Ideas for earth friendly living, now you’re talking my language. This is a list that comes easily to me; as though it’s an extension of my being.

Ideas for Earth Friendly Living

• REDUCE! Everything. Reduce, reuse, recycle – in that order.
• believe in your municipal water system and avoid the consumption of bottled water
• compost – I heard about someone finding a newspaper in a landfill that was dated decades earlier and it was still completely readable, and we know how fast a newspaper can break down. Yet it didn’t. Because everything in a landfill is too tightly packed for anything to decompose.
• stop using chemicals to clean your space, the fumes are bad for you, your family, and your pets, plus the toxins wash down the drain and end up being absorbed by the earth in one way or another. Instead keep your house clean using vinegar and baking soda.
• opt for human powered transportation: walk, bicycle, and skate instead of driving so much, take the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator
• drive the speed limit. I read a statistic someplace that if you drive 110 km/hr instead of the posted 100 km/hr it’s like paying $1.10 per litre of gas instead of $1.00 per litre, and we all know how everyone is complaining about the price of gas these days…
• post a “no junk mail please” sign on your mailbox
• offset the amount of water your toilet uses by putting a sealed plastic pop bottle full of sand in the tank
• buy used if possible
• insulate your attic, you wouldn’t go outside on a snowy winter day without a hat on would you?
• unplug everything in your house that you’re not using. Many electronic devices still draw power when they are shut off especially anything that has a remote (the unit stays in a standby mode always searching for a signal from the remote) and anything who’s power cord is a chunky adapter. We’re lucky enough to have a microwave that doesn’t need to have the time set in order to operate so we can unplug it when we’re not using it, and for an appliance that’s only used every couple of days, that’s a big deal.
• reduce the amount of new plastic that you purchase. It never breaks down and is one of the most energy-intensive materials to recycle, plus most of it is made from oil.
• try to stick to fabrics that are made from natural fibres, polyester = plastic = see my previous point
• get rid of your television. Or at least greatly reduce the time spent watching it. It uses electricity and increases your need to shop either through commercials, but mostly through the desire to keep up with what the Jones’ on tv have and do. Trust me, you’ll feel better about yourself.
• rent movies instead of buying them, then one piece of plastic is used and enjoyed by many people instead of just watched a few times, stuck on a shelf, and thrown out because no one has vcr’s any more. And it’s less dusting.
• get books from your public library, how many novels do you really read more than once anyways?
• take clothes and household items that are in good condition to your local thrift store instead of putting them in the trash
• shop for locally produced items, do you really need to buy a kiwi that shipped all the way from New Zealand?
• eat less meat. Once upon a time I heard a statistic that if you stop eating meat it’s like taking an SUV off the road in terms of pollution.
• stop eating at fast food places, look at all the packaging garbage that one meal produces
• read and watch No Impact Man, because no idea is too small
• power down your computer, modem, etc at night and when not in use. We have a laptop and aside from our major appliances, our computer setup uses the most power in our whole house.
• hang clothes to dry on the line. We do two loads of laundry a week and as soon as we stopped using our dryer we reduced our hydro bill by 10%, insane!
• seed your lawn with grasses that don’t need to be watered
• if you have a small yard get rid of your gas or electric mower and opt for a reel mower. We love ours, no fuss no muss!

Thanks for joining me for this week’s The List Love Book Club! I hope this week’s list wasn’t overwhelmingly long. We prioritize being kind to the earth and I’d love to hear all your ideas, big and small.