I'm not an ultra-green, go to protests, hug a tree kind of person (although I have hugged a few trees in my day). But I do like being kind to the planet. So today I thought I'd make a list:
Ways McKenzie's are GOOD to the environment:
-we reuse bags, and have plastic shopping bags that we use a lot.
-we recycle EVERYTHING; bottles, cans, thin plastic, broken appliances, glass, styrofoam, leftover food. Mind you, we run the chance of being ticketed if we are caught not doing this but mostly do it happily.
-we don't have a car
-our computers* are set to go to sleep if inactive for more than a few minutes.
-we buy lots of soaps and things in big Costco sized jugs so they last longer, and we need to buy less plastic. We also buy some soaps in the disposabe plastic containers, you know that you pour into your old bottle.
-I reuse paper in my printer at school
Ways the McKenzie's are BAD for the environment:
-we use disposable diapers
-we run our AC* a lot. But it is 35 degrees here.
-we use our dryer* a lot. We consider this one of our few Western luxaries in our apartment.
-we shower a lot.
-I am a teacher, therefore use a lot of paper. Trying to do this less.
How do you like to save the world?
*Energy is one of those weird commodities that I don't quite understand. You can't see it. You can make it with wind or water and store it. (How do you store something you can't see? Or can you see energy?) It costs money. Anyway, I guess energy is a valuable resource and we should try and conserve it.
3 comments:
I heard cloth diaper are just as environmentally unfriendly. Detergent, washer, dryer...
The question I always ask myself is, will I still recycle and reuse everything when I move back to the US. I guess I am a peer-pressured environmentalist.
I've heard that in some states you even need to PAY to recycle certain items. That would turn me off for sure. Where I live you get money for bottles and cans, and there are recycling depots all around for dropping stuff off. For me it will sort of depend on our house situation and if we have space to keep all that recycling until we can drop it off.
In Arizona, when we would visit Shaun & Karen, we would throw pop cans away. It was the weirdest feeling - so wrong!! But there was no convenient place to recycle them, so they just threw them away. And yes, we do pay a deposit for cans, but we get it back when we recycle, so it's totally motivating!
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