make a smaller ecological footprint

• Go paperless when possible
• Reuse things that I would normally throw away.
• Donate items that otherwise would be discarded
• Make every trip in my car count
• Walk when possible
• Purchase food that is locally produced
• Make purchases of nonfood items based on origin of manufacture. (If it is made in China where there is no control of industrial wastes, do I really need it?)

I’m sure there are things I can do or have already done not listed here and I’ll strive to keep doing them.

I’m finally getting my paycheck direct deposit. The advantage so far is that it has already been deposited as I type this. In the past, I had to wait until I got off work on Friday to cash or deposit my check and it wasn’t actually added to my bank balance until the next business day which was Monday. Currently, I will receive a voided dplicate copy of my check mailed to my house. I know this doesn’t actually save any trees but until everything is set up by my employer to give all employees online access to view their paychecks, it is the only way I can see how much I made gross to see if it matches up to my hours and find out how much I have taken out for deductions and taxes. Soon, no one will be receivng a paper check at work on Fridays. They are also offering a debit card for those who do not have checking accounts and do not want their paychecks snail mailed to their homes. Supposedly, there will be no fees involved to use it or obtain cash at any ATMs. Employees would be able to check their balance with a phone call anytime day or night. I thought it might be nice to have one and put maybe 5-10% of my net pay on it each week and just let it accumulate until I need the money for Christmas shopping or whatever. My employer says I can do that in addition to direct deposit.

My city offers a free service for greening your home. I signed up for it last year and was glad I did. They checked several things, including sprinkler water run times, gallons flushed in toilets, temperature of refrigerator, and gave me free low flow shower heads/faucets & CFL light bulbs. But the best part is that they found the insulation in my attic was low. SO, a few months later they sent a contractor out and blew in new cellulose insulation for free.

There was a marked difference in the temperature of the house after this. I’m very pleased with the whole experience and have been suggesting it to neighbors.

to be picked up by the city. The paper we separate is used by the city’s electrical plant as fuel which results in burning less coal for electricity. We have a retired friend who collects our aluminum cans and takes them to the recycling center to help suppliment his social security. I’m still at a quandary as how to reduce our other trash. I am no longer buying liquid laundry detergent. Although I mostly wash in cold water, I run just enough hot or warm in the washer to desolve the dry detergent. It doesn’t take very much and collapsing the paper detergent boxes for recycling to be picked up by the city is preferable to having plastic bottles thrown in the trash or taking up room in the basement while waiting for enough acumulate to make it worthwhile to make a trip to the recycling center ourselves.

so good for you! and eating the view reduces my footprint by reducing resources that are used to grow my food, as well as the resources needed to bring food from the field to my face

I’m planning to do direct deposit of my paycheck in the next week or so. Not only will it save paper, my money will be deposited 2 days earlier into my account.

We have been going our veggies without the aid of chemical weed of insect spray. Actually see no difference then if we used these. So far, everything we have harvested looks great.

A coworker of mine who used to work at Walmart told me yesterday that Walmart does not recycle the plastic shopping bags that are collected in the big boxes at the front of the store, at least not while she was employed there. While she worked there, the bags were thrown away with the regular trash. The boxes were used just for PR. She worked at Walmart about 5 years ago. Now whether the bags are recycled today or not, she doesn’t know. It would be interesting to find out. Is Walmart truly trying to be green or is it just a scam?

It takes 300+ years for a plastic bottle to decompose. Think about that the next time you buy bottled water. I continue to see people buying bottled water by the case at the store, purchasing it at restaurants and out of vending machines. I’m resolving to reuse my bottle again and again all summer. I can always find somewhere to refill it.

Reduction in driving. I’m driving less. I try to make every trip to the store count. Also, we have made less trips out of town this year.
Recycling paper and aluminum as much as possible. The city picks up the paper on the same day as regualar trash pick up. I try to include not only nespapers but any and all recyclable paper packaging that doesn’t need to be saved. Although I don’t personally profit from it, I save aluminum cans for a disabled acquaintance who takes them to the local recycling center for pocket change.
Reusing food and other containers as much as possible. From reusing coffee cans for storing dry goods such as nails to reusing margarine tubs to store leftovers and to take for my lunch at work. I also saved gift boxes from last Christmas as well as misc. boxes during the year to reuse this year as gift boxes. This year I did not request any gift boxes from the stores where I made purchses. We have been reusing all the plastic shopping bags for waste basket lines.
Other things we have tried to do is purchase locally grown produce in season as much as we can. Also, we quit taking the local paper which often was left unread anyway and quit subscribing to magazines.