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Saturday, December 26, 2009

30 Tips by an "Eco Extremist" on Caring for Earth

TheGaianDragon...com
Reposted by Lexi with Love
From: Kindness of Strangers for the Earth & Animals (www.myspace.com/120295405)

30 Tips on by an "Eco Extremist" on Caring for Earth


From the blog 30 Tips for being an Eco Extremist



Shop at a People's Food
Cooperative


Tour 1of 2




youtube source



"How do you avoid plastics,

if you do not live near a natural food store?"


I am 60 years old, old enough to remember when we hardly used any plastic. Amazingly I never knew anyone whose glass shampoo bottle broke in the shower. However I doubt you can find a glass shampoo bottle today. I shop infrequently and buy a lot when I do. I refill my shampoo bottles and cream rinse and any other products from bulk with organic ingredients as often as possible.

I fit dishes over bowls of food for storage. I have never used plastic wrap, ever! My mother used to have something that looked like shower caps to cover leftovers, so I tried them, but they wore out too soon.

Mom also used to use waxed paper and rubber bands to cover food, again I do not use disposables if at all possible (if you have seen my videos you know I do not even use much toilet paper!)

Mom used to line garbage cans with newspaper and wrap food scraps in that. I do not find newspaper necessary as we compost all our kitchen waste and do not consume animal foods. And we do not subscribe to newspapers anyway as we love trees and rivers (the production of any product uses energy and creates pollution.)

My kitchen garbage gets dirty occasionally, right now it is outside in the rain cleaning off. In the summer I wash it outside and use the water to water the garden.

You can work to develop a green community were you live, find others who are interested in forming a food coop or farmer's markets if you do not already have them.

Food Cooperatives provides natural food through community participation and cooperative principles. You save money and the environment by buying in bulk and usually share the workload.

Farmer's markets are also an excellent way to encourage your local organic farmers, create community, and a real pleasure to shop at.


Visit these resources
to learn more


Edible Landscaping

Edible landscaping for apartment dwellers

The Simplicity Resource Guide

Voluntary Simplicity Resource Guide

Coop Directory Service: Find A Natural Food Coop Near You

National Directory of Fruit Stands Farmers Markets

Race Against Waste

Learn how to go car free at:

One Less Car

This list created in cooperation with
Quantum Environmentalis..​ts



REDUCE • REUSE • RECYCLE

1 THINK intelligently about the consequences of all you consume, where it comes from and where it is going

Think three times before making a purchase, asking the question, "Do I really need this? Will it make me happy, or serve? Or will it break soon, need maintenance, cleaning, dusting and end up as just another piece of junk I need to recycle or fix?"

Conscious Consuming



2 QUESTION
the status quo.

3 LIVE well with less
so you will generate less trash and clear your space.

4 Eat a plant-based diet
Healthy for you, the planet;

Climate Change and Meat Consumption

Eco Eating Eating as if the Earth Matters

Biotech whiz Pat Brown makes the global-warming case against animal farming

Climate chief Lord Stern: give up meat to save the planet

And a plant based diet is far more humane, in fact consider respecting all life, even spiders, ants, and other bugs. (We consider them our tiny pets and keep the house clean enough so they are not a problem)! Choose not to use pesticides or herbicides.


5 Make intelligent choices when purchasing, supporting eco friendly companies like the clean energy company
www. greenmountainen..​.​.​ergy.​com and Standard Solar®

• Drive less often by buying in bulk

• Read the ingredients list

• Choose less packaging

• Bring clean containers and refill from bulk bins

6 CONSERVE ENERGY when possible:
We hung pretty blankets in our living room to close off other rooms that do not need to be heated so much. We keep the other rooms just warm enough to discourage mold in the winter. I find them refreshingly cool, in contrast to the living room which we keep toasty with a air tight wood burning stove.



7 Turn your hot water heater off or down when not in use,
we have done this for years! (We have a little sign so we do not forget to turn it on when we need it.)



8 Boil water in a whistling teapot in the morning, put the water in a big insulated carafe (the kind they dispense coffee in) and have hot water available all day
Use a whistling teapot so you don't waste energy forgetting to turn the water off.



