10 Easy Green Steps to Take

I don’t know when my obsession with garbage started, but I remember wondering when I was very young, where all the garbage went and when it would start to take over the world. It appears to be taking over now, with plastic in the lead, and if we don’t start doing something about it, we’re all in big trouble. I’m actually trying to live without plastic wrap. This may be the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Luckily, I’ve got 10 very easy things you can do that will make a difference. Just humor me and read this. I’ll get off my soapbox eventually.

There’s an old proverb that says: “If each person would sweep before his own house, the city would soon be clean.” So take a minute, whether your own or rent, and go pick up the trash in front your home. I do it all the time. But for God’s sake put on gloves, it’s gross. I even pick up the dog poo that other people are disgusting enough to leave behind since it attracts a million flies.

And if you smoke, please don’t throw your cigarette butts in the street. Please put them in your ashtray and then the garbage. They are toxic waste. Please click on that link for more info. No one wants to swim with your butts floating around them in the ocean.

I’m doing what I can, I hope you will too. Please, take a look at these 10 Easy Green Tips. Please like this on Facebook, please re-post it, and please forward it to as many people as you can. A lot of people just don’t think about this stuff, but would do something if someone just pointed it out! Well, I’m pointing. Please print the tips out and put them on the fridge at work or at home. These are easy things we can all do. Let’s do it for the next generation.

10 Easy Green Steps to Take

#1. Bring your own ceramic coffee cup to work. Imagine how many fewer paper cups will be in a landfill somewhere if we all do that.

#2. If you get a cold drink from Starbucks, rinse out the plastic cup and lid, make sure it’s dry, and recycle it. If you get a hot drink, bring your own cup and get a 10 cent discount! Sadly, their paper cups for hot drinks can’t be recycled because they’re lined with a plastic substance,  but the lids can be recycled. And, while we’re on Starbucks, or any coffee or tea place, do you REALLY need that cardboard sleeve for the few minutes your drink is hot?

#3. Bring your own plastic, or metal fork, spoon and knife to work and use it every day. There’s no reason to keep getting a new one every day, then tossing in the trash. It takes plastic cutlery anywhere from 100 to 1,000 years to decompose. Likewise, if you’re having a party, PLEASE, get a set of cutlery you can use for parties again and again.  Why make future generations deal with our party debris?

#4. If you’re getting take out to eat at home, please ask them not to put in plastic cutlery. 

#5. If you bring fruit or veggies to work in a resealable plastic bag every day, don’t throw it away, take it home, wash it with soap and water, dry it, and re-use it.  I have a WOODEN DRYER RACK I use for my plastic bags and it’s great!

#6. Bring your lunch in a re-usable glass container. That way, you can just heat it in the bowl you bring it in, without having to use another paper or plastic dish to heat it in.

(You can get a bunch of Pyrex glass containers with sealable lids at Costco for less than 25 dollars. And bringing leftovers from home is a lot cheaper than eating out every day!

#7. If you do end up ordering a salad from anywhere, and it’s served in a plastic container, wash it out, take it home, and recycle it.

#8. When you get something at the grocery store, bring your own canvas bags and use them again and again. Even though you can’t recycle plastic bags in your home recycling, most grocery stores have a recycling bin at the store. You can take them there.

#9. In fact, if you’re shopping for clothes, or shoes, use canvas bags there too!  We don’t need any more bags in landfills. We don’t have to recycle them if we don’t use them! 

#10. Go online and look up what can and can’t be recycled locally. Then look up how long it takes garbage to decompose — you’ll be shocked. If we don’t do something now, when will we?