The Green Meme

This is one definitely worth propagating! Charlotte of Charlotte's Web devised this green meme from a Newsweek article on easy ways to live a more environmentally friendly life.

1. What do you for the birds and the bees? "Pesticides, pollution and habitat destruction are taking a toll on the birds and insects that pollinate about 80 percent of the world's food supply..."

We've been working on our garden ever since we built our house ten years ago, and we do use native plants and a range of flowers that attract butterflies, bees and hummingbirds. We also feed the birds in winter. I think we're doing our part in on this one.

2. Household products. Chemical or organic? "Household chemicals contribute to both in-door and outdoor pollution."

I have tried "green" cleaners but they're not always available where I live; the only cleaner I actually buy regularly is Mr. Clean or the generic version thereof. Guess I could do better in this department.

3. Do you junk? "Not only is junk mail annoying, it kills trees."

I don't think there's anything I can do about junk mail at the mailbox level here, although I have already put our names on "do-not-call-or-mail" lists. Whether these actually work or not I don't know. Any junk mail we do get goes into the recycling, for what that's worth.

4. Air-dry or tumble-dry? "Make like Grandma and line-dry your clothes once in a while."

This is a tough one for me--I really hate line-dried clothes. Most of the year here the weather isn't optimal for outside drying anyway, so I have a bit of an excuse there. However both our washer and dryer are low-energy, and our washer is low-water use, and I always wash in cold water and dry on low heat. So I'm doing my best.

5. Old gadgets. Recycle or toss ‘em? "Don't clog landfills with old electronics."

We have a repair shop just up the road and they love donations of electronic gadgets and computer parts which they re-use, so most of ours go there now. We've also participated in electronics "swaps" where you can turn in your old stuff. So we're doing pretty well there.

6. Lightbulbs - incandescent or fluorescent? "Trade your old incandescent light bulbs for compact fluorescent ones...They use about 70 percent less energy than regular bulbs and last 10 times longer."

We don't have many fluorescent bulbs, although we do use the low-wattage ones, and also halogen bulbs, which may not be as good as fluorescent but I believe are better than incandescent. We also participate in a program offered by our power company to support renewable energy by paying a little extra. We've been trying to be more aware (and train the kids also) of turning off the lights when not in use, but we're bad for leaving the computers on all the time.

7. Meat or veg? "Have a meatless Monday...it takes 16 pounds of grain to produce one pound of meat."

For a while we were doing meatless Mondays; I got out of the habit of scheduling it, but we don't eat meat every day--just most days. I'd like to try and make it two meatless days a week, for health reasons as well as green reasons. I do try to buy locally when possible, but I'm not one for taking cloth bags to the store. The plastic ones get reused and recycled, though.

8. Loo paper. Virgin or recycled? "If every U.S. household replaced one toilet-paper roll with a roll made from recycled paper, 424,000 trees would be saved."

Unfortunately we have a heavy paper-using household. I will start looking for more ways to use recycled paper (never thought of it for bathroom tissue or paper towel, actually). With a house full of writers and artists, it's not going to be an easy area to cut down, although I do try: when I print out manuscripts I save the printouts and print the next draft on the other side of the paper, then it gets shredded and goes into the composter. Other paper that's only used on one side gets cut up for notepaper next to the phone, shopping lists, etc.

9. Tap or bottled water? "Instead of spending big bucks on bottled water, drink the stuff that comes from your faucet."

We use a water pitcher with a filter to keep cold drinking water in the fridge. Sometimes I buy packs of small bottles of water because I find it encourages the kids to choose water more often, but when I do the bottles get recycled.

10. Dating - metrosexual or ecosexual? "two recyclers are better than one."

I'm the main green-thinking person in the household, although hubby is moderately green. I keep after him!

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As an aside: The only thing I thought was missing from the Newsweek article was composting, although I suppose if one's municipality doesn't support organic waste collection and you don't have access to a backyard composter it's not going to be feasible. I can't believe how much less garbage goes out to the curb since I started composting. For anyone not living in an apartment complex it's something that should be considered.

I do get very irritated that municipalities often don't make the distinction, however, between compost and organic waste. They're not the same thing.