As Chicago halfway welcomes Spring I feel very settled on being a greener Mandasaurus. Seriously.
I find myself more enraged by the dozens (yes, dozens) of giant cars holding one person (often holding a cell phone!) driving toward downtown passing me on my way from the train to work. Downtown is a place with plentiful public transport - pretty awesome public transport, if you ask me. Why are you driving!?!
My outrage should be good for something. So I'm planning to be as "green" as humanly possible and to spread the word about my green ways. By green I mean I want to reduce my impact on the environment by using less, reusing more and polluting less. You can call it green, or you can call it being cheap or you can call it being responsible. I bet my parents' Miata was paid for by savings from rinsing out every single plastic container and reusing it instead of Tupperware. I could do that.
Here are my first steps. Please share ideas for others, or for what you are doing to help negate the idiots who litter (!?!) and toss those valuable beer cans.
- I will recycle more diligently, especially paper because I use way too much of it at work, especially.
- I will refuse plastic bags at all stores. When I visited Timbuktu, Mali the only things I saw on my camel ride in the Sahara besides sand and sticks were plastic bags. Like grocery sacks! Ick. This story sealed my decision to carry nerdy canvas bags everywhere I go. It's just horrifying - those stupid plastic bags never go away. And they break when you've got anything heavier than a 2-liter in 'em.
- I will do everything I can do avoid car-use. To me this is relatively easy I don't have a car. I take the train to work. I walk to the grocery. I'll need to do a few springtime errands in a car, but I should be able to do that responsibly. We'll make off-rush-hour trips and whatever else we can do to minimize our impact.
- I will be a plant person. We already have several spider plants, basil, sage and a big old plant. I'm going to spring up the house with more green. This is good for the apartment as well as the Earth, according to biology class.
- I will buy local. I'm not totally sure how I'm going to accomplish this, but I'll do my best to buy food that doesn't have to travel a long way (and therefore be preserved in order to stay fresh longer) and support local markets. I hope I can find a farmer's market nearby. Otherwise I might start biking to Stanley's - Chicago's rocking produce market and carrying a backpack full of spinach and apples home.
- I'll use free and clear stuff, when I can. I'm not going organic, at all. But I'd like to know what's in what I use, so I'll be as aware as I can of what I'm consuming and what it takes to get it to me.
- I'll reuse like crazy. I won't toss anything I can use again. Seriously. I'll be disciplined about reusing containers and such.
- What else? Should I compost? Is that do-able in the city? Should I bike in the cold? Should I stop shampooing my hair? (No.) Tell me.
4 comments:
Not sure what your eating habits are, but you can eat more All vegetarian meals. The number of cows America needs for its beef consumption is polluting the ozone with methane.
It's something I try to do.
If you're ever out picking up groceries, you can get paper instead of plastic. Not only do you avoid using those extremely lame plastic bags, you can also use the paper bags as extra garbage receptacles. This is a big one in my apartment.
Also, you could start using rags or sponges instead of paper towels. I'm trying to do this one more often myself.
By the way, I love it when being cheap overlaps with being green.
Ahem, I meant to say, "If you're ever out picking up groceries and you don't have your canvas bags handy..."
I turn the heat off at when I go to bed...even in winter; I use more blankets instead. It offsets the fact that my new car get less gas mileage than my old one.
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