become more eco-friendly

I have started to use ecofont to use less ink when printing draft letters/documents. The FREE font set uses less ink by essentially leaving small holes in printed letters. The font, based on sans serif Verdana, promises to save about 15% on ink used. Download it at ecofont.nl. It’s available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

Ok, I went through the bookshelves where we have been storing old magazines and recycled 7 grocery bags worth of magazines that were more than a year old. Now the shelves have enough space to store our current books and magazines once again and the clutter is gone.

Well, I finally made the switch from using those plastic store bags to our canvas bags. I prefer the canvas bags since they are more sturdy, easy to grab and I don’t have to waste time shelping them back to the store to recycle. So, hello canvas bags, plus if you are getting a few things, its easier to carry than a plastic basket.

Well, I have now switched to cloth napkins for the dinner table. Its a bit more classy, pretty and now I’m not throwing paper napkins in the trash. Instead, I just wash the dirty napkins and reduce the amount of garbage. Plus right now Crate & Barrel and a few other stores have really nice placemats and napkins on sale.

Ok, I just learned that moth balls are very bad since they give off a toxic gas that not only kills moths, but over time causes cancer in humans. So, I’m replacing using moth balls with lavender sachets since they repel moths and I LOVE the smell of lavender.

Well, the verdict is in! We are now going to stay with the corn based litter. It smells MUCH better than the clay based litter, absorbs the odor and moisture better, clumps like normal clay litter and is eco-friendly. So, a VERY GOOD solution to going green. We are currently trying to obtain bigger bags of the corn based litter to be more economical.

Well, we have 2 cats and my wife usually buys the clay clumping litter. I learned that the clumping litter is not good because it doesn’t biodegrade (Thanks Bill Nye), so we finally saw a bag of corn litter, which is eco-friendly. So, we bought a bag and are going to give it a try. I’ll write a follow-up once we try the corn kernal litter out.

Well, my PC printer of 10+ years finally decided to go to the BIG print house in the sky. So, I bought a brand new energy saving laser printer and instead of getting another printer cable which will require my upstairs PC to be on when I want to print. I have purchased a wireless card for the printer. This will allow me to print from my laptop without using extra power to keep my other PC on even though I am not using it. Right now I am using another printer cable and using the upstairs PC to print. I found out from HP, that to achieve this you MUST buy a print server. So, I am currently saving funds to buy a print server.

I have a coworker carpooling into work with me ever day to reduce costs and save gas. It actually has been a pleasant experience since they get to rest and I have someone to run ideas/thoughts past from time to time. However, its also hard to get rid of a bad carpooler, which I did have to do. They thought carpooling meant being their personal taxi and errand driver. So, I politely asked them to find another carpooler since things weren’t working out. Since then, my new carpooler drives to my house and then I drive to and from work with us alternating fill-ups.

we recycle a lot more, and not just paper and plastic – we have a local place that recycles old computer parts, batteries, and other e-waste.

we stopped microwaving in plastic containers

i donate a lot more items that i don’t need, and i stopped buying as much crap as i used to