Weekend GTKY: Happy Earth Day!

ForwardnBackward

Happy Earth day ladies!  Tell us the types of earth friendly things you do or want to be to be doing better!

**Insert witty gif or meme**

ForwardnBackward

We are a big recycling family.  I'm heading to the local March for Science today with DS

dumbledoredies

I bought these amazing reusable grocery bags from Amazon a year ago and will never ever ever EVER go back. One of the best purchases I've ever made! They have a hard bottom that goes down so they are super sturdy. It also only takes me 2 trips to get inside with them (or 1 if DH helps) and I don't have to play the game of 'how many plastic bags can I fit on both arms'. I get do many compliments on them at the grocery store. -insert bragging gif-

And here's a link because I share it with everyone - https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00WH46ISK/ref=mp_s_a_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1492864366&sr=8-6&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=grocery+bags&dpPl=1&dpID=5174E53nHFL&ref=plSrch

I'm saving the earth one plastic bag at a time.

jessafishy

@dumbledoredies I always want to get on the reusable bag train but half the time I feel like I would forget about them. How did you train yourself to grab them for shopping?

yasandson

@dumbledoredies i love them.  i got me some from Costco, extra long. When Costco(or any other grocery store)  is packed is actually dont even take a trolley to be able to walk fast and quickly do my thing without being stopped by all the trolleys. I can fit everything into it.
@jessafishy it took me a while to train myself... But eventually i did it. I leave them in the trunk empty. And when i got my grocery upstairs, home. I just put them right next to our door that way the next person that goes to the car remembers to bring em back down. 

Edited cause english 

riverrainez

We use reusable bags (my city has banned plastic bags) and just have a ton of them everywhere. By the door, in the car, in the closet. 

We bike or walk almost everywhere instead of driving. We have just one car between us. 
Biking is really big here. I get my coffee beans delivered by bike every Tuesday. You can hire people to do almost anything by bike. Like, "tree trimming by bike" is an actual thing. 

lola4411

Our city banned plastic bags too which I LOVE. We do a family beach clean up every other month with our 2.5 year old. Basically just go to the beach on a Sunday with our lil guy and two trash bags and fill them up.

sjohns908

I'm big on recycling. I also try not to use paper towels a whole lot. I used to be bad an use them to wipe down the counters, tables and walls, but now I make sure I'm using dish cloths and old towels to do that

JessDG

We use reusable shopping bags.  DH does the shopping and is WAY better at remembering them than I would be.  He typically throws them back in his car when they are emptied after a shopping trip.  We also have an awesome single stream recycling program and have a container just like our trash can to put recyclables in.  Our neighborhood makes is very easy to recycle.

dumbledoredies

@jessafishy I keep them in the trunk of my car! Otherwise I would never remember them. When I bring groceries home I empty them and take them right back out to my trunk.

feeislove

I don't use reusable bags but I do have a bag (you know that tube looking thing) full of Walmart bags that we use to collect trash, clean up pet messes and empty the litter box with. I take the extra ones back to Walmart and they recycle them to make more bags. I want to start recycling. The only thing about it is I would need to take it myself to a collection center because they don't collect it here. 

monstera13

I'd like to get some reusable shopping bags and start using them. I'm not very earth-conscious right now But I love to spend time outdoors hiking and biking!

nbcarlson

Mostly I just recycle everything I can. I wish I was more earth conscious but I do struggle with the simple things like reusable bags. I actually hate everything outdoors like hiking and water haha. But I still care about the Earth and future! 

soprano19

We recycle a ton, and we use reusable grocery bags... it's actually the law in our city. We also just got out of a huge drought, so we got used to conserving as much water as possible.

sjohns908

Flame Free Saturday confession? I think people who have curbside recycling and don't use it are jerks. What is so hard about throwing your boxes in the recycle bin instead of the trash can? My dad absolutely refuses to use theirs, even though they still have to pay for it. It's like he's doing this stupid sticking-it-to-the-man thing and makes me crazy. As a teenager, I used to collect all the recycling at our house and drive it to the center myself before they had a curbside program 

