Some New, Some Old, Some Different Green Ideas for the New Year

In 2008, we tried to be more green. We installed 2 rain barrels, installed recycled wood flooring in the house, purchased and used an indoor composter, installed dual flush toilets and tankless water heaters in our home, stopped purchasing plastic water bottles, purchased glass containers and eliminated all plastice in the kitchen, purchased banto boxes to use for travelling and lunches instead of plastic baggies, switched to compostable garbage bags, switched to recycled toothbrushes and razors, switched to using only recycled paper notebooks, joined freecycle, and donated to carbonfund.org to offset our airplane travel and energy consumption to make us carbon neutral.

We have made a commitment to be more green again in 2009. In addition to following through by using some of our Christmas gifts such as reusable produce bags, reusable drycleaning bags, and a dry cleaning rack for towels (which we use a lot at this house), we want to be better activists for the environment. So, we're starting by sharing some ideas for a Green 2009.

1. Stop using ALL plastic bags (grocery, department stores, produce, laundrymat,sandwich bags, etc). You can even get reusable vegetable bags here and biodegradable trash bags here.
2. Recycle number 5 plastic by sending it here.
3. Recycle your Brita filter here.
4. Send your wine corks (not the plastic ones) here.
5. Compost at home by using this.
6. Freecycle rather than throwing things away.
7. Replace your paper towels with these.
8. Save your Christmas cards and reuse them next year by pasting a label over this year's text (we are still working on this project for our 08 Xmas cards).
9. Get a rain barrel and use the captured water in your garden.
10. Recycle your shoes here.
11. Find out what other things you can recycle here.
12. Buy recycled and recyclable toothbrushes and razors here.
13. Stop using plastic at the drycleaners, by getting reusable drycleaning bags here.
14. Buy ecofriendly products ranging from toilet paper and detergents to eye glasses to clothing and paper made from poop.