Your person enviromental rules...

I've always been one to care for our Mother Earth. I'm troubled by those who can't seem to realize how important it is we are as good to the Earth as it is for us. I have rules for myself that I never break. For example I never litter (of course). I pick up trash from others to throw it away. Even if it is only a small something, everything counts. If I must litter because of some freak emergency I make sure to pick up alot more then I through away. Because if everyone had the same policy we (Earth and its peoples) will be alot better off for as long as were allowed to be here. Our time could end at any time as it is... why would we not want to ensure the human race the very best future it could have. This may be an annoying ramble but thanks for listening guys..

 

hmm..I also pick up trash that I see. I especially hate it when they drop it like 3 inches away from a trash can.
Keeping things from a landfill is what I like to do best, though.
I simply try to do all I personally can.

 

I took a cheapie water bottle, crocheted a pretty cover for it, and bought three refillable gallon jugs from WalMart (the only grocery in the area: don't flame me). I keep refilling my bottle from the jugs, and the jugs for 37 cents a gallon. My classmates love it, and I think I see a trend beginning to form. . .

I'm already off of caffeine, and slowly phasing soda completly out of my diet: drasticly fewer bottles in the landfill, as I have no outlet for plastic recycling yet. It's shocking how many bottles one person can use in just a month. I'm lacto-ovo-veg, and try to get my eggs from a local chicken hobbyist.

Also, I'm trying to arrange my very own Victory Garden (Still not too successful), and my balcony and windowsills are covered in plants: medicinal herbs, cooking herbs, air cleaners, pretty flowers. My balcony has roses, berries, and flowering vines.

I mix most of my own cosmetics out of natural ingredients, and self-medicate with homeopathic methods and alternative healing. I also keep old-fashioned hobbies like quilting and crochet, which use much less electricity than video games, take up a lot of bored time, and provide my family with pretty blankets and useful things that would otherwise have to be bought from eco-evil companies. Many of my sewing projets also incorporate recycled materials, too.

I'm into Yoga, which for some reason tends to aim people into various green/charitable/spiritual lifestyles. And I'm plotting a quilted cotton yoga mat that won't stick to my feet. . . mmmmm. . .

 

I wish I could see your place! Places like that are what I wish I saw more often. Im only 18 but would love to have my own herbs and all around "green" home. I don't see how people can not have any enviromental "calling" at all. I drink alot of water, actually its the only thing I drink. Sometimes I will have some tea but never soda or real sugary type drinks. I used to get the huge packs of water bottles with the 35% less plastic but as you said, a person can pile up alot of bottles quickly. I get the gallon of water but just refill it from the sink now a days. Peace and Love! May good vibes and good health always be with you!

 

Why refill with jugs? thats still creating waste of plastic jugs... Just use tap water... its been shown to basically be the same as bottled water... and be careful with your plastic bottle because some contain carcinogens... youd be better off with just picking up a nalgene bottle... made for rough use, and last a long time, and is carcinogen/BPA free


just a suggestion

 

I don't exactly have rules but there are many things that i do..
When i see trash on the ground or when im walking i will throw it away and if i see water in a water bottle on the ground i will empty it and i am always trying to get my mom to buy things that are completely organic. I also try to get as many people to be more environmental friendly and im in a environmental club at school.
Im cautous about having unnecessary lights on and stuff like that.
I also recycle as much as i can.

 

Good stuff! I forgot that I also turn off lights and things that are not being used like (tv's, computer,fan, etc)

 

Yea, electricity and those power plants are a big part of pollution.
Thats just some of the things i do....

Theres more.

 

The jugs get refilled too: with filtered water. The tap water in my town is barely safe to bathe in. The water company put some odd chemicals in it to "kill microbes" that forms a nasty white powder over all of my cookware, kills sourdough starts within hours, and infects any wound that comes in contact with it. I don't know what this is, but I sure as hell am not drinking it. The whole area has this disgusting water. Maybe when we move out of the sticks we'll be able to use tap water, but not in central Missouri.

I used to use one-shot bottled water jugs, but I wound up with 20 empty gallon jugs monthly. I use them to catch my dishwater during the five-minute warming time on the faucet, and water my balcony garden with them. The plants filter the white yuk out rather well. Now, I just reuse the same three jugs over and over. They don't go into the landfill, just back in the fridge.

As for the bottles themselves, I can't very well carry glass bottles in my backpack with my textbooks, now, can I? And specially made bottles are expensive. This works fine for me.

 

We too have to filter our water as it contains benzine and they use a chem in it that they say isn't chlorine, but sure smells and tastes like it. I'm allergic to chlorine, as in the smell causes vomiting and headaches.
My biggest rule is RECYCLE! If it can be recycled in our system, it is. This piles up as we don't have trash pick-up and only go to the landfill/recycle bins every 2 weeks. Then my dad has the only running truck, so he makes those runs and refuses to take anything but the trash. Luckily, there's a drop off on the way to my husband's work, so he drops the recyclables there when they are overflowing.
I have cfl lights in all of the fixtures that will take them. Some won't, but I at least have to put a low wattage bulb in those. lights off when not in the room. LED Christmas lights.
Energy star appliances.
Right there with people who don't recycle are litter bugs. They make me so mad and I make it known that I'm not pleased when I see them drop their trash. Unless its unsanitary, I pick it up and dispose of it properly and I've taught my boys to do the same.
Littering extends to the water as well.
I despise those who hunt or fish for pure sport. Its wasteful and disrespectful to life. If you need the meat, kill it properly, with due respect and only kill what you must, then that's decent. I know those who hunt from the freeway or their street corner and who, if they get a tag at all, get one for each member of the family down to the 5 year old and just go gun happy during every possible season of the year. I've been in the woods and seen deer that we're shot poorly and left to die in misery. Or shot enough to take them down just enough to get their antlers and then left to die in agony. I've also seen idiots shoot whatever moves. Sometimes it's a bovine and sometimes it's other people or their dogs. Fishing is no different. And don't teach your kids that that's okay by letting them play video games that simulate those things.
Organic whenever possible. It tastes so much better anyway.

Mmmmm, I think that covers it.
:daisy:

 

I could not agree more with the point that it is important that we look after mother earth.
I do most of the usual stuff that I am able to do on a personal level such as recycling not owning a car etc etc.
I do wonder though what real difference that a fraction of us in the more privileged societies of the world can really make in the grand scheme of things just by living low impact existences.
There are millions of people in poorer countries that manage to do more than survive that can not and understandably do not see beyond where there next meal is going to come from let alone what is happening to our planet.
That is one of the many reasons that I am an anti capitalist and a communist.
In my view the only likely way to help the planet is by fighting big industry and governments.
Capitalism creates inequality and desperation and fuels a consumerist culture.

 

I never litter, I don't drive much (hard to avoid that here though), I grow veggies and herbs, don't use paper/plastic cups and utensils, drink filtered water, recycle, donate old things/sell them, write on the back of paper, give food scraps to animals or use as compost,...etc.

Improvement I want: reuse bags at the grocery store