Thank you to everyone who supported Earth Hour 2008! (And, um, to a lesser extent... thanks to the people who sent me disparaging articles about how useless Earth Hour is. That's... awesome.)
I had planned on being at home on Saturday night, but I ended up driving to Columbus and spending time with friends. Those friends, however, were totally down the Earth Hour... they shut down all the computers in the house, all the lights and even their cell phones (we went a little nuts). We played Spades by candlelight for an hour and a half or so, before returning to our regularly scheduled energy-guzzling.
Thank you Jared, EricaB, Mark, Bradley and Bill (who was very confused when he came over around 8)... and to anyone who played along at home!
Showing posts with label green. Show all posts
Showing posts with label green. Show all posts
Monday, March 31, 2008
Friday, March 28, 2008
Earth Hour 2008
I've been amiss with my posts lately, which is unlike me, and I apologize. Things are just a little hectic right now!
But I've been "supporting thrift stores" like crazy lately... which is to say, doing a lot of thrift store shopping. Salvation Army is still my fave, but I hit up Goodwill from time to time, too. And as much as I like the eclectic stuff I come home with, I really do think about the difference it makes to reuse things... these clothes aren't being trashed, they're finding a new home with me. I'm also supporting good causes through both S.A. and Goodwill.
This weekend won't see the giant post I was hoping for, but I do want to at least put the word out about Earth Hour 2008. The basic gist: everyone turns out their lights for one hour (8-9pm) as a statement about climate change. I was introduced to the project through my friend Krystan, and I gave her my word that when March 31st rolled around, I'd shut off my lights proudly.
I'll be out of town, so my friends have agreed to have a "candle party" with me... which is great, because it has suddenly gone from 2 people (me + my brother) to 5 or more people involved with Earth Hour.
Anyone else on board? It's a very simple endeavor...
But I've been "supporting thrift stores" like crazy lately... which is to say, doing a lot of thrift store shopping. Salvation Army is still my fave, but I hit up Goodwill from time to time, too. And as much as I like the eclectic stuff I come home with, I really do think about the difference it makes to reuse things... these clothes aren't being trashed, they're finding a new home with me. I'm also supporting good causes through both S.A. and Goodwill.
This weekend won't see the giant post I was hoping for, but I do want to at least put the word out about Earth Hour 2008. The basic gist: everyone turns out their lights for one hour (8-9pm) as a statement about climate change. I was introduced to the project through my friend Krystan, and I gave her my word that when March 31st rolled around, I'd shut off my lights proudly.
I'll be out of town, so my friends have agreed to have a "candle party" with me... which is great, because it has suddenly gone from 2 people (me + my brother) to 5 or more people involved with Earth Hour.
Anyone else on board? It's a very simple endeavor...
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Recycling Updates
Thought I'd update because I'm on cloud eight (which is really close to nine).
Dad informed me that this week we didn't put the can out on trash night. Why? Because we didn't have enough garbage.
Yeah, you read that right. We had less than half a can, as opposed to the two full cans we were filling a couple of months ago.
Can I express how happy that makes me?!
Today we made another paper drop-off at church. We're recycling our own paper, and we've added paper from mom's house and now my grandmother's house.
Because of our overwhelming success with the cloth napkin/recycled paper endeavor, we're implementing a new Tupperware bin for plastic. Again, I'm trying not to be crazy about enforcing it, but if we just rinse out milk jugs and 2-liter bottles, that thing'll fill up every week and we can recycle it through church.
I know the actual benefits of recycling plastic are questionable, but let me tell you two big things that being more eco-friendly has done for my family already:
1. It has changed our habits. We don't reach for paper towels, we flip lights off, we conserve water, etc. It's becoming less and less conscious.
2. It has opened up dialogue. My dad comes home exhausted most nights, but if someone brings up something related to recycling, he gets really excited and together we start talking about what has changed in the house, how much less of x we've bought, how much lower x bill has been, new ideas we have, etc.
I'm incredibly fortunate to have a family that supports me and my ideas, a congregation who shares my values and guides them to new levels, and friends who get excited and back me.
Dad informed me that this week we didn't put the can out on trash night. Why? Because we didn't have enough garbage.
Yeah, you read that right. We had less than half a can, as opposed to the two full cans we were filling a couple of months ago.
Can I express how happy that makes me?!
Today we made another paper drop-off at church. We're recycling our own paper, and we've added paper from mom's house and now my grandmother's house.
Because of our overwhelming success with the cloth napkin/recycled paper endeavor, we're implementing a new Tupperware bin for plastic. Again, I'm trying not to be crazy about enforcing it, but if we just rinse out milk jugs and 2-liter bottles, that thing'll fill up every week and we can recycle it through church.
