Requisite Earth Day Post

Several bloggers out there have expressed their fatigue with all the "green" issues of magazines and the promotions of Earth Day. To some degree, I agree with this. The conversion of a grass-roots effort to promote environmental responsibility to a commericialized holiday of sorts runs the risk of diluting an important message. A message that has little time left to be transmitted before it's too late.

On the other hand, the increasing awareness of ways people can "green" their lives combined with the increasing affordability of environmentally responsible foods and products can only be a good thing. In a difficult economic situation, organic foods and expensive green products can not compete with mass-market, mass-produced, cheap, inexpensive items. So if in the name of a "green" earth-day issue, a magazine is willing to provide simple recipes for vinegar-based household cleaners, or recommend the best phosphate-free dishwashing detergent, then go for it. I just hope the information reaches the people who need it, and doesn't get lost among thousand-dollar designer dresses made from organic bamboo cloth.

So what am I doing this earth day? I'm reflecting on what I and the Writer currently do to be green and setting goals (Earth Day resolutions, if you will) that are hopefully attainable in the next year.

Things we do already:
- dry clothes on drying racks instead of the dryer (except for sheets for obvious reasons)
- use phosphate-free dishwashing detergents
- use natural, environmentally friendly household cleaners
- cut up old, holey cotton t-shirts into handing cleaning rags that are washed and repeatedly used
- use multiple small dishrags I knitted from cotton yarn instead of paper towels in most cases
- vigilantly keep lights off in rooms no one is in
- keep the heat down and rarely use the air conditioner (easy with a basement apt in summer)
- switched to coffee (ALWAYS consumed from re-usable containers) instead of pop, eliminating the aluminum cans
- carry lunches in all re-usable containers
- use as many natural toiletries as reasonable (deoderant, toothpaste, lip balm, etc.)
- walk or use the bus to go to school, work, and the grocery store
- use the comics from the newspaper to wrap gifts
- recycle as much as possible in our community

Goals for the next year:
-switch to cloth napkins from paper
-begin using recycled paper towels for the one roll we go through in a year
- switched to recycled toilet paper
- buy an iced tea maker to make my own so we can stop buying plastic gallon jugs of it
- buy/make cloth re-usable gift bags
- in the summer, switch daily schedule to coincide as much as possible with hours of daylight - decreasing the use of artificial light
- use local food co-op and farmer's market to obtain veggies and fruits in season, as well as locally raised meat

We'll see how we're doing next year. In the meantime, hopefully the message that environmental responsibility is possible - even in these economic times - will continue to spread.