9 Hang dry clothes,
eliminating the need for owning/using a dryer (we have even strung up a clothes line in the living room on rainy days, not very pretty, but eco friendly.)



10 Water is precious, water is life, respect the water
Wash clothes in warm or cool water, not hot, 80-85 percent of the energy consumed to wash clothes comes from heating the water.



11 TURN off the water whenever you do not need it, for instance
when brushing teeth, save four gallons. That's almost 3,000 gallons a year, if you brush your teeth twice a day.



12 Think twice before purchasing or using
a dishwasher, often it is just as easy to wash by hand.



13 Wash dishes in with a small bowl of soapy water,
do not put the dishes in the water, keep it clean by putting your cleaning cloth (not a plastic sponge) in the water, this way you use less water, and soap and it can last for days.



14 QUESTION the need for harsh detergents for washing dishes
If this has been a vegan meal, and wasn't an oily food, we can wash the dishes in hot water right after a meal, and won't need much, if any, dish soap.


15 Flush your toilet with water from collected from your shower or bath,
while waiting for our water to get hot, we catch it in a five gallon bucket and flush the toilet, (during the first drought I experienced we even took the bathroom sink pipe off so water would go right into a bucket to collect for usage.

16 Invest in a grey water system

17 Avoid plastic! And as far as plastic recycling see my blog The Myths about plastic recycling


THINK
San Francisco, New York City, and Whole Foods Stores are all taking the lead and banned plastic shopping bags; focus on this becoming a national trend! Avoid Styrofoam at all it is not recyclable… Don't use plastic bubble wrap or Styrofoam "peanuts" when packaging boxes. Reuse newspaper, junk mail, etc instead.

• I do not use paper bags at all, and have used 100% organic string bags instead (they hold over 40 pounds of groceries and fit easily into your pocket, car, bike, or purse.)

• If you still have paper bags gathering dust, consider doubling or tripling up paper grocery bags and reuse them indefinitely.



18 Live without air conditioners. Open windows and door whenever possible
(we are blessed with a lovely breeze, but on really hot days we keep the house cool by shutting all drapes, and opening again during the evening and early morning, a fan can be used to blow out hot air and bring in cool air at that time.



19 Purchase clothes from thrift stores, garage sales, and flea markets

20 Rescue furniture, household items, etc from tree lawns on trash day, if needed

21 CREATE "free boxes" at work, school, and community centers

22 COMPOST
You can freeze compostable materials, find a friend with a compost pile, and add the frozen compost to friends' compost when visiting, if unable to compost at home.

23 Buy organic food, cosmetics, and clothing whenever possible
(even our cotton is organic and we make q-tips with an orange stick instead of wasting natural resources)

Check out this blog:
Organic vs. Conventionally grown foods, charts, video, and graphics

24 GROW your own organic food even a little can go a long way as you can see Edible landscaping for apartment dwellers


25 Let the grass grow longer,
save fuel, time, energy, and money, cut your grass half as often. Better yet convert that lawn to an Edible Landscape.


26 Use a push Mower or scythe and eliminate the use of fuel, you are the FUEL!

27 Share with neighbors
We still have a push mower available for all our neighbors to borrow.) Better yet convert that lawn to an Edible Landscaping


28 Shovel the snow
instead of using a snow blower or plow, it's good for the body and good for the environment. Avoid salt to melt the snow or ice, it's harmful to the soil, the plants, the water, you.



29 Ride a bike or take public transport, work with your community to improve public transportation...​.​.​
Davis California has free bike left all over town for people to ride and leave when they are done with them!


Learn how to go car free at

One Less Car



30 My good friend adam antichrist suggests:.... "If like me you don't fill your garbage or recycling bin all the way up each week, don't put it out for collection. Garbage trucks don't turn their engines off when collecting, so if you can manage to hold out for an extra week there will be less fuel used and less emissions produced because you put your bins out less frequently.


Small actions taken by many people make big differences!

Our Consumption Effects 6 Billion Others






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Posted by Kindness of Strangers for the Earth & Animals
the following links are added by Kindness of Strangers, not as a endorsement of any organization, but to share information on how and why to eat a plant based diet.






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