Eliminate Paper Waste-
I haven't a clue why, but my mother seems to like to save up all the catalogs we receive through the mail. She holds onto them with almost a religious fashion, every so often sorting through them and keeping the ones she thinks are "pretty", which is nearly all of them. The only ones she doesn't like keeping at all the hardware and tool catalogs companies send my dad. She throws those out immediately.
Due to this, we have enough catalogs to papier-mache the pentagon. That's a lot of wasted paper. Recycling one ton of paper will save about 6.7 cubic feet of landfill space, and as paper waste now accounts for nearly 40% of all landfill space, recycling paper instead of throwing it away would double the lives of landfills. Not only that, but it also helps the environment by avoiding production of more paper. Every ton of recycled paper saves 17 trees, 462 gallons of oil, and also saves some pollution made by paper manufacturing plants. (go here for more facts- http://es.epa.gov/techinfo/facts/michigan/mich-fs4.html)
At the moment, I regularly receive the catalogs of about 7 companies. I do love the clothing that these companies have to offer, but I've decided to call them and ask to be taken off their mailing lists. I'm sure they have a way to end subscriptions- teens grow up, they move away; what 75 year old woman wants to look at an Urban Outfitters catalog?- so hopefully, calling them will work.
This is also very practical because I'm on many of the catalog's online newsletter lists, which means I receive the same information via e-mail every week (or every day, the spammers). This is a definite plus to technology- you don't have to waste paper on their gigantic catalogs when it's made available online! Junk e-mail doesn't clog landfills, no matter how obnoxious it is.
Today's other goal is to put my grocery list (*shudder*) to work for me when we go shopping this afternoon. Wish me luck on my pilot mission!
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3 comments:
Hi, I just stumbled onto your blog because of your post at No Impact Man. I just wanted to suggest that you not buy canned foods as you get lost in the grocery store. Plastic bags full of dried beans, lentils, etc may also not be environmentally ideal, but it's better than metal because it's less volume of waste. I've heard that the bags are more efficient to ship because they weigh less than the metal, thus not making a truck's engine work quite as hard (though I'm not certain on that one). And they're lighter to carry in a backpack or on a bicycle! You can probably buy some of those things in dried goods bulk and bring the old bag in with you to reuse, and you can buy fresh potatoes rather than canned almost all year.
I understand about the long showers... my husband and I now take what my friend calls "Israeli showers" (because Israel is in a desert, though we aren't): water on to get wet--off while shampooing and getting soapy--on again to rinse off. I find it shortens my time in the shower to do it like that anyways, in addition to using less water. We also don't have to run the vent fan as long because the bathroom doesn't get as steamy, and my hair dries out less.
Cheers,
Emily
you should check out greendimes.com
i use them to stop all my junk mail and they plant trees for you!
This is great info to know.
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