Stop! Don’t automatically toss those used coffee grounds in the trash – they have many more uses before being thrown out! While a cup of coffee (or 3) in the morning is great, the used coffee grounds can serve many more purposes around your house after giving you your morning jolt of caffeine.
It is a common misconception for many people that bottled water is safer than tap, plastic bottles get recycled, and no harm is being done to the environment in the bottling process. Unfortunately, that could not be further from the truth!
If you are on a budget or just plain refuse to pay the extra for organic fruits and vegetables, there really are some good reasons to buy at least a few of those items in the organic version if you can.
What exactly do we all need to live? Is it 4 TV’s, 3 cars, a 4,000 square foot house? Multiple yearly vacations to far away lands? Piles of cheap plastic doo-dads from China?
Oftentimes we hear reports about how changing a light bulb will not make a bit of a difference in the fight against climate change and that everyone must make huge sacrifices in order to have any effect. I say don’t listen to them!
Aside from staying home and drinking tap water out of a washable glass, the best way to be “green” while on the go is choosing your water bottle wisely. From the lowly single-use-only plastic water bottle you can buy at your local gas station to the stainless steel and aluminum options, making the right choice is important in maintaining both your health and the health of the environment!
This week’s Do One Thing is inspired by two of my neighbors, who let their dogs out on the grass to poop – and then they leave it there. I took it upon myself to make signs and put them on the lawn, but with people this careless, I doubt it will make a difference. Dog feces that isn’t picked up can be a health hazard, never mind just a simple annoyance on the bottom of your shoe. Feces contains high levels of bacteria, which percolate down into underground aquifers and also get washed down storm drains, both of which can eventually contaminate our drinking water and/or rivers. There’s a good reason we have sewers and septic tanks to contain our waste. So please – pick up after Fido when he does his business outside!
(Your neighbors will appreciate it, trust me…)
“We nourish our most precious resources. Our children, our time, our health, our world. That’s why we created Nourish. It’s a purified spring water bottled two ways, formula-ready for baby and spill-proof with a sippy top for toddler.” Sure, Nourish says that it can nourish your children, but by making disposable plastic water bottles for babies, it’s pretty clear they don’t want to nourish our health or our planet. Know what would really nourish your children, your time, your health, and your world? Something that you buy once, fill with filtered tap water, and reuse over and over and over again – without throwing it in the trash. Try a Klean Kanteen or a Sigg bottle, both of which come in small sizes for kids and babies.
Spring water in plastic bottles for babies. Um, yea…right.
