I’m sure by now all you readers have been rather inundated with the media’s marketing of “little steps” to help save the planet. Green-washing aside, there are plenty of smaller steps you can do which may not single-handedly save every human on our little ball of dirt, but can help out a little bit and “make a difference to that one“. (ie: Loren Eisley‘s “The star thrower“)

Without stepping on too large a soapbox, I’ll propose a challenge-tagging to you all. I’ll list 5 small very tiny steps that I’ve taken this year, which have managed to stick in my routine for over two months now, and thus become “habit”. They are not huge things, but I’m fairly proud to have wrangled them into reality.

  1. Started drinking less soda and coffee (still do on special weekends and during night-shift to help stay awake though!). It may not seem like a huge thing, but in prior posts, I’d been fairly addicted to Mountain Dew. So in addition to losing weight, I save a bit of money, and feel less sugar-drugged at work.
  2. Canning our own food. Be it veggies, 40+ quarts of marinara, fruit jelly, beans, or liqueurs, the products of our garden and local farmstands now adorn our cupboards more than years past. We’ve saved money already, even buying new jars/lids/etc, and cemented in our habits a valuable sustainable kitchen-practice. While not being “green” in a more eco-mainstream sense, it does reduce the energy-cost of food we’d normally be buying at hte store shipped in from remote areas.
  3. Garbage Reduction. All of our food-scraps gets fed to the chickens (recycled into EGGS!). Our paper-trash is collected and burned periodically, and plastics/cans are thankfully recycled each week as part of our regular garbage removal service. While I realize burning paper-trash releases CO2 and may impact global warming, I’ve yet to see research showing it makes MORE of a problem than hauling the trash to a landfill where it will rot and fume for years. Less trash, and recycling/refeeding of some trash reduce our impact in the long-term as a healthy eco-habit.
  4. The CF lightbulb switch. Yes, it’s been mentioned to death, along with the haz-mat scare of containing mercury, but we’ve done it in most rooms. They honestly do last longer than incandescent bulbs, and are cheaper on electricity.
  5. Started folding instead of crumpling. Sorry if this is a squeamish comment, but it deserves mentioning (at the very least for eccentric-maebius factor). Regarding bathroom tissue (TP), I used to unroll a good long bunch of sheets, and then crumple them up for posterior usage. Then, I read a report about the average number of sheets and realized I was far above that. So I started just using 5-7 sheets and folding it before using. I avoid paper-cuts at work (they have crappy TP, pun intended) and cut my usage almost in half. 4 sheets saved each time, = many more trips to the thinking chair before buying more rolls!

What have you done? (long-term habits from years ago are allowed, if they still make you feel a bit happier and secure knowing they count towards “helping the planet”.)

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