I know the actual benefits of recycling plastic are questionable, but let me tell you two big things that being more eco-friendly has done for my family already:
1. It has changed our habits. We don't reach for paper towels, we flip lights off, we conserve water, etc. It's becoming less and less conscious.
2. It has opened up dialogue. My dad comes home exhausted most nights, but if someone brings up something related to recycling, he gets really excited and together we start talking about what has changed in the house, how much less of x we've bought, how much lower x bill has been, new ideas we have, etc.
I'm incredibly fortunate to have a family that supports me and my ideas, a congregation who shares my values and guides them to new levels, and friends who get excited and back me.
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Tannenbaum, bulb, bulk
I helped take down our church's giant Christmas tree today. Normally I would leave right after service, but I'm looking for small windows of opportunity.
Also, I asked a few members of the church's Green Team about fluorescent bulb disposal. If you haven't been keeping up with the YoP comments, Lewis asked how to properly dispose of a fluorescent bulb, because they have small amounts of mercury in them. I found a guy at church who has some information that he's going to bring next week, so tune in for that. He says there are a few facilities around here that are specifically designed to handle them, but they have very limited hours.
For now, check out:
* Relevant FAQs from General Electric
* Earth911.org, where you can search recycling facilities by zip code
* LampRecycle.org
So I hope that answers your question, and maybe next week I'll have a few more pearls of wisdom for ya. ;) I wonder if I can create a place at Heritage where members can drop off bulbs, and then drive batches of them to the facility myself? The things never die, so it's frustrating to drive one bulb out to some recycling center, but if we collect them at church and periodically drive a batch over... hmm...
Bradley and I also did another paper dump (ew) at church-- the paper dumpster (as in a dumpster for paper, not a dumpster made of paper) was almost full. Such a small, easy thing to do-- and it's great to see our efforts adding up like that. I'm still a little skeptical about recycling things like paper, but I've already noticed that we have less trash at home.
Oh! And I wanted to mention that my friend Alison gave me a belated Christmas present: she sewed me some canvas shopping bags! She knows I'm "off" plastic bags, and has even witnessed me trying to juggle things in my arms as I walk to my car. (I'm horrible about remembering my totes.) The bags are gorgeous (brown and sparkly!) and I love them to death. :D
Also, I asked a few members of the church's Green Team about fluorescent bulb disposal. If you haven't been keeping up with the YoP comments, Lewis asked how to properly dispose of a fluorescent bulb, because they have small amounts of mercury in them. I found a guy at church who has some information that he's going to bring next week, so tune in for that. He says there are a few facilities around here that are specifically designed to handle them, but they have very limited hours.
For now, check out:
* Relevant FAQs from General Electric
* Earth911.org, where you can search recycling facilities by zip code
* LampRecycle.org
So I hope that answers your question, and maybe next week I'll have a few more pearls of wisdom for ya. ;) I wonder if I can create a place at Heritage where members can drop off bulbs, and then drive batches of them to the facility myself? The things never die, so it's frustrating to drive one bulb out to some recycling center, but if we collect them at church and periodically drive a batch over... hmm...
Bradley and I also did another paper dump (ew) at church-- the paper dumpster (as in a dumpster for paper, not a dumpster made of paper) was almost full. Such a small, easy thing to do-- and it's great to see our efforts adding up like that. I'm still a little skeptical about recycling things like paper, but I've already noticed that we have less trash at home.
Oh! And I wanted to mention that my friend Alison gave me a belated Christmas present: she sewed me some canvas shopping bags! She knows I'm "off" plastic bags, and has even witnessed me trying to juggle things in my arms as I walk to my car. (I'm horrible about remembering my totes.) The bags are gorgeous (brown and sparkly!) and I love them to death. :D
Monday, December 31, 2007
Happy New Year
It just became 2008 here. My first act of business was to do a crazy dance while the ball dropped, then high-five my brother... and then to blog, naturally.
It being just past midnight in a small suburb of Cincinnati, it's probably not practical to run out and try to find a homeless man to give money to or something. But I want to talk about something now, at the stroke of 2008, so I'll mention some stuff that's been in the works for a week or so now.
A large part of my project-- which I completely forgot to mention in my last post, because I was in a hurry-- is being more eco-friendly. Is that philanthropy? Probably not, by traditional definitions. But I guess one could argue that helping our environment helps people in the future... alright, so it's a stretch, but shuddup. 'S'my project.
Yesterday I bought a separate trash can for aluminum cans, which we hadn't been recycling until now. (Bradley drinks like two cases a week on his own, so it's kind of a big deal.) Also, kind of a bigger step-- I've weened my family off of paper towels. We are paper towel whores, but I've purchased a bunch of cloth napkins, washcloths and kitchen towels, and for the past couple of weeks we've been managing on those without horrible withdrawal symptoms. ;) Finally in recycling news, our church recycles paper-- I normally wouldn't make this effort because of an episode of Bullsh*t, but I believe our church actually makes some money off of recycling paper, so I'm all for it. There's a box in our kitchen now, which actually fills up quite fast (well, wrapping paper and stuff from the holidays helps), and this past Sunday was our first drop-off. Yea, less waste!
