Paper or Plastic?

Neither! One of the things on my "to do" list is to find 4 new ways to go green and implement them. Here are the 4 ways I've started "going green":


1. I use these bags whenever I head to the store and I love them! I love the feeling at the checkout when I get to hand these over to the cashier, plus I get paid to use them (only $.05, but it's something).

You can fit so much more in one of these than a plastic bag. Now if I could just find something to do with my cupboard full of plastic sacks.

2. I only use 1 paper towel to dry my hands. It sounds silly, but after I watched this video and realized it can be done, I now do it all the time. You might be thinking what's the point, it's only 1 paper towel, but I'm saving at least 60 paper towels each month and that adds up to over 500 towels each year. Not only am I saving paper towels, I'm saving money too! Think about it!


A co-worker sent me this video to share with my class on Earth Day two years ago. One of my biggest pet peeves is kids using 3 and 4 paper towels to dry their hands, so I make it a point to show this to my class and make a big deal about only using 1 paper towel.

3. We recycle. When we lived in Olathe, they had a curb-side recycling program and we used it, but not like I wish we would have, because now I miss it. We don't have a curb-side recycling program anymore, so it takes a little more work for us to recycle. Luckily, my school has a recycling bin behind it so that's where I take all of our stuff and it works out great!

Our recycling station

We recycle bottles,

cans,
(can you tell someone at our house drinks a lot of pepsi?)and boxes.

4. I pledge to reduce bottled water waste.
I've had a Nalgene bottle since college, only because they were the "cool" thing to have back then, but now it's a basic nessesstity for me every school day. I usually drink two of these each day, I fill it up from my Brita in the morning and the school's water cooler in the afternoon. (Luckily, my school has a water cooler that we pay to use, hopefully this will keep me away from some of the kid germs.)
Now if I could just get Tim to start using a water bottle instead of drinking bottled water.

#52- Find 4 new ways to go green and implement them- done!
My next green step is to get my parents to recycle and find even more ways to go green, so if you have any good green tips, send them my way!