic bags have their place, but not in the quantity used. I heard something like a billion a day are used, and now some states are banning them. I think California, which is odd since they just got curbside recycling! |
Hint of Mischief wrote: [
We have had roadside recycling for a couple of years, but roadside composting?! How does that work? Does everyone have another bin for compost? Does it get collected weekly? Does it SMELL? Yes, we all have a giant green bin with a lid, plus a tiny one to keep under your kitchen sink. It doesn't usually smell except when it's really hot, but in the summer it's collected every single week (in the other seasons it's every 2 weeks). Also a few times a year, residents of the area can then go and buy back the compost which is now soil, and amazing for your garden. |
| WOW... the whole roadside composte thing is very intrigueing to me. Never heard of it before.
We have been recycling for YEARS and the kids have finally gotten over mom yelling when I see something that can be recycled in the trach can~ They are finally remembering to just do the recylcling and mom yells less!
Have you seen the cell phone commercial where the mom takes the "minutes" out of the trash can and is yelling to the kids about how they roll over... and she's rinsing them off and telling them to use them....THAT IS SOOOO ME. The first time my hubby saw that commercial he made the kids come watch it and they all had a good laugh at mom being portrayed on TV....  "What are these doing in the TRASH... They belong in the recycle bin! You guys need to learn to pay attention!!"
On the papertowels/napkins thing I still struggle because I am totally torn between using cloth -vs- paper thing. Because with cloth you still use water to wash them. I refuse to wash if I do not have a full... large load. takes electricity to run the maching too... And I am a stickler for not wasting water and turning things off when not using them.... so is it better to use a papertowel and save water/electricity or use cloth and save on the trash... SEE..... AAGGHHHH I just can't decide!
I also use the cloth grocery sacks and if I need to use store bags I go for paper. When hubby brings home plastic (he's such a guy!) I use them for trashbags in like the bathroom or kids rooms cans-- or I take them to the commissary with me and I put them in the recycle bags box. |
| Our local energy plant (electricity) has burned garbage for years now. I drive past the plant everyday on my way to work. There is no noticable difference in the color/volume or odor coming from the smoke stack now than there was before they burned garbage. |
| OK, when I was growing up, we had weekly curbside trash collection and twice a week garbage collection.
The really really really stinky garbage truck would go house to house and the two guys on the back would run (RUN!) to either side of the street and go into the back yards of people's houses and pull out a handled steel cylinder (think of it like a steel bucket only 3 times as long) from an underground, cast iron covered garbage container run back to the truck and empty it and run back and put the bucket back underground. Then it went to once a week, then never as garbage dispose-alls became popular. Now? Now I have to drive my trash and garbage to a transfer station. Imagine: All 2500 houses in town starting up their cold cars once per week and driving an average of 5 miles (maybe more) roundtrip to take the trash to the transfer station. A few years ago I got into a discussion with one of the guys on the trash committee and laid out this scenario, asking why don't we have curbside pickup, it would be MUCH more efficient to have one truck run around town and pick everything up. He told me that most people prefer it this way. I can't believe that -- some people here pay a lot of money for a private hauler to come and get their trash from the curb! I asked him if it would cost more, he said it would cost just about the same as running the transfer station, about $500,000 a year. But, he said, then there would be no place for anyone to bring large items. I told him for the one or two times a year, maybe, that someone needs to get rid of a fridge or a sofa, they can take it to the next town over, where a private company runs a transfer station by wieght. I said that they already must put the stuff in their car/truck and nowhere do the laws say we have to run our own large item disposal service. He had never thought of that. Sigh. This is a guy with 24(!) solar panels on his roof. |
| In Germany nearly everything gets recycled, we have a black bin for rubbish, a blue bin for paper, a yellow bin for re-cycle waste and a brown for compost. In fact they can even generate electricity from the compost. As a child living in Clydebank near Glasgow, I remember that the farmer came around every couple of days to pick up the leftovers from the kitchen, potato peelings, old bread etc. they used to feed it to the pigs. Someone came round and collected old newspapers, the rag and bone man came and collected scrap and old clothes, bottles were made of glass and there was a deposit on them, even jam jars were returned, the chippie also re-cycled papers by wrapping your fish supper in them mmm. We have always recycled in one way or the other it is just that over the years people or companies started to convince us that there way was better when really all they were interested in was making money.  |
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