I just signed up for Blog Action Day 2010. I have a vague memory of participating in Blog Action Day before, so I just went through my archives and discovered that yes, in 2007, I DID participate.
Blog Action day is now run by Change.org and the idea is that bloggers across the globe all write a post on the same social-issue topic on the same day — thus spreading awareness.
In my 2007 post, I listed 5 things I was doing to help lessen my environmental impact — and I thought today was appropriate to report how I’v been doing on these five things:
1. Reusable shopping bags: OMG, my collection is legendary. Checkers at Trader Joe’s compliment me on the fact that I have so.many.bags that I don’t need any paper bags when I shop. I only get my meat bagged in plastic, and we are to the point at my house that we really have to look for a random plastic bag when we need one. This makes me happy!
2. The powdered detergent: I have to say, I’ve started alternating between powder and liquid–the powder was gunking up my washing machine and not rinsing well. Any tips in this department are appreciated!
3. Using the dishwasher to conserve water: It still washes just as much as always, and I love it. Go Earth!
4. Bringing my own mug to the coffee shop: The reusable mug kick is largely over for me- I tend NOT to bring one with me these days. Reading my post on this was a good reminder that it’s easy and it does make a difference. Now if I can only remember….
5. Not buying bottled water: I’ve kept up the practice of rarely buying bottled water. We use reusable water bottles, which is no big deal and SO MUCH BETTER for the Earth I can’t hardly stand it! Sure there’s the occasional impulse/unprepared buy, and I’d rather buy water than anything else to drink, but it’s minimal.
One other thing we’ve started doing since that blog post was sign up for curbside recycling. We do pay a small fee, but we recycle so much more because we have one of those huge wheeled bins to fill. Also, when we signed up, we were one of the only families on our street to do so. Since then, it seems like every pick up day there’s another big blue bin on the curbside. It’s not the greatest recycling program (typical contents, except it only takes plastics #1 & #2) , but it’s better than nothing.
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post — this year’s theme is WATER.
Assuming you’re not doing this, throw the powdered detergent in the bottom of the washer and run the water on it for a minute to dissolve it before you throw the clothes in. You can even run hot on it for a 30 seconds or so and then switch to cold once it’s dissolved.
Ooh… I’ll have to try that! Thanks, Nicole!