Are You Green?

When I first heard about “going green” I felt very overwhelmed.  There were so many things that my family did that were so clearly un-green, that I felt like we were almost solely destroying the environment.  I started hearing terms like “carbon footprint” and was totally freaked out and thought that while families everywhere were changing their ways and saving our environment, our family wasn’t going to be able to make any changes that would stick.  I’m the person who buys the reusable shopping bags but forgets them at home whenever I go to the supermarket.  I’ll also make 3 trips to the same place because I leave something home, giving the environment nothing but the emissions from my SUV. Over the past year or so, I’ve tried to do little things to make us greener because my thought was that even the littlest change was better than no change at all.  Here are a few things that our family has done that are super simple that made us a little greener and our environment a little cleaner.  Feel free to leave your comments about what changes you’re making in your own house!

• When you buy eggs at the supermarket, buy eggs packaged in cardboard instead of styrofoam cartons.  Cardboard is much more recyclable that styrofoam cartons which don’t decompose for 100 years.
• Carpool!  Not only is it green because it keeps car emissions out of the environment, but it’s much more convenient for parents to only have to drive one way!  Don’t forget that also caring for your car make it run better and therefore keeps the environment cleaner.  Change the oil filter on a regular basis, make sure your tires have enough air in them, drive the speed limit and reduce the weight of your car by making a conscious effort not to carry around extra things.
• Here’s my favorite – cut down on the paper by receiving less junk mail.  Contact and or all of the companies below to have your name taken off mailing lists.  If your newspaper or magazines offer an online digital version, subscribe to that instead of the actual publication.
  • DirectMail.com – a free way to put your name onto the Do Not Mail list.  You can also specify if there are any categories from which you would like to receive mail.
  • DMA Consumer Assistance – you can add or remove your name from individual organization lists.  This costs $1 that you send in with your application.
  • OptOut – reduce the amount of pre-approved credit card and insurance offers that you receive.  You can register online or by calling 1-888-5-OPTOUT.

Overall, remember that there are very small changes that we can make to be a little greener.  If we all make the tiniest effort, our world will be a much cleaner place.

This post was written in conjunction with a contest sponsored by TwitterMoms and LighterSaferGreener.com.