Quite a long time ago I took a suggestion from the guy at Astoria Oregon Rust to heart: Cliff and I stopped buying bottled water. I won't say we never buy it, but we used to sometimes buy it by the case. Now we'll buy a single bottle of water perhaps four times a year, when thirst hits us and we're unprepared.
Presently I'm making the supreme effort to buy my groceries at the home-town market rather than Walmart; the idea is to keep a local grocery store in business. So far, so good... two out of three weeks isn't bad. This was another idea that came out of Oregon, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to stick with it this time.
Perhaps you noticed, in the picture in a previous entry, that I'm now taking a couple of my own bags to the grocery store. Once I'm firmly in the habit of using them, I'll get more. It'll be that much less plastic in the landfills. This also came about from my blog-reading. Someone, I have no recollection who, mentioned that if a person went to the Earthbound Farms website and took a simple quiz, they'd be sent a free tote bag; so I did, because I'll take almost anything that's free. I'd forgotten about taking the quiz when, several weeks later, I found my tote bag in the mail. It's roomier than most, and I wish I could buy some more just like it. The Tote-bag giveaway is over now, I'm sorry to say.
Since I had a tote bag, I told Cliff I was going to leave it in the car and try to use it. He later brought home another bag from work, so that gave me two. I'm just now getting to the point of remembering to take them in. So I guess Earthbound Farms and some anonymous blogger get the credit for this particular move of mine in the right direction.
You see? One individual really can make a difference in protecting the environment. Now I'm blogging about it, thinking that maybe just one more person will latch onto one of these ideas and make a difference in their own little world.
For somebody who isn't what you'd call a "tree-hugger", I'm doing pretty good, wouldn't you say?
Edited to add that it was no doubt Meesha, of Kansas City With The Russian Accent, who steered me to the free tote bag at Earthbound Farms. Thanks for the comment, MV.
Donna, you get a gold star! As it all comes together you will see that you have more of the hard earned money to keep by conserving and you will have more to spend in your community where you will be helping locals pay their bills and hopefully stick around to provide services in the future when the grocery giants go under in this economy. Keep it local and reuse when ever possible.
ReplyDeleteYou are doing great ! I try but forget those bags at home more often than not. It's just like everything else new habits are hard to form but not impossible.
ReplyDeleteGO GREEN! 'On Ya'-ma
Donna, It is hard to change, I find. I keep bags in my car and forget to take them into the store.I was going to post about water bottles soon. There was an article written in our school newsletter about water bottles. It has good information and I am going to use the bottles from www.kleankanteen.com as stocking stuffers and inexpensive (relatively so!) gifts for Christmas this year. My grandma used to say, "It is hard to teach an old dog a new trick." That's me!
ReplyDeleteI'd say you are doing better than 80% of the rest of us! I will try to do these things as well.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing
Every little bit helps. Good job!! I hate that I missed out on the free tote...LOL
ReplyDeleteI might have been me who wrote about the bag, I got one too!
ReplyDeleteI am trying harder and harder to be more "green," but it's tough here, too. I'm keeping bags to take to the store, but it's Aldi for us. I just can't afford the local guys. What gets me is the amount of paper and postage used to mail the political crap before the election. I would LOVE to know how much $$$ that totaled. How about other junk mail? We do recycle cans now, and very seldom buy bottles of water or anything else. Baby steps, I suppose.
ReplyDeleteWay to go Donna.....green is good!
ReplyDeleteBe careful....sounds like you might be getting a little close to the "liberal" category. (I'm just kidding)
I'd say you're doing great. I bought cloth bags from all the local stores I go to, but it took me weeks to get in the habit of taking them with me. They hold a lot more than you'd think.
ReplyDeleteI say you are doing a great job. I think I need to find a "green" water container to carry with me. I am a big water drinker. Great ideas Mo. Anne
ReplyDeleteBravo!
ReplyDeleteI have a bunch of reuseable bags in the car, but sometimes I forget to bring them in. At least I can recycle the plastic bags though...
ReplyDeleteI'm not a fan of plastic, believe me! But we have a good recycleing system here, plastic with the recycle symbol on the bottom #1 to #4 can be put out for the recycle truck..one of my pet peeves is going for a drive and seeing all those plastic bags stuck on trees....what an eyesore!
ReplyDeleteloopymama
I have been recycling cans for a long time. As for the bottles, I get them in a blue moon. I have a few around that I refill with water for Pat's lunch and Brook's taekwondo. I need to start getting the bags. I use a local store and Walmart. The local store is much further away from me to drive to.
ReplyDelete