I have a confession to make. Even though I wrote about reducing the number of plastic bags we use, I have struggled with what to do when it comes to my dog. It’s very convenient to throw a plastic bag in my pocket when we go for a walk so I have something handy to pick up his poop.
I realized there had to be a better way to do this and was determined to find a solution.
I heard that our city had supplied biodegradable bags in the off leash areas, I started looking around to see if I could find similar bags for sale commercially. I did.
Community Natural Foods in Calgary sells ECOSAFE biodegradable bags for doggie litter, kitchen garbage and trash bags (www.degradableplastics.com).
Regular plastic bags take decades to break down. When you consider the number of bags you throw away in a year and multiply that times the number of people in your community (and beyond), it is a huge problem for landfills. Biodegradable bags, on the other hand, totally degrade and turn into a food source for microorganisms.
I will be using up all the plastic bags I have (reuse and recycle) and will do my best to eliminate as many plastic bags as possible (reduce) by using either paper bags or reusable bags I keep in the trunk of my car.
Garbage day in our household has us rushing around the house collecting garbage from various rooms in order to get it out on the street before the garbage truck comes by. Only this past week was different.
After our usual running around collecting, my husband called out from the garage that there just wasn’t enough garbage to put it out on the street. We typically have 1 large green garbage bag of garbage each week but this week we had the equivalent of 2 small kitchen bags which only took up about a third of a large green garbage bag.
We actually reduced the amount of garbage in our household to the point where we didn’t have enough to put out on the street. We, by the way, are 2 adults, 1 teenager and a dog.
Here’s how we did it:
Shopping friendly
- buying items that have minimal or no packaging
- using cloth bags at all stores (except where raw meat is concerned – I’m a bit nervous about that one)
- use whatever plastic bag we do collect for picking up dog waste
Recycling – everything and anything that can be recycled goes into cardboard boxes in our pantry and eventually to the Recycle Depot. That includes:
- all paper products including cardboard, newspaper, advertising, stationary and packaging
- all acceptable plastics and any lid
- metal cans, lids and aluminum pie plates
- all glass jars and bottles
- other stuff such as egg cartons and batteries
HINT: For a handy list of what is accepted contact your local Recycle Depot
3. Composting
- all vegetable, fruit and egg shell waste goes into a small closed bucket under our sink
- once a week that waste goes into our composter in the back yard (more on composting soon)
One of our New Year’s resolutions this year is to find ways to have more and more “no bag” garbage days in our household. I challenge everyone to find it in their hearts to do the same this year. What a gift to the environment that would be!
A Greener Christmas – Clean Up Environmentally
Once the gifts are opened and the turkey dinner finished, there are a few simple ways to help make Christmas more environmentally friendly and show “Goodwill to our Earth” after the festivities are over:
- Recycle wrapping – Be sure to recycle all wrapping paper, cardboard and cards. Keep anything that can be reused for next year.
- Recycle your tree – If you purchase a real Christmas tree this season, be sure to counter the effects of cutting down a tree by recycling it after the holidays. Consider buying a living tree and planting it in your garden in the spring.
- Environmentally friendly resolution – This New Year, resolve to find ways to reduce your carbon foot print throughout the New Year.
A Greener Christmas – Gift Environmentally
Here are a few simple ways to help make Christmas more environmentally friendly and show “Goodwill to our Earth”
Gift Environmentally
- Green Giving – Purchase environmentally friendly gifts that support the environment. Gifts that: (a) minimize or eliminate power (electricity and battery) use; (b) have minimal or no packaging; (c) last a long time (lego set will last longer than craft supplies that get thrown out); and (d) made out of naturally made products (wooden toys as opposed to plastic);
- Wrapping Paper – Reduce the amount of paper used for wrapping gifts by wrapping gifts in a bag, a scarf, the Sunday comics, a holiday towel or reusing gift bags or boxes.
- Charity Gifts – Support a local charity in someone else’s name and give that as a gift this holiday season.
- Gift environmentally – There are many organizations, like the David Suzuki Foundation, that work hard on environmental issues on our behalf. Your financial support will ensure they keep going for the benefit of us all. Find out more by visiting www.davidsuzuki.org and clicking on “Donate Now!”
