Sustainable Choices ~ Earth Day 2022

We are still following our 2017 and 2019 lists and here are a few more ideas that are we've implemented over the years.

1. Borrowing books from the library, one book can be read by hundreds of people.  If you amortize the cost of the book into just one hundred people, book cost of $30, the cost is $0.30 per person.

2.  Reading digital books, no printing and no physical waste!

3.  Buy less products online.  There is so much waste involved in shipping a single item, if it can be bought at the store for a similar price to online, go get it while combining the trip with other needs.  

4.  Do not use plastic bags to hold produce unless it's "wet".  Wet examples include spices like basil and certain salads.  Anything that is loose such as bananas, avocados, apples, etc can sit in your cart and then get bagged at the cashier station in your own totes.  We wash everything at home, and we're careful in handling these items, so I see no need for an extra plastic bag.  I've been following this rule for many years with no damage to produce.

5.  We donate all clothes that are no longer wearable but are still in good condition.  I used to sell them through consignments but it got to be too much work.  

Goals for 2022:

1.  Take totes to all stores, despite getting 75% of our groceries from Aldi and Costco, the remaining 25% give us a ton of bags and since the pandemic it's becoming increasingly hard to find anyone who is still offering recycling bins.  

2.  I want to take a tour of our local recycling plants and learn more about it to make sure we are doing everything correctly.

3.  Switch to biodegradable trash bags.  I'm guilty of two things:

• I buy the cheapest trash bags.
• I use Target/Walmart bags for small trash cans

I've realized that while we have cut back significantly on our trash output, we still put at least one can out per week with 2-3 bags of trash inside. 

Toys I refuse to buy my kids

Sorry kids, as you read this one day, I tried my best to indulge but some items are on the permanently banned list.  I'm sure you will understand once you have kids of your own one day.

1.  Easy Bake Oven - if they want to bake, follow me to the kitchen, I bake homemade breads, cookies and other desserts several times a week.  It's how I learned to bake.  I'm not buying into the packages of pre-made foods so they can dump in a few ingredients and pretend to bake. 

2.  Electric Scooters - I think they are ridiculous and miss the entire point of having a scooter, which is to exercise one leg and learn good balance.  If you hit a bump, fall, and get up without screaming, as my son did about a year ago, then you get huge props for endurance.  

3.  Radio controlled Drones - just what I need, an expensive toy that can be flown and crashed.  They can buy it when they grow up and appreciate the money spent.  Maybe they will be cheap enough to crash them at that point without any concern for the money spent.

4.  Hover boards - get over your fantasy of Back to the Future or buy it when you grow up.  I'm not spending ridiculous bucks so you can fall off a zooming board that rams into the neighbors house while you lie on the ground screaming after crashing into a tree or something.