THIS IS HOW YOU DO IT
I can’t believe it’s taken me more than two decades to do so, but as of late, my level of environmental awareness has shot through the roof. Perhaps it started with the realization of my near-kindred relationship with killer whales, but taking care of the world around me is something I’m starting to incorporate in my life more and more each day.
As I stood in the line-up at the English Bay Safeway this evening, I surveyed the dozens of customers at the overloaded tills and was shocked at the endless stream of plastic bags being used. So, I loaded up my three reusable bags and hiked home in the rain, hellbent on sharing with you all some easy ways we can start being less ecological jackasses and more educated nature lovers.
- Ditch the plastic bags and grab some reusable cloth bags. They’re usually ridiculously cheap, and many are actually made out of recycled plastic bags. They’re super tough too, so you can stop double-bagging it.
- Not in the room? Shut off the light.
- Unplug any adapters or electronic items you’re not using at any given moment.
- Leaving the water running while brushing your teeth can cause up to 3 gallons of water to go to waste. That’s more than people in some third world countries use in a week, let alone two minutes of brushing your teeth. Shut the tap off.
- Cold? Grab a blanket.
- If it’s possible where you live, compost your organic waste. Those apple peels and egg shells can count for up to 40% of what fills your garbage can. (As I mentioned last week, I recently wrote to the City of Vancouver regarding composting initiatives for those of us living downtown but have yet to get a response.)
- Much of your so-called garbage is recyclable…make sure you throw your soda cans, bottles, cardboard, and newspaper in the blue bins. Some grocery stores have plastic bag recycling bins, so if you insist on being an idiot and not switching to reuseable bags, at least recycle your plastic ones.
For more information on ways in which you can better do your part, visit some of the following links:
Changes Recycling Centre
Metro Vancouver Garbage & Recycling
Recycling Council of British Columbia
Return-It
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*Post Edit: In the comments section, many of you have been contributing great ideas of your own so THANK YOU! With Christmas just around the corner, please be reminded that wrapping paper is not recyclable. As another smart-thinking solution, I’ve decided to wrap all my gifts in recycled paper or plain stock paper that I can decorate myself and then recycle. Also, all gifts will be given in reusable bags to spread the green cheer!
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12 Comments
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we LOVE our reusable Safeway bags. They can hold the contents of at least two plastic bags and they’re so easy to carry, just sling’em over your shoulder. Good times.
Great post Keira-Anne!
I am not sure how interesting/useful my sustainability posts may be, but here they are nonetheless!
http://hummingbird604.blogspot.com/search/label/sustainability
and
http://hummingbird604.blogspot.com/search/label/environment
Some posts have both tags (environment and sustainability)
And I love the reusable Safeway bags too. I actually got the President Choice ones, the Safeway ones and the IGA ones. I am an environmental dork.
We have them too!
Another easy one is to replace all your incandescent light bulbs with the CFL variants. They last about 5 times as long, and consume about 25% of the energy. That amounts to a huge carbon and costs savings over their lifetime.
Keep the ideas coming, people. Another one I realized this morning was switching to cloth lunch bags and ditching your Zip-loc bags for Tupperware whenever possible.
Amen. A couple more things:
-Use both side of paper.
-Put a 2L pop bottle in the toilet tank to save water everytime you flush.
-Walk/bike/take the bus whenever you can instead of driving.
While CFL light bulbs are much better than incandescent light bulbs, the mercury inside the CFL is very bad for the environment if the bulbs aren’t recycled properly. Many people don’t realize there’s mercury inside and simply throw away the CFL light bulbs.
Tawcan…thanks for more great ideas! About the 2L soda bottle - empty or full? It’s a great idea for saving water.
we recently discovered a dimmable CFL too… now all our lights are CFLs… sweeeeet
I get so happy when customers where I work don’t want a bag. They always say “I’m just going to go home and throw it out anyways.”
As for Tawcan’s commentary: the bottle of water should be full. Other people use bricks (but I don’t think that’d be that good an idea).
Another one would be to stop printing e-mails! I can’t tell you how many people I know print emails, make notes on them and then ‘process’ them. Grrrrr!
I noticed you mentioning that you had written the City of Vancouver re: composting initiatives. One suggestion i can make that everyone can do is to try vermicomposting. It generates really nutrient rich soil that will help your plants and herbs grow, and as an added side benefit, increase the air quality in your apartment.
Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermicompost for good background information.
I vaguely recall you mentioning that you were looking for an apartment suitable composting solution. I thought of you immediately when I was browsing The Lee Valley website this morning.
http://www.leevalley.com/gifts/page.aspx?c=1&p=61290&cat=4,104,53209&ap=1