Inside & Out

Today is October 15th, and it is Blog Action Day 2009!

I am taking part, along with thousands of other bloggers from around the world.  This year’s action day is centered around the topic of Climate Change.  This is a topic that is truly close to my heart.  I am no superwoman, but we do our best to take care of our Mother Earth here in the Bach/Allen household.  For me, climate change is a HUGE scary issue, that worries me almost daily.  Scientists say it could raise sea levels enough to leave Manhattan underwater.  That’s scary stuff!  And if that weren’t bad enough, higher global temperatures could cause my beloved Pinot Noir to go bye-bye for good.  You see, the mild weather that produces the grapes for my delicious glass of red would be too warm, and would cause grape growers to have to turn to alternate means to produce Pinot Noir grapes.  This wine scenario is just one of the milder predictions out of millions of consequences if climate change turns up the thermostat on our planet.  If you’d like to see a (partial) list of 100 possible results of climate change, please see the list here at the Center for American Progress’s site.

We, like most people, can’t stop bulldozers from knocking down rainforests, or remove greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere.  We’re just a couple of regular people.  But we do everything we can to help combat climate change.  So I’d like to share a bit of what we do to help save the planet.

-Whenever possible, we use CFL bulbs.  You’ve probably heard of these, they consume 75% less energy than their incandescent counterparts, and last typically 10 times longer.  We save a ton of green on our electric bill because of our little lightbulbs.  They may cost a bit more up front, but they definitely pay for themselves in the long run!

-We recycle as much as we can here at home.  Our apartment complex only offers paper recycling, so we have a bin for that.  Then we have bins for cardboard, plastic, glass, aluminum, and styrofoam.  Thankfully, our local Whole Foods collects recycling and you don’t even have to sort it!  You just throw it all in the bin, and they take care of the rest.  We go about once a month to take our recycling, and it doesn’t hurt to stop in and get some delicious food while we’re at it.  We also recycle our batteries, old cell phones, lightbulbs, and tennis shoes by taking them to our local IKEA.  (You don’t have to twist my arm to go to IKEA!)

-We try to choose reusable items whenever possible:

A few months ago, we got 40 fabric napkins, and stopped using paper napkins for good.  It is super easy to just toss the white napkins in with our whites load once a week, and it’s easier on our wallets as well.

I slowly weaned Shawn off of using paper towels after washing his hands in the kitchen by always having a stack of fresh, dry towels in the kitchen.

When we were potty training our puppy Piper, we got a couple of big packs of white terrycloth shop towels and a bottle of Nature’s Miracle to clean up her messes instead of using paper towels every time.

We have an arsenal of reusable grocery bags that we fold up and keep in the trunk of my car for trips to the grocery store.

I keep a couple of small bags in my handbag at all times for trips to Target, trips to the hardware store, mall, or any light shopping.

-We try to use biodegradable whenever possible.  Piper’s doggy-doo bags are biodegradable.

-I *try* so hard to take short showers.  I’ve gotten them down to less than 10 minutes, which, coming from the girl who took 30 minute showers, this is amazing.  Always room for improvement, though!  Shawn is a former Marine, so he’s in and out in a flash.

-We wash our clothes in cold water and dry them on the shortest cycle possible.

-We try to always combine trips to save gas.

-We walk to the grocery store, convenience store, and some restaurants whenever possible.

-We only buy cleaning products that do not contain harsh chemicals and are safe for the planet.  (We’re still using up some of our old “polluting” cleaning products since we don’t want to pour them down the drain, but when they’re gone, we’ll replace them with non-polluting versions.)

-Any clothes that do not fit are donated to a local charity.  If we have something we cannot use, we post it on Craigslist, either for a modest sum, or for free.  Like Shawn’s unusable dirtbike tires and rims.  I rest much easier knowing a guy is refurbishing them to use on his bike, than imagining them rotting (or not so much) in a landfill somewhere.

-We chose our apartment based on its proximity to both of our jobs, and its access to public transit.  We can hop on a bus right in front of our apartment.

-I pack my lunches in a handy neoprene lunchbag.  I use Pyrex glass storage containers to put my tuna salad and leftover pasta in.  I’ve completely stopped buying Ziploc bags, and we just keep a few waxed paper storage bags around for handy snacking (but we should probably stop using those, too!)

These are a few of the things we do to help save our planet.  It turns out, most of these things save us money, too!  The best part is that we’ve set up our lives to make it easiest on ourselves to do the right thing, by putting recycling in easier reach than the garbage, keeping reusable bags in my trunk, and keeping a stack of fresh linens in the kitchen.  In that vein, I vow to do more.  Here are my pledges for the coming year:

I will do my best to buy local pre-owned furniture and refurbish it myself with low-VOC paints.

I will use low-VOC paints and other non-polluting chemicals whenever possible.

I will research non-polluting, natural or organic health and body care brands so we know that our shampoo and lotion isn’t killing poor innocent fish somewhere down the line.

I will do even more to recycle our waste here at home.

I will try very hard to start a worm composting system (something I’ve wanted to do on the back patio for a LONG time!)

I will finally start growing some of my own herbs and veggies on the patio…but hopefully our neighbors don’t help themselves to our harvest!

I will try to unplug anything we are not using to keep our appliances and electronics from sucking too much unneeded electricity.

And you know you can count on me to share all of these adventures and more, right?  What are you doing to help combat climate change?