Greening SitRep* (Need for Growth)

One of my goals for this blog was to share my "green" practices.  It's been a while since I did so because I'm not really doing anything new, we're just working to continue work at the little things we've employed in the past few years.

Actually, work is the wrong verb because the things we do around here are routine now, and we feel good about them.  But I am hesitant to share because a real green renegade would want to know why I'm not doing even more.

So here's my all-encompassing how we're doing post.  I have touched on some of these recently, and  I do this mostly to keep ourselves accountable.

When I met Brad in 2006, he didn't even recycle.  My friend Brenda told him he better learn if he wanted things to work out with me!  She was right, I've been recycling ever since Mac was born.  This little awareness started due to my guilt for using disposable diapers--moms of now have much nicer cloth options!  I even recycled when I lived in my condo and had no curbside pick-up.  Now that was work!

Anyway, Brad now recycles like a fiend.  Between that and composting, we put one garbage bag out for pick up every three weeks.

Though it's a little unsightly, he keeps a paper lawn bag in his office for recycling junk mail, shredded bills, and office paper.  I'm working on getting him to move it to the garage and just employ a bin, but I can't complain much, you wouldn't believe how much paper goes in that bag--even though many of our bills are e-bills.

After "making" a compost bin for me and going on a worm hunt (called bait shopping for some), we've been adding to the compost bin daily.  Our big adds are tea bags, coffee grounds, and fruit cuttings.  We have some happy worms!  We made a second bin last fall, one to lie somewhat dormant (though working) and another to add to.  What lovely soil those worms made.  It's pretty amazing to know that our watermelon rinds and coffee grounds were turned into dirt.  We kept both bins in the garage all winter, and now they're back outside.

The likes of this:

Goes into these daily: 

See how they're hidden behind a bush?  The grill hides them too.  Our little green secret!

Our "almost paperless" kitchen.  Three years ago I bought some cloth napkins, and Brad didn't want to dirty them.  I bought a back-up set, but he still was sneaking a paper napkin into the folds of his cloth one.  I finally pointed out that we hadn't even opened the back-up package of napkins, and could he please just use the cloth.  We haven't bought everyday paper napkins (we have bought party napkins) since.  In fact, as a little reward, I just bought new cloth napkins, and we'll keep using the old ones.  They look great after three years!

Speaking of parties, the only trash we have from them are the little festive cocktail napkins we use.  We use stainless flatware, cups that get recycled OR glasses from the cabinet, and my little Crate & Barrel appetizer plates (thank you C & B outlet!)  I have over 36 of the latter, and guests appreciate the availability of a clean plate when theirs gets dirty.  Another good buy, glass dinner plates from the dollar store.  I bought three dozen of those.  Again, with the cost of disposables, this little investment paid off after two parties.

I have started making home cleaners, and we use our dryer balls instead of fabric softener.  Well, B. uses them in addition to fabric softener.   Can't see to break him of the Downy habit.

I hope to make some more cleaners (and report on them), make some more dryer balls (for gifts), some lunch wrappers (no more plastic sandwich bags), and sew some cocktail napkins (lots of cocktail napkins).  That's my green to do wish list.

A major fail?  I bought a metal safety razor two years back.  I don't mind using it, but Brad tends to refresh my shower razor with a Bic, and I let him.  We're almost out of Bics, and I have to remind him to not buy others.  I hate throwing away those small chunks of plastic.

Use this:

 Not this, El:

A minor fail?  Paper towels.  While we don't go through them like mad, and we do rinse and reuse them, we do still use them. When I was single, I didn't even buy them, but I find myself reaching for them from time to time since they're so blasted handy.

Still working on:  getting used to hankies, unplugging our phone cords, and turning things off when I (we) leave a room.  I do turn off the basement TV and treadmill at a surge protector, so they are truly off when not in use, but I need to employ that more consistently elsewhere in the house.

All of these are just little things, but the little things add up. This is easily measured in our lack of trash, our need for more recycling bins, and our second compost bin.  Sure, there are lots more things we could be doing, but what we do matters.

What do you do?  Give me some tips!  This Stewart hopes to be a better steward of the Earth, just as God asks.

*situation report