My New Mantra

Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.

And not just because it's Earth Day. This is something I've been thinking about for a while.

It's not something I've always been interested in doing, in fact, I'm still probably a bad consumer in some ways, but after working in a "Green" building for the past year, I've gotten a little more educated about ways that I can help save the Earth.

First off, you have to go check out this article on Design*Sponge today. Before I'd even read it, I'd made up my mind to celebrate the day and the things that I was going to try to do better by buying a Baggu bag. It's something I've been wanting for a while now, since my co-worker introduced me to them and I figured, why not, since today is Earth Day. But I was so glad to read this article, because number one, I think it's totally true and the facts are amazing, but it also made me feel just a little bit better since the three things it asks me to do are things I've already done in the last couple months!

One thing I was kind of forced into. My work, in an effort to not only cut the budget but live up more to our "green" title, has decided to stop buying paper coffee cups, which I will ashamedly admit, I used pretty much every day. What a waste! I now have my own mug that stays at work to use in the mornings for my hot chocolate. I also have been better about putting my cans and containers into the recycling, which I used to be bad about, although as the D*S article points out, even recycling isn't the best option, it's better than nothing, but it does use a lot of energy resources.

I also bought a travel mug at the dollar store a couple months ago which I was excited about because it was personalizable and I've been using it in my car when I want to take something to drink.

I was also given an aluminum water bottle by my roommate (it's got a pharmaceutical advertisement on it which I'm going to cover with some shelf liner paper) which I'm still trying to remember to bring to work... but I have it! And I actually don't buy water bottles all that much.

Anyway, on top of the three things they suggest, I've been trying to buy more second hand things and donate my things I'm getting rid of rather than just throwing them away. If you think about everything you throw away in a week let alone a year that's a lot of stuff going to land fills! I've also started buying more energy efficient lights which last longer (keeping less out of land fills) and save money and energy, so win-win-win!

OK, I'll get off my little soap box here. This is something I'm still trying to get better at, I'm by no means an expert, but I think we can all agree there are things we could be doing to reduce our impact on the world. I hope you'll all try making some of these changes with me as well!

Oh, I've also heard that if you shop at Target today they'll give you a reusable bag with your purchase! I'm heading there after work!

{ Happy Earth Day! }