Friday, April 22, 2011

Friday Forum: Earth Day Resolutions

(Dr. Seuss's Lorax speaks the truth...)

Good morning. Happy Friday! Happy Earth Day!

Last year on Earth Day my s-i-l, Rebecca, made a resolution. No more plastic shopping bags. Now she brings her own bags to the grocery store, and hands the bag back to the cashier when she buys something new at the mall. One simple thing, just a new habit really. But it shows her dedication to being a better steward of the earth.

We love that.

And it got us thinking. What's one thing we could do better as stewards of the earth?

Give up plastic water bottles? Switch out all of our light bulbs for more efficient ones? Drive less?

We're still deciding...

What about you? Do you have an Earth Day resolution?



***Looking for some Earth Day activities? Check out our post from one year ago...
***We're still collecting essays, recipes, tutorials, etc. for Mothers' Day 2011. Email us at aplacetobloomATgmailDOTcom

6 comments:

bjahlstrom said...

Yes. My resolution is to simply use less by being a frugal consumer. Then that leads to reusing what I have in my house, rather than throwing things away that could be repurposed, like sour cream containers as tupperware-ish lunch containers.

Anonymous said...

Absolutely! Mr. M and I recently bought our first home (that needs quite a bit of work), and we're dedicated to making this house our own in the most low-impact way possible. (Ex.: Painting cabinetry with zero-VOC paint, instead of installing it new.) We've also dedicated ourselves to reusing or repurposing as much as possible, making our clothes last longer, and consuming and wasting less in general. I've cancelled all our magazine subscriptions and gotten us off of retail catalog mailing lists, etc. It's much easier to stop wanting all the time when you remove as many temptations from your life as possible!

toddnjoelle said...

There are so many things that we can do to be better at taking care of our earth. I once taught a class at my church on using and wasting less and gave each person a canvas tote to use at the grocery store. Many stores will even give you 5 cents for each bag you use of your own. I try to recycle as much as possible too. Where I live we have a co mingle recycling bin that gets picked up curb side twice a month. Talk about convience. The extra thing I do though is I try to buy items that I know can be recycled in it. For example; it accepts the cardboardish egg cartons, but not the styrofoam egg cartons. It also accepts plastic bottles that are clear and shaped like a bottle, but not colored plastic. I make sure to buy the ketchup bottles that are clear and not red. There is also a plastic round up once a year when you can recycle other items such as yogurt cups. I know this sounds silly, but I feel like I'm doing a little bit and my motto is that I am saving the earth one plastic bag at a time:) Happy Earth Day! Find out what you can recycle in your area.

Unknown said...

Such a smart idea. I am planning on buying reusable water bottles for our family, both to get us healthier by drinking more water this summer, and so we don't need to use the plastic water bottles, even though we do recycle them. Better to not use at all, right? :)

Christina said...

A status update from a friend today: "Happy Earth Day, go and do something for her"

We're all at a different place in our lives, but if we all try and do something to make the earth a little better I think that would be a great resolution.

Emily said...

We already re-use our ziplock sandwich bags (is that a bit crazy?) but this year I'm wanting to make snack bags so I can really cut back on all that wasted plastic (because they still get thrown out after 3 or 4 times).
We already use fabric shopping bags - where I live you have to pay 5 cents per bag, it's the law. It sure has made me remember to bring my fabric bags whenever I go shopping!