What do you do to conserve the enviroment?

Finally, I am getting serious enough to begin to do a couple of things. I'd love to see good ideas from everyone, even if they are not do-able for everyone. Here's my first ones:
1. I now started taking a large book bag into the grocery store when I pick up less than 20 lbs. of items. I plan to bring more bags as I get them
2. I have cut my paper towel use by 2/3. I don't use them to dry my hands - I use a dish towel, I don't use them for napkins, I use cloth napkins (those darn paper towels and napkins won't stay in your lap anyway) and I don't use them to clean with, I have cleaning rags. Washing the cloth items doesn't begin to cost as much in $ and fuel as manufacturing paper products.
3. I work 3 days a week and do all my errands on those days so I don't have to go to town on my days off. Sometimes I have to leave a bit early but that's lots better than driving 20 miles each way to buy a bag of fertilizer.

Wow, I'm impressed...on my own and eat most meals at the restaurant so don't have mega garbage issues..I love sitting by the fire, so almost everything that can burn is...I did some repairs to boat covers last fall and had lefover sunbrella fabric so made 6 bags and bring them grocery shopping with me....I must say though I'm quite careless when it comes to writting a list, checking it twice and doing one trip rather than 4...

I work 100 miles from home so that's a lot of gas consumption, but as I work with

sorry, as I work with 2 nieces, a BIL and then SIL from another town, I drove most days with them to conserve..as well, lunch house is usually shopping expeditions...so, hopefully I'll learn from this thread and will follow suit...thanks, great idea...

I only use one square of toilet paper.






*snort*


Of course I'm only joshing. I'll never forget the time my husband's
'mother' overflowed the toilet. She said "I only used three squares."
I'll never forget the look on everyone's faces. What the heck can you do with
three measly squares? Dab your nose??? Good grief!

Anyhow. I do what I can. Of course, there is room to improve
on everyone's part, but even a few things may help. Just being
aware there is a problem is a start, but so many people are too
wound up in their lives to think about it. I do what I can.

Good thread!

Waste generation has to be minimized to the fullest extent possible. We must not hesitate to recycle whatever we can an whenever we can, as far as possible. There are so many things we can fix ourselves and make put them back to work. It is just that 'temper' that eludes us and we tend to replace the item altogether, instead of repairing it.

We get herbal soap and so that does not put a load on the 'effluents'. So we use that. It's good for the skin and health too. Most of us gardeners have a green area to boast with and so we must have awareness that the Mother Earth has to be kept clean as well. We have to be watchful when we spray or use pesticides/insecticides as this can harm the environment as well. My choice is organic methods. Using this has great advantages. It is economical and good for the environment.

Paper napkins: A roll lasts for about 2-3 months. We use a small one in the kitchen as sprayed oil from preparation of food items can be easily wiped best from paper tissue napkins. This is the only purpose of the PN with us. Old newspaper is sold and they are recycled on a large scale to prepare newsprint again. So, most of us sell them off once in a few months or so. Here is a picture of that shop where people sell off old papers - also all paper items at different rates.

Anh, toilet..... no paper there. Water is the best from more than one point of view. As one of my friends spontaneously quoted "higher the income, drier the bathroom/toilet". Our kitchen water goes into the ground into the soil. I collect as much rainwater as possible and use it for gardening and washing purposes - whenever it is available. Collectively done by many people saves the load on consumption of natural resources.

I saw Rosie on The View and someone mentioned using one square of toilet paper and she said, "One square! Have you seen the size of my a**"

One square metre!

:)

roflm*o

You guys are soooo funny!

I hope we can get back to ideas about conserving the enviroment, but we sure went skylarking for a little while.

WHY isn't this on the new Sustainable Forum??
http://davesgarden.com/forums/f/gogreen/all/

uh, I looked at the forums but did not find that one. You are right. And your low sugar peach melba jam is great! A real winner!

Thanks, Betty. It's probably my favorite jam, as I love both peaches AND raspberries. When I was making it to sell in my old DG store (and elsewhere), I couldn't make enough. Now it will be a couple of years before I have bearing raspberries again but since there will be few peaches this year due to the late freeze, I guess it's a moot point.

Sorrry, this post was off topic. But on the Sustainability Forum, there is a thread challenging each of us to do a bit more, and also a thread to post results.
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/716688/
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/721521/

This message was edited May 12, 2007 11:08 AM

I use a battery powered lawn mower, to reduce air and noise pollution, use of foreign gas and oil, and also because it's easier! The mower is so lightweight, less mess than with gas and oil powered kind.

i have two 85 pound dogs in my yard....love the walmart bags!!
:-)

If I had a small, level yard, I would definitly use a battery-powered lawn mower, too.

