Sunday 9 September 2007

Cutbacks aren't always a bad thing!

I am a SAHM. I do not go to work, I do not go to school, and my son stays home with me and my insane cat. When I read this over at Metro Mama, I was compelled to join in the eco-fun. I am pretty conscious of my eco-footprint, and in the spirit of the BlogHer's Act September Challenge, here is how I am going to minimize my footprint this month:

  1. I will use a thermos-mug whenever I buy myself a coffee or other hot beverages. I know that some places will even give you a marginal discount if you provide your own cup. I buy myself a drink about twice a week, so this will save about 8 disposable paper cups this month. If I can convince my DH to do the same, we would save an additional 20 or 30 cups.

  2. I will use the cloth/reusable grocery bags whenever I go shopping. I have 2 large bags that I bought from A&P (which are made from 100% post consumer materials) and 2 smaller cloth bags from Loblaws. Interestingly, these 4 bags can hold as many groceries as approximately 20 plastic bags, based on the highly inefficient bagging skills of most grocery store employees. Yes, you CAN put cereal and eggs in the same bag! The eggs won't break! Since I buy roughly 2-3 plastic bags of groceries a day, this will keep about 60-90 plastic bags out of our landfill.

  3. I will use my cloth diapers for Sacha whenever we are out in public instead of buying the disposable ones for those occasions.



kushies




We currently use cloth diapers during the day and he uses one disposable diaper at night. However, I usually use disposable diapers in public for ease of packing. However, if I just keep a couple of cloth diapers ready to go in the car, this shouldn't be an issue. This will probably save about 5 diapers a week. This isn't huge, but it's better than nothing. Plus, I HATE buying damn disposable diapers more than I have to!


There are many other suggestions on the BlogHer's Act Canada page. Many of these we already do, so I didn't bother mentioning them here. But check it out for yourself and decrease your eco-footprint!

8 comments:

  1. Good for you!

    I love those reusable grocery bags I use them a lot.I even bought two extra just to keep in the car just in case I forgot to bring them. I miss the plastic grocery bags for stinky diapers and dog poo duty but I'm getting over it.

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  2. I do carry mine in the car. Now. I NEVER remembered them before!

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  3. I own about 6 of those bags, and they are all in my car. Last month, I remembered to actually bring them into the grocery store ONCE, and that was because my mom had borrowed one and handed it to me just before we got out of the car.As Kermit says so well, it's not easy being green.

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  4. Awesome tips!

    Jia

    www.newlywives.blogspot.com
    www.semiholistichousewife.blogspot.com
    www.fleetingglimpseofeternity.blogspot.com
    www.fangirlrantings.blogspot.com

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  5. ohmygawd, I get a really unhealthy thrill when I read of another mommy blogger who uses cloth diapers! I used them with my youngest full time. He's out of dipes, of course..but I remember those days. Bummis covers and pfs were my favorite with Fuzzi Bunz for overnight. And I finally bit the bullet and used them while out and about too. Honestly, NO harder than taking sposies out. The only difference is you have an extra bag to put the dirties in instead of throwing it away.

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  6. I also use Fuzzy Bunz on my boys...they're great! We've used them since Zander was 2 months old, and love them. I also made my own wipes our of flannel, and just wet them before using them.

    I have been thinking of getting the cloth bags they sell at Loblaws/Superstore....now I'm going to do it the next time we go grocery shopping!

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  7. I'm checking out the eco-posts from MBT.

    I had to laugh at your comment about how many groceries you can fit in those reusable bags. I'm a bagging rebel too: bread with fruit, eggs with milk. I pack them full.

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  8. This is a terrific post. Love it.

    And guess what? You won a prize for your post over at BlogHers Act Canada. Congratulations!!!

    You can send me your mailing address to have the prize sent to you at bloghersactcanada@mac.com

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