Eco-Lassie loves to find new uses for household items, and when she was cleaning out a closet recently, she came across a can of hair spray. Now the last time Eco Lassie used hair spray was for her a wedding in 2005–when an updo needed to be tamed. But here was a perfectly good, almost full can of hair spray. Surely there had to be more uses for it.
Posted in house stuff, Uncategorized
Tagged gum, hair spray, pantyhose, shoe shine, stains
Last month, Recycla read an interesting article about the city of Seattle’s plans to cut back on the amount of trash going into municipal landfills. The city has already banned foam take-out containers and plastic bags, established mandatory cardboard recycling and food composting, and set up a registry for people to opt-out of getting phone books. But city management thinks they can do even more.
Enviro Girl has been tracking her trash in order to get a handle on exactly what her household throws away. When confronted with the latest statistics on Americans and garbage (Americans throw away an average of 7 pounds of garbage per person every day), she wondered how her family compared to the national average. In this instance, her goal was to be below average. Continue reading
As part of Enviro Girl’s effort to get a handle on her household’s trash habits, and in effect understand how people can throw away an average of 7 pounds of garbage daily, she’s writing down all of her household garbage. This list excludes recycled or composted waste. Since yesterday at breakfast Enviro Girl’s family has thrown out Continue reading
We all want to make a difference, to have an impact on the world and hopefully leave something behind…but maybe we should think small(er).
Instead of trying to come up with some great BIG idea to make a difference, the Green Queen says think small. If we all do a little, it will do a lot. And, there are a lot of little things we can do that will make a BIG difference. Like:
1) Turn off the water while you brush your teeth. Get your toothbrush wet and the paste but then reach up and turn off the water while you scrub those bicuspids. There’s no use in letting the water run…that’s just wasteful.
2) Turn off the water while you lather your legs. If you are going to take the time to shave your legs, lather up but make sure the water is turned off while you do it. There’s no benefit to having the water running while you’re lathering.
3) When you’re sudsing up in the shower, turn off the water. You can work up better suds if you get the soap wet and then rub-a-dub-dub without any excess water.
These three little things might sound silly but it will save water and the planet at the same time.
It’s the little things in life that make the most difference. Remember…the things that make an impression on you–they might not be BIG things but they stick with you. It’s the same with being sustainable. If you make a small effort to change the things you do everyday, it will make a BIG difference in the end.
So, think SMALL and it will make a BIG difference. And, the Green Queen hopes you have a funtabulous weekend trying to think of ways you can use a little less water.
Posted in Uncategorized
Enviro Girl tried to weigh her kitchen garbage bag this morning, but it’s still so light that her bathroom scale will not register it. It’s lighter than a gallon of milk, which weighs about 7-8 pounds, so 2 days into her Trash Study, her household is well below the daily average of producing 7 pounds of garbage per person. To recap: In her examination of the garbage issue, Enviro Girl is tracking her household’s trash for a week, Continue reading
As part of our exploration into trash, Enviro Girl is tracking what she throws in the garbage–a bit like counting calories or writing down every expenditure. To solve the trash problem (of 7 pounds per person per day in America), you have to understand it first. Enviro Girl considers herself to be well below the norm in trash production, but she’s tracking her trash because you never know what surprises you’ll find digging in the garbage… Continue reading
