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Leave nothing but footprints.

Inspired by Josh's food/sustainability comment to my last post I am choosing to write about our footprint on the earth, i.e. how much everything we do, use, throw out, or purchase affects the earth. I am lucky in that I live in a community that has a more palpable and visible consciousness of the world and our affect on it. We have cooperative grocery stores, farmer's markets, recycling and/or transfer stations, more free public transportation than most rural/small town areas, and a highly educated liberal population. Not that uneducated conservatives don't want to protect the earth, but from my experience (at Texas A&M) they are more worried about our souls than the environment. Who cares about global warming if the rapture is on its way? Luckily, that is changing.

I was thinking about my footprint. I think I'm doing pretty well, although I can always do better. I stopped all magazines and newspaper subscriptions so I'm not killing trees in that way. I bring canvas bags to the grocery store - the place I shop gives you 5 cents back for every bag you reuse and also has a large selection of local/organic/bulk/environmentally friendly/sustainable products. I don't have TV so I don't have noise on 24/7 contributing to sound pollution or electricity drain. I use reusable containers as often as possible instead of baggies and other disposable items. I don't own any paper plates or plastic cups even though the allure of such modern conveniences is evident every time I stand in front of my sink full of dishes. I don't have a dishwasher so I'm saving water and energy there as well. My apartment's lack of hot water forces me to take really quick showers, and those co-showers I've been participating in of late, well, they may or may not save any water but they contribute to the overall happiness on the planet.

I rarely buy anything via catalogue so I don't get bombarded by too many of them but I do get a couple. The next time I get Hold Everything, Land's End or LLBean I'm going to do whatever they tell me to do to take myself off the list. In addition, I'm going to take some of the steps listed at the Mail Preference Service to stop whatever other fluff is coming in, mostly credit card offers. I had taken myself off the list once but then I did a balance transfer so I was activated again. Grrr. To get your name removed from all the credit bureaus at once go here. And presto chango, no more annoying credit card offers. Until you do something "unusual" with your credit card again and then all bets are off apparently.

What could I be doing better? There is a bus stop in front of my apartment for free transportation and yet I have never taken it. Mainly because I usually do things after work and the buses don't run very often. I want to say that if you miss the 5 o'clock you're screwed. But really, I could just be making that up. I'll just take a quick trip to Google and see...Yup, I was right. You can't get there from here after about 5. I have, however, been known to ride my bike the 10-12 miles to work. I need to get it out and "jiffy lubed" and try that again.

The next time I run out of laundry detergent I'm going to buy some concentrated, good for the environment, kind like this. Not only will I use less but if you think about it the product itself uses less water to make, and the packaging can be smaller and replaced less often. My grocery store carries the full line of stuff.

I just bought the newest version of Quicken and I'm going to set up bill paying on-line so I can stop generating mail from invoices and checks.

Next step - participate in the many farmer's markets I have access to. There is literally one across the street from me. Unfortunately, I think it's on a day I tend to stay late at the gym and it's closed by the time I get there. I'll have to see about some others I could pass on my way home if I tried hard enough.

I'd give myself a B if I were grading. Maybe B-. I don't carpool, my car is not a hybrid, my apartment leaks heat like a sieve, and I tend to forget to bring the canvas bags into the store. But that's ok. I'm not going to beat myself up. Every little bit counts. How large is your footprint?

"And Man created the plastic bag and the tin and aluminum can and the cellophane
wrapper and the paper plate, and this was good because Man could then take his
automobile and buy all his food in one place and He could save that which was
good to eat in the refrigerator and throw away that which had no further
use. And soon the earth was covered with plastic bags and aluminum cans
and paper plates and disposable bottles and there was nowhere to sit down or walk, and Man shook his head and cried: "Look at this Godawful mess." ~Art Buchwald, 1970"

Comments

Mrs. Harridan said…
Thanks for the mail preference link - I'm getting TONS of credit card junk mail, so I'm going to register. I'm trying to wean myself off the plastic bags, but it's tough. I've been reusing them. Time to reinvest in some tupperware, I guess.

Check out the Footprint Quiz: http://www.myfootprint.org/

My score was 24. Not very good. :(

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