Conserve or Reduce?

This post has been waiting for me to publish it for...months! Enjoy...

Conserve: to use or manage (natural resources) wisely; preserve; save:Conserve the woodlands.

Remember that post about reducing our use of resources and the waste that we produce? How is reduce different from conserve? My poor fifth graders get confused about this every year. Is there a difference?

My easiest teacher explaination is that conserve is like save. Instead of spending all of your money, save some. Instead of using all your resources, save some. Don't cut down all the trees, use up all the water, consume all the petroleum etc. So in a sense, if you reduce your use of resources, you are conserving them for the future.

It is only a matter of semantics of course. In the end, all that matter is that we are doing what we can to save the earth.

So how can we conserve? What can we really do to effect the rapid depletion of natural resources?

One way is to use less in your own home. Reduce your consumption of water, electricity, wood, paper, plastic etc. The biggest benefit of conserving resources in your home is that you can feel better about not contributing to the depletion of our natural resources. In addition, choosing products wisely can send a message to corporations that conservation of resources is important to you. Even if you don't have the time or passion to get involved in petitions, political debates, etc., be assured that your consumer choices do send a message. Choose products with less packaging. Buy products and support companies that have reduced their consumption of resources and/or are committed to renewable practices. If you don't have time to do the research yourself, there are few organizations that help you recognize such products.

One that we have recently become excited about is the Rainforest Alliance. We have been buying fruit (especially grapes) and coffee with their green frog symbol when possible. Companies with this certification use sustainable land use practices, allowing for farmers to continue to grow their cash crop, but in a way that minimizes negative impact on the environment.

There are a couple of other things we are doing around our house to reduce and conserve. I have placed dishpans near all faucets to collect extra water. We waste a great deal of water waiting for the temperature to change (our water heater is SOOO slow!). In addition, some items that need to be rinsed, aren't really contaminating the water and it can be reused. We are not using this collected water for drinking. Instead, we have been using it to water our flower beds and porch plants. I have found that when we are consistent with our water collection in the sinks, we have plenty of water to share with the plants without having to turn on the outside hose.

Another way to conserve water is buy using a rain barrel. Now, I know you are probably laughing since we have been experiencing an extreme drought for over a year. However, I think this is all the more reason to have a rain barrel. On the few occasions when water does fall from the sky, why not save some for later? Jeremy made the rain barrel below and we installed guttering on the back of the house to help collect water.

While these collection methods have not entirely eliminated our use of potable water for household and garden needs, every little bit helps as we...

...tiptoe through the tulips!

Getting Started: Reuse

Reuse is the part of the "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" mantra that I am most excited about right now. One day recently I was looking at all our recyclables and I thought, "There has got to be SOMETHING I can do with all this stuff!"

I posted the following picture on facebook and got some helpful and not so helpful advice (from my husband, ahm :)

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  Brandie Neal Pinterest!

  June 29 at 2:38pm · · 1 person
• 

  Kaia Aline Flowers Save them for when we make cleaning products

  June 29 at 2:46pm · · 1 person
• 

  Jeremy Pierce We can use them to remind us to buy more food.

  June 29 at 2:57pm · · 1 person
• 

  Vicki Welch Cunningham Recycle and get the inevitable done

  June 29 at 3:29pm ·
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  Amanda Pierce Thanks guys! We do recycle, which is why they aren't in the trash (our recycle bin is full right now). Even that seems like a waste sometimes with such interesting containers!

  June 29 at 3:31pm · · 1 person
• 

  Amanda Pierce Kaia, I will definintely save the bigger ones for that.

  June 29 at 3:31pm ·
• 

  Brandie Neal Hey, the order is Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, so you are on the right track. :D

  June 29 at 3:56pm ·
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  Shannon Finley If you know any one who works with small children some of them can be used to make instruments and things!

  June 29 at 5:34pm ·
• 

  
  Kaia Aline Flowers we could probably use all of them
  
  
  

So many possibilities! Unfortunately I couldn't find uses for all the containers pictured above and most of them were recycled, but I did save a few. The containers below are waiting to be used for several things: water collection, eco-friendly cleaner storage, and gifts (shhh!)

Reuse is very closely related to reduce. The more items you reuse, the less new items you will have to buy! Consider a reusable water bottle that can replace hundreds of plastic bottles.

As I said, I'm just getting started with the whole reuse thing, so I don't have tons of advice to offer in this area. I would love to hear any ideas that you have!

Also, you may have noticed a mention of "pinterest" in the facebook comments. If you have not discovered pinterest.com you totally should! It is a great forum for the sharing of ideas and many people on there are interested in do it yourself projects. The few ideas I do have for the containers came from things I saw on pinterest. I look forward to sharing with you the projects I come up with. Until then...

Enjoy your tiptoe through the tulips!

