My green resolution for this year is to try and throw out less. Over Christmas there seems to be so so so much recycling. Even now two weeks after Christmas my recycling/blue bin is over flowing. For those of you not familiar with our recycling here in Calgary over the last couple of years every house in Calgary got these gigantic bins, one blue and one black.
I'm pleased to say our blue bin is always much fuller then our black bin, but ideally this year I'd like to have less waste of all types, whether recyclable or not. My resolution is to accumulate less stuff and the stuff I do accumulate I want it to be long lasting. Here are some examples of things I'm going to work on:1. Not buy the Happy Meal toys from McDonalds. The kids love them for about 10 minutes after they get them and then they accumulate till I donate them to Value Village
2. Generally accumulate less toys. The kids got A LOT of stuff over Christmas. I'd like to try more and more of rotating toys rather then buying new ones.
3. When I buy clothes, buy good quality stuff. For example the last two pairs of black tights I've bought were less then 10 dollars (Joe and Old Navy). Both pairs Torin put a snag in them. The last pair I bought was more of a workout pair from the gap 30$ on sale. I don't like spending alot of money on tights when I know I can buy them for cheaper, but I think it's both a waste of money and resources to be throwing out tights all the time too.
4. Use things that are suppose to last longer, like CFL bulbs (we already do this), but also buy high quality things for the kitchen so they don't break easily.
5. The last one I can think of is my clothes. I love shopping and I love finding deals. But to be honest those cheap Old Navy shirts start to pill over a couple of washes, where my Banana Republic ones have lasted me years. So I'm still going to try and shop for deals to keep my first new years resolution, but also pay closer attention to quality and knowing what fits me well.
Any other ideas on how to have less waste?
Till Next Time
Jenn
4 comments:
You can ask for cookies in the happy meals instead (as I'm sure Darryl already knows), so the kids still get a treat. AND *maybe* put less food on their plates at meals and give them more if they eat it all. Or maybe it is just a kid thing to refuse to eat everything on the plate!
I've started to eat our cupboards, freezer and fridge clean before grocery shopping. Its easy to meal plan make a list and buy what you need. I used to spend so much on groceries and stock pile, and never use half of it or through out a lot of things, now i buy what i need for a week, use everything and then do it all over again, plus i like to grocery shop!
I can't wait to get the city garbage bin, we seem to have a lot more garbage now with diapers, I could of went the cloth route but instead i took convience over the environment :(
Meal planning is our big resolution. I typically have zero food to throw out breakfast and lunch but dinner time is a completely different story. Less eating out as well - we're ready for a February eat at home challenge :o)
We started composting, so the green foods we don't eat all of the way go in there, along with yard waste and stuff like that.
It's funny the Old Navy and Banana Republic are owned by the same company but WOW, quality difference, huh? :-)
Good luck being green!
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