Wednesday, January 02, 2008

2008's first meme--a worthy one

Patrick at Hawk Owl's Nest (note that he now has his own domain! a christmas present from his fiancee Beth) tagged me with a very worthy meme that I'd like to put a little twist on. The meme was to name one thing you did during the holidays to lessen your environmental impact. Beth has her own domain/blog, EasyEcoLiving, on which she gives tips for easy things you can do on a day-to-day basis to help our environment. She started this meme.

The Kat and I make an effort each day to really follow the "reduce-reuse-recycle" idea, so at Christmas time, we pull out our well-worn and held-together-with-tape gift-boxes and gift-bags from years gone by (some are as our as our relationship--going on six years!) and we don't usually wrap our presents to each other (unless they're truly surprise gifts).

Here's the twist, though--the holidays are over, and some of you might not have thought to do anything in particular to reduce your enviro-impact. So what I'd like to pass on as a tag to FranIAm, DCup, and Mattyboy (three very cool non-birders whose thoughts about life in these here You-Nited States inspire me on a daily basis) is this:
Try to think of one way you and your family can lessen your environmental impact in 2008. You could consider doing something relatively easy--like giving up paper plates and napkins (yup, more dishes and laundry, but oh so worth it at trash-time)--or more difficult--like trying to carpool more (which can be a pain, but saves a ton in gas money, not to mention in saved emissions). It doesn't have to be hard--it could be something as simple as trying one of those new fluorescent bulbs in your desk lamp. How about it?

Anybody who'd like to offer suggestions (and perhaps follow your own suggestion), please let me hear from ya!

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love this! It may take me a day or two but I'd be happy to give this some thought and do it.

Happy New Year, BTW.

Patrick B. said...

Thanks for participating! We have a slew of bags that we re-use each year too.

Amy said...

I'm going to insulate the water heater and install a low-flow showerhead this month in hopes of reducing gas and water consumption, and I'm going to be more diligent about reusing the grocery store's paper and plastic bags.

Larry said...

One idea that I started to follow last year is to stop using bags for small items at stores and to go food at restaurants. This year I plan to start bringing my bike to buy groceries at the local store.

Mary said...

Great idea - one to make me think. We did purchase one of those energy-reducing light bulbs recently but I'm sure there is more we can do. We recycle everything here but I get careless at times.

dguzman said...

Thanks, DCup!

Patrick--always happy to share ideas about protecting Mother Earth.

Amy--good luck with the gas/water use reduction! I too try to take my used paper sacks to the store, but I often forget them.... I'll work harder on that this year too.

Larry--I drive cashiers crazy when I say "I don't need a bag;" it's like they're programmed to stick even the tiniest item in a big old plastic bag. Good luck with biking to the grocery store. When we lived in town, we were right across the street from the grocery store, so I'd usually walk (though big trips were tough--I'd usually push the shopping cart back to our apt, unload, and then push it back to the store--tiring, but car-free!).

Fran said...

Tagged and retagged, reused, recycled...

Here!

Matthew Hubbard said...

Hey, dg! I'll see what I can do on Friday. Today's my back to work day, so I only expect one post today.

Anonymous said...

Hi, I wish you a happy new year :-))

Matthew Hubbard said...

Did my duty. Tagged the Padre.

dguzman said...

Way to go, matty!