Thursday, September 13, 2012

Are you green?

When I was young, I was all about saving the environment. My mom loves to remind me that I followed around a man that was spraying for weeds - telling him how bad it was for the environment and blah blah blah...I think I was 9 at the time.

As I got older, I started to care less - not that I didn't care, but it just wasn't something I felt the need to worry about - typical teenager I guess.

In the last few years (mostly since having kids) I have started to think about the impact we have - from the chemicals we use in our homes to the output of garbage and recycling.
I started using a combination of cloth diapers and disposables when Kyle was 9mths old; I have switched over to Norwex products for cleaning, and my latest is using the green bin program in our city.

The green bin program was brought in a few years ago. It wasn't mandatory, and my hubby had zero interest in using it.  I was kind of indifferent to it, but recently decided to give it a try (it might have just happened to coincide with garbage pick-up being changed to bi-weekly).

Last week was the first time I used the green bin - I cleaned out my fridge/freezer and the bin was full.  This week, I used it and it is again full, and I am happy to report that we have slightly less than 1 full bag of garbage.

Do you use green cleaning products? do you use cloth diapers? composting? how are you helping lessen your impact on the environment?

14 comments:

  1. We recycle a lot and try to do litter less lunches. No composting here yet.

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  2. We recycle constantly around here, always trying to do our part in being green. I do buy non green cleaning products at times, but with all the frugal do it yourself items out there I've been more into making my own cleaning products. It's saved me tons of money!

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  3. I'm a huge fan of recycling, and am trying to teach my kids. I've been more motivated to purchase greener products in the past year, and like you, I think having kids is a big part of that motivation!

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  4. I use green products, reusable lunch packaging, I cloth diapered, I support local farmers so I guess I'm kinda green. I love "green" products. We also walk everywhere or use the public transit system instead of driving.

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  5. We have the recylce bins in Calgary (weekly pick up) Mine is always full! Soon we will have the compost pick up too. then I'll pretty much have no garbage.

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  6. We are really good at recycling our paper products and our city FINALLY is going to introduce curb side recycling next year which I am super excited about. I don't use many "green" household products because, to be honest I don't find they work very well. Having said that I do break out the good old vinegar and water for a lot of things like windows and cleaning the floors :)

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  7. I *wish* *wish* that we had a green bin program here in our city! It drives me crazy! We do compost a bit, but because we live in a rental and someone put it in the 'wrong spot' it's kinda useless..etc..long story..

    Anyways! Fab post!

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  8. I am a big recycle nut and so are my kids. We only use environmentally friendly products in our home as well. Tried the green bin, but we have no where outdoors to store it safely so it didn't work out.

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  9. We recycle as much as we can. We are limited in what our centre can take though. But we try to do our part. I need to look at switching cleaning products as well as personal care products to more natural items.

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  10. Kind of. I use disposable diapers but we recycle and compost.
    Besos, Sarah
    Zookeeper at Journeys of The Zoo

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  11. We've used the Green bin for years, it's wonderful for cutting down on garbage. We also recyle and about to switch to cloth diapers...

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    Replies
    1. I hope you enjoy the CD's! I really did at the beginning, I just got so bogged down by laundry that it started to slip....

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  12. I recycle just about everything possible, and have for over 15 years (at least).

    Welcome to the green world ;)

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  13. We recycle everything we can.
    We are usually on the look out for things to 'go green' on. However... the one thing we never tired was the cloth diaper....
    Thanks for sharing.

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