In the past year, I have been making a conscious effort to change and be less wasteful and more eco-conservative. I fail miserably in some aspects of my life, but around the house I do pretty well. Here are the small and not-so-small changes we’ve made to conserve the earth:

• We take our own bags to the store.  I have a bunch of random bags- Envirosax, a Rootote, a Reseinthal MiniMaxi Shopper, and a couple other random ones from IKEA and Trader Joe’s.  I even turn down paper bags now.  It is so easy to do.  I just make sure I have a few in my car.
• I have started making my own house cleaning formulas using vinegar, baking soda, lemon, juice, and borax for different areas.  It’s pet-safe and better for the environment.  I figure it to be the for the best considering we have a well on our property.
• I bought a low-flow shower head.  It works pretty well, and it’s regulated to allow good pressure.  I do notice that it seems to have better pressure in shower than the other, but I think that has something to do with our plumbing and how much further down the pipes the lower-pressure shower is.

Things I still want to do:

• Get a programmable thermostat (I need 3 of them for my house).
• Get some window film for our windows without any window treatments.
• Schedule my computers to shut down and start up automatically.

It’s a start.

As we drove back from Chicago this week, I was disheartened. I don’t know if it’s because it’s winter and the lack of foliage allows things to blow across the plains with less resistance or what, but it seemed like there were plastic bags everywhere. Rob says this is my new crusade. I don’t know if it’s that, but I am determined to at least minimize my own impact and encourage my friends to do the same.

I’m not sure if the problem is really as bad as I perceive it to be or if it is just that I am more aware of it as I strive to not take any bags whenever possible.

The problems I noticed with the plastic bags are many.

1. They are abundant.  There are so many!  People give you a bag if you buy a bag of chips at the gas station.
2. They are lightweight; they have the potential to fly everywhere and get caught on stuff.
3. They are not recycled as often as paper bags.
4. They are a danger to wildlife.
5. They are a suffocation hazard to children.

Even though it takes more energy and resources to produce a paper bag, it is more likely to be recycled and they last longer and can be reused.  They are not as likely to get caught in trees or entangle wildlife.

I’m a big fan of paper when I need to take a bag.  I’m also a big fan of the Aldi approach of charging for bags or making people bring their own.  In the UK, after a charge was imposed on taking plastic bags at IKEA, it reduced plastic bag usage there by 95%.

Most importantly, buy durable ones that you can reuse or sew some out of old T-shirts.  I really don’t want to see it get any worse than this.