To some degree, I think my brother and my dad think I've gone slightly crazy for the green bandwagon, but they don't give me grief about it. We've been using the energy-efficient fluorescent bulbs long before they became The Household Thing that they are now, but now almost every light in our house uses the bulbs. That was mostly dad's doing. Bradley's mere participation in the paper towel experiment speaks volumes. It's a much more fun endeavor with the two of them. I don't share a house with my mom, but she's been instrumental in getting me off of plastic bags-- I now take canvas totes to the grocery store, and use brown paper bags, which we reuse in garbage cans. It's one part green-ness, one part family solidarity. I love it.
Also, our church has been driving some of these points home like mad. My brother and I attend a Universalist Unitarian church, and most of the congregation is absorbed with the green movement. There's a committee dedicated to green-ness, actually, and they've done things like set up the paper recycling bin and a compost heap. So again, it's more fun together-- it's something I'm doing as part of a community, not just as one person.
Alright, so what else am I doing right now, for green-ness' sake? I'm trying to be more energy efficient: turning off my computer when I leave work, turning off lights behind me (I am SO bad about leaving lights on-- it's a security thing), using more efficient settings on the dishwasher and washer/dryer, stuff like that. This year I want to ride the bus more-- I rode it a few times last year and LOVED it, but it doesn't always work because I can't guarantee I'll leave work in time to catch a bus back home. But I want to make that happen more this year. Wish me luck.
This post is getting lengthy. Let's cut it short for now... happy New Year, everyone! I'm thrilled to get this underway! Anyone have any goals or resolutions they want to share?
It being just past midnight in a small suburb of Cincinnati, it's probably not practical to run out and try to find a homeless man to give money to or something. But I want to talk about something now, at the stroke of 2008, so I'll mention some stuff that's been in the works for a week or so now.
A large part of my project-- which I completely forgot to mention in my last post, because I was in a hurry-- is being more eco-friendly. Is that philanthropy? Probably not, by traditional definitions. But I guess one could argue that helping our environment helps people in the future... alright, so it's a stretch, but shuddup. 'S'my project.
Yesterday I bought a separate trash can for aluminum cans, which we hadn't been recycling until now. (Bradley drinks like two cases a week on his own, so it's kind of a big deal.) Also, kind of a bigger step-- I've weened my family off of paper towels. We are paper towel whores, but I've purchased a bunch of cloth napkins, washcloths and kitchen towels, and for the past couple of weeks we've been managing on those without horrible withdrawal symptoms. ;) Finally in recycling news, our church recycles paper-- I normally wouldn't make this effort because of an episode of Bullsh*t, but I believe our church actually makes some money off of recycling paper, so I'm all for it. There's a box in our kitchen now, which actually fills up quite fast (well, wrapping paper and stuff from the holidays helps), and this past Sunday was our first drop-off. Yea, less waste!
To some degree, I think my brother and my dad think I've gone slightly crazy for the green bandwagon, but they don't give me grief about it. We've been using the energy-efficient fluorescent bulbs long before they became The Household Thing that they are now, but now almost every light in our house uses the bulbs. That was mostly dad's doing. Bradley's mere participation in the paper towel experiment speaks volumes. It's a much more fun endeavor with the two of them. I don't share a house with my mom, but she's been instrumental in getting me off of plastic bags-- I now take canvas totes to the grocery store, and use brown paper bags, which we reuse in garbage cans. It's one part green-ness, one part family solidarity. I love it.
Also, our church has been driving some of these points home like mad. My brother and I attend a Universalist Unitarian church, and most of the congregation is absorbed with the green movement. There's a committee dedicated to green-ness, actually, and they've done things like set up the paper recycling bin and a compost heap. So again, it's more fun together-- it's something I'm doing as part of a community, not just as one person.
Alright, so what else am I doing right now, for green-ness' sake? I'm trying to be more energy efficient: turning off my computer when I leave work, turning off lights behind me (I am SO bad about leaving lights on-- it's a security thing), using more efficient settings on the dishwasher and washer/dryer, stuff like that. This year I want to ride the bus more-- I rode it a few times last year and LOVED it, but it doesn't always work because I can't guarantee I'll leave work in time to catch a bus back home. But I want to make that happen more this year. Wish me luck.
This post is getting lengthy. Let's cut it short for now... happy New Year, everyone! I'm thrilled to get this underway! Anyone have any goals or resolutions they want to share?
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