On another note, I keep meaning to make myself some reusable bags from my giant stash of fabric I haven't been able to sell for work. Better than continuing to collect dust AND I don't have to go buy any to replenish my stash of bags. Win win! Lol

feeislove

@sjohns08 File that under "Annoying Things My Dad Does that Doesn't Make Any Sense" My file is fairly thick. I would totally be recycling without question if we had that service. 

purplestarz

Our city also banned plastic bags. You get trained to remember real quick when they start charging you 10 cents per bag lol

side note, people were PISSED when this went into effect. No one wanted to pay the 10 cents so you would see people leaving grocery stores with their groceries just tossed into their carts and I guess they would just toss them in their trunks like that haha. It was ridiculous. The only silly thing to me is I now have to buy plastic bags to pick up dog crap. But oh well.

Recycling is so second nature to me. I grew up with it in the northwest so it's just what you do. We lived in Oklahoma for a short while and I remember asking at our apartment complex where the recycling was and just getting blank stares. It was so bizarre to me.

yasandson

@purplestarz 10 cents!!! Thats 14 Canadian cents. We were all pissed (tossing unpacked groceries in trunk)  when that happened and we re only being charged 5cents for plastic bags! Loool 

I forgot to add in previous post. We also recycle. We get a bin from the city and will be fined if we dont use it every week. Also, city employees randomly check garbages)/recycling bin and fine people for not respecting the law if they ever find garbage in recycling bin or recycling matter in garbage! 

Eta : AND compost bins (thats a very recent law, less than a year old i think) 

ksf13

We've done so much better since we moved. Now we have curbside recycling, which makes it SO much easier, and we don't drink bottled water anymore. Our water where we used to live was gross, even filtered. Now we just use our filter on our fridge now and I love it! I have SO many reusable grocery bags in my car, but I'm so bad at remembering to use them! I'm getting there though! Oh, and since we moved we are a one car family. However, I'm thinking once DD starts PreK and baby gets here this Fall, we may go back to being a two car family; or I may just take DH to work everyday (it's only a few miles from our house). It's nice only having once car payment . I'm sure I'll be up early with the baby and to take DD to school anyway. 

joforyoga

jessafishy said:

@dumbledoredies I always want to get on the reusable bag train but half the time I feel like I would forget about them. How did you train yourself to grab them for shopping?

I try to make a point to always have extra in my trunk:)

curlyq423

We recycle anything that can be recycled. Our recycle can is always fuller than the trash can and they only pick it up every other week, whereas trash is weekly. We have plastic bags but recycle them. Usually we throw paper/junk mail/anything else small to be recycled in them and throw them in the recycle bin.

We also have reusable shopping bags but we are horrible about remembering them. You would think I would remember them more often because it's less trips back to the car to gather groceries and less I have to carry on my arm to make less trips! 

joforyoga

We recycle and we are big composters. We literally cut our garbage down by 75 percent when we started doing this! We live in Ontario but my cousin lives in Vancouver and her community is waaaay ahead of us in terms of consciousness environmentally! They not only have a limit on garbage bags but a limit on recycling too to encourage people to reuse containers. Grocery stores where you bring your own containers, jars for oils and bulk etc. This is my goal, to try and reduce packaging. We don't et processed food too much so we don't have much other than oil bottles, yogurt and cottage cheese containers etc. But still, alwaysnroom for improvement:)

ForwardnBackward

I miss being in Seattle when it comes to environmentally friendly things.  I took public transit to work and composted and plastic bags were charged for.  I cringed when DH brought home a flat of water in plastic bottles.

riverrainez

My city also does curbside composting in addition to recycling. Compost and recycling get picked up weekly and trash is every other week. People were pissed whenever that went into effect too. I love it. It really forces you to be mindful of what you throw away.  

shan24

We compost and recycle (by law. There's a fine of we don't). I'd like to start using reusable bags, but I haven't gotten around to buying them yet. 

We share one car and because we live in a small town, were able to walk most anywhere we need. 

asickles98

We are a recycling family in a state that is not too big on recycling.  We have to drive it down to the drop of zone but it is worth it to raise our child with being kind to the Earth in mind.