5. If you use HP print cartridges in your printer, don’t throw used ones in the garbage. HP has an environmental initiative that is free and convenient.
6. Check inside your HP inkjet print cartridge or LaserJet supply box for a postage-paid return and recycling envelope or label. They are provided free of charge in select HP boxes.
7. If your package doesn’t include the envelope or labels, you can go online and order the free postage-paid shipping materials, allowing you to easily send in your used inkjet cartridge or LaserJet supplies for recycling. To get started, go to http://h30248.www3.hp.com/recycle/supplies/ or type in “hp ink recycling” into Goggle search.
8. I always find it alarming how much chemicals there are in the products we buy – chemicals that not only hurt us physically but hurt the environment as well.
9. I’ve been slowly replacing all my regular products with “chemical free” products and I’ve been pleasantly surprised with how well they work. One example is fabric softeners and disposable dryer sheets (such as Bounce).
10. Did you know that most fabric softeners and disposable dryer sheets are made up of toxic chemicals, which gets transferred to your clothes? When I think about babies and children wearing these clothes and possibly putting them in their mouths, it is quite disturbing.
11. I’ve switched from disposable dryer sheets to a product called “Static Eliminator” which is reusable dryer sheets. They are 100% hypo-allergenic, environmentally friendly and work really well to reduce static and keep clothing soft. The best news is that they last for more than 500 loads, which means you save money too!
12. You can find our dryer sheets at any Home Hardware Store (called Natura Static Free Dryer Sheets) or at your local health food store. If they don’t have them in stock, they should be able to order them in. Alternatively, visit the manufacturer’s web site for this at www.staticeliminator.ca and other environmentally friendly products.
13. I was walking my dog the other day and passed someone sitting in a car. They were obviously waiting for someone because the car was still running. I didn’t think much about it until I came back from my walk 20 minutes later and the same person was in the car waiting… and the car was still running.
14. The next day I drove my son to the bank and turned off my car to wait while he did his banking. I was surprised to see how many other cars pulled up and left their cars running as they ran into the bank.
15. I can understand cars idling when the temperature is -40C otherwise they may not start again. But to do so when it’s nice outside just doesn’t make sense to me. Not when you realize the amount of exhaust if everyone is doing it.
16. Let’s do our part and turn off our cars when not driving. In that small way we will be doing our part for the environment and enjoying the clean air.
17. While grocery shopping this past week, I was pleased to have the clerk ask me if I wanted paper or plastic bags. It certainly makes sense to use paper and then recycle the bag afterwards.
18. I was particularly pleased to see a message on the side of the bag stating, “This paper grocery bag is 100% recyclable, biodegradable and is composed of sawmill by-products that once were discarded, or burned.” They also plan on providing helpful environmental hints on their paper bags in the future.
19. What to do with all those left over plastic bags? Safeway bags can be recycled at their store. You can also use them to line kitchen or bathroom garbage pails or for picking up after pets.
20. An even better idea is to purchase (or make) reusable cloth bags to eliminate paper or plastic all together.
I asked a youth this week what he would do to reduce carbon emissions and his reply was, “Eliminate cars.” While that may be unpractical for most people right now, I like his way of thinking. We can certainly do our part by driving less.
When going out for groceries don’t just shop and go home. Plan to complete all your other errands at the same time (banking, post office, dry cleaning, etc.) to eliminate going out multiple times. Whenever possible, car pool or take public transit to reduce the number of cars on the road. Better yet, bike or walk and get in better shape while you are at it!
Do you recycle? If not, this is a great time to get started. If you already do recycle, find one more paper product from the list below that you can add to your usual routine. Make it easy to do by placing an empty box in a convenient place (perhaps close to your garbage can) and start placing these paper products in the box.
- Newspaper – newspaper, non-glossy newsprint flyers, moving paper and packaging paper.
- Cardboard/Boxboard - corrugated cardboard and boxboard (e.g., cereal, detergent, and cracker boxes). Be sure to flatten boxes.
- White Office Paper – white paper, copier paper, computer paper, fax paper, lined loose leaf all with one coloured ink on white.
- Coloured Paper – coloured paper, soup can labels, envelopes, construction paper, sugar, flour and brown paper bags, wrapping paper, glossy junk mail, magazines, Sears catalogues.
- Phone books
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