Earth Day Update

“Earth Day was six months ago on April 22″:http://gulfcoastlocalfood.org/2008/04/earth-day-top-seven-actions.html. I made a note to myself at the time to revisit my Earth Day resolutions six months later, so here we are.
* **Be politically active on environmental issues: C.** I’ve certainly done some things, and have signed a lot of petitions. However, I haven’t written any of the personal letters I’d like to send. There’s still time to do that, and after the election will be a key time to get messages to legislators.
* **Reduce waste; maximize recycling and compost, Freecycle, make consumer decisions that minimize packaging, minimize use of disposables: B-.** We recycle everything “the city’s program”:http://www.cityofmobile.org/recycle/ will accept: paper and cardboard, glass, steel and aluminum cans, plastics 1 & 2, and kitchen grease. (Also, I forgot: batteries can be recycled at Dueitt’s Battery Supply on Springhill Avenue.) We compost, although we still frequently have cooked food waste that we have to throw out. I save up items to give away through Freecycle. I do make purchasing decisions based on packaging, though most of our waste remains food packaging (one thing that’s become extremely clear during the Eat Local Challenge). I haven’t figured out how to ditch plastic bags & wrap for storage. I do reuse them as much as I can, and foil as well. There are plenty of “disposable bag alternatives”:http://www.reusablebags.com/, but I haven’t ponied up for any of them yet.
* **Set up a clothesline: B+.** We set up TWO clotheslines, and I love it. My sense is that it has reduced our electric use, though I don’t have the figures to prove it. My husband won’t use it for his laundry, however (he often does his laundry at night), so we aren’t dryer-free. And there are, of course, days when it rains.
* **Convert all household bulbs to CFL: A-.** We have done this, with the exception of two candelabra bulbs that are over our fireplace, and one fixture that won’t accept anything but halogen. I have had second thoughts, however; with a young child in the house I envision a couple of our lamps getting knocked over and releasing mercury vapor, so I’m considering switching those back.
* **Buy shade liners to help insulate house better: F.** We haven’t done this because frankly we can never afford it. Shade liners are $20 – $25 each, and we have A TON of windows.
* **Install screen doors to improve ventilation: A.** Done. We would still like to replace a screen door on the back of our house with a storm door, but again that will have to wait until we can afford it.
* **Minimize driving; use bus and walk as much as possible: B.** We sold our second car and my husband now rides his bike to work. He has logged well over 1000 miles at this point! We also carpool our daughter to school. I do try to drive as little as possible, and there are usually a couple of days each week – sometimes more – when the car doesn’t leave the driveway. I don’t use the bus as much as I would like, but I always consolidate errands. There is very little driving out for one item. Still, I think we could drive less. I’ve been tracking our mileage and the lowest we’ve gotten is just over 500 miles in one month.
* **Join environmental organizations: F.** Haven’t done this. Again, it’s an issue of cost.
* **Eat less meat, more organics, more local food: B-.** We have DEFINITELY accomplished this during the Eat Local Challenge, and during market season I try to buy as much local produce as possible. For organics, I buy only certain items…again, an issue of cost, but I do as much as I can. We don’t eat a huge amount of meat, mostly seafood and poultry and rarely beef or pork. We do consume a lot of dairy and eggs (and are planning on raising our own chickens). We do eat two to three meatless meals per week, but we could definitely reduce our meat consumption further. I’m trying to embrace the “meat as condiment”:http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/11/dining/11mini.html?ex=1370923200&en=8ffda17d995d2228&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink style.
* **Buy used and recycled products when possible: D-.** I really should be buying recycled paper products (for toilet paper, for example; I do buy recycled printer paper, though we use very little of that), but I don’t. I’m not good about planning to buy toilet paper, so typically I realize that we’re out and get it at the first available place.
* **Minimize junk mail: B.** I’ve used “Catalog Choice”:https://www.catalogchoice.org/ to greatly reduce the amount of catalogs I receive, and we don’t get a lot of unsolicited mail. I’ve gone to paperless billing for most (but not all) of our accounts. Still, if I were more vigilant I could probably reduce it even more.
If you read my previous post about Earth Day, you’ll see that the last item was “rethink your consumption.” Given our limited budget, we’re not big consumers to begin with, but who knew that there would be a global financial crisis and now EVERYONE would be talking about reducing spending?? Frankly, I never thought I’d see it, but I’m gratified that at least for the time being there seems to be a cultural shift to at least reconsider our consumption.