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How did you do on last week's challenge to return usable containers to the supermarket and/or reuse containers in the bulk items department? Was it easy, difficult, any problems? Let's see what our Honor Society had to say about it:
Aine Butler-Smith joined us this week. She gets creative with reusable containers at home. For example, she decorates glass containers and uses them as holders for candles, potpourri, candy, etc.
Ann lives in New Zealand and shares that even her garden center promotes reuse ... they take back used pots and seedling boxes. By the way, Ann posted a very interesting article entitled To Dam or Not To Dam. It's a thought-provoking read.
Argentum Vulgaris, who suggested this challenge, reuses his egg carton ... and his example is catching on. Read about it HERE.
What A Card has reusable mesh produce bags, which she tries to remember to carry to the store. She talks about it in THIS ARTICLE ... she also talks about our previous challenge on saving water. It's an interesting look at what happens when usable water is no longer available and the horrifying anti-green results.
EcoGrrl buys in bulk ... her store carries all kinds of bulk items including shampoo and body lotion. Rather than use the containers provided, she's going to use her pretty containers from home ... and she's moving from plastic to glass. Her focus will be on buying as much as possible each time she shops thereby reducing waste even further.
Heather started paying attention to how people shop and noticed how many plastic bags were being used for relatively small amounts of produce. In THIS POST she offers some earth-friendly alternatives, including making bags of various sizes. Have you ever heard of Fog Harvesting? Heather wrote about it HERE in support of our water conservation challenge. It's really interesting!
Both Heather and EcoGrrl talked about bringing glass containers to the store to refill with bulk products. I have a question for you two ... how did that work? Did the store accommodate you? Inquiring minds need to know! :)
Bob and Rosemary joined us this week. They recycle, use cloth bags, and don't take the plastics for produce. Great job, you two!
Ange takes a trolley/caddy bag to the markets for food. She shares that there's an added benefit to using them ... they are much better ergonomically.
I knew that this challenge would appeal to Mrs. Green who, in addition to a blog on all things green, writes one called My Zero Waste. In THIS ARTICLE, she offers suggestions on how to reduce packaging waste including this one: Shop Naked.
Thanks to everyone who participated! As always, I've Stumbled and Tweeted your articles!
So ... ready for a new challenge?
This week we're making a statement ... joining a world-wide movement to support the earth. Here's your challenge:
March 27th, 8:30 pm (your time), turn off the lights for an hour. Are you in?
WE'RE CHANGING THE WORLD, ONE CHALLENGE AT A TIME!
Fab; signed up and wrote about it last week, so have now edited my post to say it is our challenge for this week. We're all really looking forward to it and take it a step further by switching off the electricity into the house for 12 hours. It's a lot of fun!
ReplyDeletehttp://littlegreenblog.com/blog/global-events-blog/the-biggest-climate-awareness-campaign-ever/
Interesting challenge. I can certainly do this. We decided to go green for all our parties. Our last trip to Ikea, we purchased glass plates,bowls,cups and inexpensive flatware to use instead of paper and plastic. It worked out really well!
ReplyDeleteI'm in! I'll let you know how it goes ... having a dinner party so it's going to be candle lit for oNE HOUR !!
ReplyDeleteTotally in. We did this last year. The kids loved it.
ReplyDeleteSF, I read an interesting riposte to the last Earth Day, can't remember where, but it was most interesting, interesting enough to remember the theme. The majority who turn their lights off opt for the use of candles, however the carbon emissions of the candles exceeds that than if we had left the lights on, making the exercise rather more symbolic and redundant. You might like to research that.
ReplyDeleteNot trying to throw a wrench in the works, but there is always an opposite reaction, good or bad.
It is with that memory that I am not participating, besides, I only have one light on in my house to blog by.
AV
AV poses a good point but here in Montana, we get the majority of our electricity from coal. The mining process itself clearly outweighs my limited use of candles during Earth Hour.
ReplyDeleteWe participated. I posted pictures at http://marcydrivel.blogspot.com
When I first heard about Earth Hour a month or so ago, I emailed every person in my address book and asked them to join me in turning off our lights for an hour. And then I totally forgot to do it!
ReplyDeleteMy excuse: I was at my parents' house where it's like being on another planet - no easy computer access, no TV - i.e. no reminders.
I loved this idea. I'm sorry I failed at it!