Now before I do this, y'all should know that, in general, I don't give a fuck about being "green." Yes, insensitive and selfish, I know. But when you do a little investigating, you find out that recycling doesn't actually do us any good (it's inefficient, it wastes more energy and creates more pollution than using new materials, and it doesn't even save us money). You also find out that the so-called "landfill crisis" is also bullshit. You also find out that you can get environmental activists to sign a petition to ban "dihydrogen monoxide" without lying to them about what it is, where it's found, or what it does. It's water, folks - H20.
I've got an episode of Penn & Teller Bullshit! for each one of these, if you're into the watered-down, foul-mouthed analyses that I am so fond of.
All of this, of course, is incredibly ironic when you consider that I am married to an aspiring bio-environmental engineer who is very into water conservation and alternative energy. But I digress.
So there are still things that I am willing to do under the premise of "saving the earth." But I am not a tree-hugger, I will never live off of the land or in a house made of trash, and I will never give up my mid-size SUV - I feel it is enough of a sacrifice to not be driving around in a Trans Am. Though I would trade it in for the hybrid version if I could afford it. I can't.
My contributions to the Earth Day resolutions:
Small - I will stop using paper towels to clean every surface in my house and as the primary means for drying my hands every time I wash them. I will resign myself to using cloth towels and sponges (yuck!) for these tasks.
Big - When it's warm enough out, I will start walking to the stores I frequent that are within a reasonable distance to my house.
Biggest - JLK drinks a lot. Okay, not a LOT, like you don't need to worry about checking me into rehab anytime soon. But I do drink quite often. I will stop buying 12pks of glass bottles and instead will switch to the bigger sized bottles that contain more than twice as much liquid and don't come in cardboard boxes. If this means that JLK will be seen leaving the liquor store double-fisting forties of malt liquor - so be it. It will cut down my glass disposal by, well, like a lot.
Just doin' my part. ;)
5 comments:
I, like you, have a distaste for sponges. However, I also have a very guilty feeling when it comes to paper towels for cleaning which tormented me every time I made a decision about what to clean with.
Recently I discovered a great solution that I am so happy about!!! So, my objection to sponges was that they were so nasty and eventually would so smell, and I knew eventually they just harbored all this grossness and that gross bacteria was basically the cause of the stinky sponge.
If you put a damp sponge in the microwave for 1 minute, it kills everything on the sponge, and it seriously makes a sponge last waaaaaaaay longer without stinking. So now I can comfortably use my sponge to wipe things down, not feel guilty about using paper towels, not stink up my fingers, and continue to avoid cleaning chemicals.
My tip for the day :).
I buy boxes of rags and throw them in a bucket of bleach water, to await the washing machine after use. Sort of like using paper towels, only not. Also works for my OCD friend for hand drying (seriously OCD), though it requires having a friend come by to actually remove them from the bleach water.
I'm quitting smoking, which could count as my small.
Not really sure about the rest. I drive as little as possible - which isn't much. I reuse plastic bottles and containers several times before recycling and we produce three times the recycling that we do garbage - and some of the both becomes artwork (though I don't make it). I don't consume a lot of electricity...
I'll have to work on that...
I should note, as I probably come off rather smug and uber-enviro... The reason I have gotten so very good about enviro stuff, is because for a very long time it was just too expensive not to be. When I was actually making decent money, I was supporting two houeholds, then trying to make enough to buy a house - then when some rather unfortunate events happened, we simply didn't have the money...
YAY JLK! I know a lot of the stuff that people think they are doing doesn't really help, but I still think it can, if only because it raises awareness of what needs to be done. And I agree with DuWayne, it's cheaper to be environmental a lot of the time. Things that are cheaper often have less packaging as well, which is good. I shop consignment for clothing and stuff, cheaper and considered better for the environment.
The paperless part is going to be hard for me. And I use cloth towels for most cleaning, but I need paper towels for certain cat functions.
And the drinking idea is a great one. :)
Another alternative to using sponges is to use a rag - it lasts a lot longer than a sponge, it dries faster because it's thinner (so it doesn't harbor bacteria as well), and you can throw it in the laundry whenever you feel it's getting gross. At least in my experience, the microwave sponge trick works for a while, but the sponge still gets gross and smelly; I find that the rag almost never stinks if you wring it out when you're done (and I've done pseudo experiments regarding this using my dishrag versus my apartment mates' sponges...)
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