Woodspirit~ you could get a goat. J/k! Nice thread.

lol, with my steep yard, a goat would be the perfect thing! However, I have no lawn. Just trees and wild rhoderdendrons and mountain laurel. The parts I do garden are strictly for plants, no room for lawns.
don't get me wrong; I like a nice lawn, just not do-able here.

I hate a (nice) lawn LOL ! :0)

I had to learn an alternative way to grow a lawn at the cemetery where I work. We cannot use any commercial fertilizer because the little pellets pop up on the monuments and eat little pock marks into them.
So we can only do 2 things. I buy a creeping red fescue rather than a tall red fescue and 1/4 of the seed is clover. The clover feeds the lawn. We are lucky to have plentiful rain. The other thing i did was make the mowing crew raise the blade on the mower.. It looks quite lush out there and the lawn is 48 years old in the oldest parts of the cemetery.
The owner of landscaping service hates the idea of using clover. He complained about the little white blooms. Geez, this is not a putting green. Besides, the blooms mostly stay mowed away.

Everyday walk to Dunkin Donuts with a wagon and get a pail of used coffee grinds for the garden. I walk instead of drive whenever I can. The coffee grings go directly into the garden when I in the middle of composying a batch of coffee, garbage or both. Everything is composted into humus except meats and dairy foods. I use rags instead of paper towels. Try to use natural lighting over lights, and plant flowers and shrubs to help offset greenhouse gases-keeping the earth green. If evrybody planted one plant the earth would be in better condition.

I wish I lived close but alas, I am way out in the boondocks. It's nearly 20 miles to town. So, today I am running 5 (!) errands on the way in to work. then going to a special dinner and afterwards, picking up what I need until Tuesday, when I go back to work. It takes a lot of notes and scheduling, but I do it.
there's an ulterior motive, though. I just don't like wasting any of my time on my long weekends running to town

PrairieGirl,
Here is another lawn hater!

i have a well but in thje 38 years i have lived here i have never watered my lawn. i did what i had to do when i first put the seed down but then i decided that whatever grows grows and when the lawn is mowed it looks almost as good as the people who spend half their life working on the lawn instead of enjoying it.

i do use alot of electricity cause i love a cool house in the summer and my a/c's are always working.

the company that picks up our garbage also allows you to come and bring it to them. i pay 4 dollars for every bag i bring no matter what the size and i only need to bring one bag twice a month.

I'm with you Herbie, I have never watered the lawn. Although I did remove a patch of weedy grass out front that I will replace this summer with sod from the backyard. Turfgrass is a nice alternative to lots of hardscape materials. I just don't get the obsession against a few patches of clover or those pretty yellow flowers with the long fleshy stems! *grin*

PrairieGirl, I have a whole field of them... want more? LOL.

I'm full up, but thanks darius for thinking of me. ROFL! ;0)

Woodspirit1 - Saw a segment on the news today about people in NC or SC who have a "green" cemetery. They leave the woods as they are, just cutting paths thru them and the people are buried in the woods along the paths with just a small headstone. Showed them walking thru the woods and small headstones here and there. It was refreshing to see that the trees had not been cut down and the ground leveled in all directions. Perhaps you could start such a spot in the cemetery where you work.

We do not cut the trees on our 32 acres of property. If one dies, it is left until it falls on its own. The woodpeckers usually will hollow out holes for nests and look under the dead bark for bugs. When the tree falls to the ground, if it is big then we cut it up for firewood, otherwise it is left for the ground dwelling creatures and to further nourish the forest. I only mow our front field 3 times a yr. In the spring when the spring grass has gone to seed, in mid-summer when summer grass has gone to seed, and in autumn when everything else has gone to seed. We do not mow the clover down until it has gone to seed. Then I mow in such a way that the grass is piled up in a circle and we pick it up and use it on the mulch pile.

My hus. is a beekeeper and that really gives back to the environment.

Quiet frankly, I just about care more for nature than some people. LIZ

I would love it if you would start a thread on bee-keeping Liz, it is something I have always been fascinated by. Thanks in advance! :-)

I can bet that the cemetery in the woods is NOT a commercial cemetery, but rather a church or family plot. Perhaps even a municipal cemetery. Our cemetery is in an old corn field, bought and started up in 1959. Every inch of land yhas been surveyed and divided in to burial spaces. There are only a few large upright conifers, a few (very few) flowering trees - you get the picture. But in the last couple of months, we have surveyed a new section, called "gardens." I lobbied for some real shade trees and got 6 nice maples.
I also cut back some azaleas yesterday that I am going to root. I noticed a hydrangea near the office has made lots of babies around the perimeter of the bush so I will dig and pot them for next year's Southern Appalachian Round-up. That hydrangea did not have a single stem survive the Easter cold snap. We had to cut everything back except some new growth coming up from the bottom.