Getting Started: Reduce

I don't think it is any mistake that "Reduce" is first in the mantra. Perhaps it is just a matter of making things sound good, but I tend to believe it is because it is actually probably the most important thing we can do to help our environment. Why are so many things made with synthetic materials that don't biodegrade? Why do companies continually rape the planet of it's resources faster than nature can reproduce? Because we buy it. Because we want it. Because we use it without thinking about it.

While I believe reduce is the most important, it is also the one I struggle with the most. I have been especially troubled by our use of plastic. Plastic is probably one of the miracles of our modern science. It has allowed us to have and do MANY that we take for granted in our daily lives. Unfortunately it is probably the thing we use in our daily life that is the worst for the environment. As discussed in my last post, we can recycle plastic. However, the information on how effective that recycling is, is sketchy.

All in all, the BEST way to reduce our impact on the environment is to reduce our consumption and our waste. Unfortunately I have not had an overwhelming amount of success in this area. I feel as if I am just chipping away without making much progress.

That being said, there is one big way to reduce your use of plastic, specifically plastic bags. Reusable bags! Not only are they useful, and good for the environment, they can also be pretty! Even if you use ones made of plastic, using them over and over instead of throwing bags away after each shopping trip will reduce your personal impact on the environment.

Some bags are plain, but useful.

Insulated bags are extremely useful!

They can also be pretty!

These are some of my favorites :D

You're bags can also make a statement.

(Just for clarification, music is not life for me,

it is just the reusable bag that was available at HotTopic)

If you have other ideas for how to reduce our use of materials, or our general impact on the environment. In the meantime...

Enjoy your tiptoe through the tulips!

Getting started: Recycling

As any grade school child can tell you, saving the earth is as easy as saying "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!"

While the reality is a little harder than what we try to sell our children, these three basic words are a great place to start. And, as we teach our children every Earth Day, every little bit helps. :)

Let's start with recycle, as I believe this is the easiest of the three to implement. Most, if not all, municipalities have recycling facilities. You may have to do a little research though, as not all cities have nice shiny facilities on display. Ours is in a shed behind a shed on a hidden back street. Even though it doesn't look pretty, they have receptacles for tons of recyclable products!

The recycling bins in our garage, waiting to be emptied.

If you are a looking for a way to jump start your greeness, try recycling. I recommend starting with paper and plastic.

Step One: Paper is very easy. Even if you don't find a general recycling facility, many schools and non-profit organizations have big green bins in their parking lots. In addition to recycling paper, you will be supporting your local schools and/or organizations. All paper can be recycled. In addition light cardboard, such as cereal boxes can also be put in these bins.

Step Two: I recommend plastics as your second step because soooo many items we use are plastic. Find out which types of plastic your local facilities accept. There are many different types of plastic and you don't want to waste time and space collecting items that you can not recycle. Most places will accept plastics 1 and 2. Here is a handy guide to the different types of plastic.

Step Three: Once you have a good system for recycling paper and plastic in place, start branching out (assuming you have local facilities for other items). Glass, aluminum cans, tin cans, and many other types of metal can also be recycled. In addition, a recycling center will most likely have a place for corrugated cardboard as well (the thick kind used in boxes).

I hope this little guide helps you jump start your home recycling program. If you are a seasoned recycler, feel free to pass on your advice as well. Next time we will look at the other two words in the mantra: reduce and reuse. Until then...

Enjoy your tiptoe through the tulips!

Going Green

When my husband and I bought our house a little over a year ago, that seemed like a good time to make some changes to our lifestyle. The more I read and talked to other "greenies" the more convinced I was that I wanted to do things differently. However, change is never easy and we sometimes felt overwhelmed. Then I figured something out. It may seem obvious, but it was an epiphany for me. You don't have to do it all at once. You don't have to change everything, just one thing!

Tiptoe. Take small steps. Go one day at a time. If you try to do it all at once, you will probably throw your hands up and just quit. Small changes are better. The more passionate you are about it, the easier it will be to stick to it. It is amazing how many ideas, I scoffed at when I first heard about them, that I have now implemented in my house. If you hear about an idea and think "Is that really necessary?" or "I can't imagine how that would possibly work in my house" then put the idea on the back burner and move on. If you read about something and feel convinced that it is something you really want to do, then go for it! For a better chance at success, figure out how to do it with the least amount of disruption to your current pattern. Each successful project will give you the courage to try something new and little by little, you can make big changes!

Although we have been on this journey for more than a year, I still feel like a newbie in the crunchy world. My hope is that someone a few steps behind me on this journey will be encouraged to keep going by reading my blog. In the next few days I will share some of the small changes we have made around our house, as well as some of the bigger projects I am embarking on. In the meantime,

Enjoy your tiptoe through the tulips!