How do you make your life greener?

[Kat Tancock]

What are the little things you do to go easy on the enviroment? Share your tips and they could become part of the 2008 Canadian Living Green Challenge!
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Kat Tancock
Web Editor and Forums Moderator
CanadianLiving.com
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[Carol Ann]

I will continue to do what I am doing now. I recycle as much as my city allows us to, which in my opinion is not enough! I don't buy overpackaged items. I've always been careful with water, as I've lived on a well for years, so I don't waste water. I don't waste hydro, either, turning out lights when I'm not in the room or having the tv on when I'm not watching it, things like that.

[food4me]

Hmmm, let me think about this...

We recycle pretty much all that's doable in our city as well, paper/cardboard, plastic bags, cans, jars, milk jugs. We receive bills online to reduce our paper usage further, use CFL's in about 3/4 of our fixtures (except dimmers and the bathroom), upgraded all our appliances to Energy Star rated, replaced the old water heater with an efficient one and insulated the basement walls. We keep the thermostat at 66 (nighttime) and 68 (daytime) in the winter, and sleep in the basement in the summer. The previous owner of our house installed central air, but we might give in and use it two days a year, if at all. Oh, and we replaced one of our toilets with a low-flow.

On the grocery side, we buy all our produce, dairy, canned and dry goods and most of our meat at an organic market, use eco-friendly cleaning products (dish and laundry detergent, fabric softener, kitchen and bathroom cleaners, shampoo and soap), and carry our own canvas shopping bags whenever we go out.

Regarding transportation, we take transit (wind powered) to work and only use our car once a week for major grocery and other shopping (we've managed to keep the mileage pretty low, only 13,000km after 4 years and that included a 5000km road trip a couple of years ago).

Denise

[dolphin]

I walk to/fro work, my husband rides transit, luckily we live close to both of those!
We do drive fuel efficient cars, I turn out all lights when not in the room, we put in double pane windows & have energy efficient appliances & of course recycle everything that we can. I've even started with the toilet paper rolls.
My husband actually drives me nuts when he turns on the lights, especially in the garage & then leaves the room, he also doesn't realize I can wash dishes in the dark! My Dad was always a stickler for turning out lights so it's a habit for me.

[Merry]

The Christmas paper that we carefully wrap around our gifts, is either recycled afterwards to wrap another gift or put in the recycling bin as too damaged to reuse. This year I want to take it a step further and sew various sized bags with drawstrings to wrap the gifts in next year, the year after and so on. I will use up various scraps of material that I have in my sewing bin to make these bags.

[thefoxcrofts]

All of the dishes are washed by hand and I use a wash basin instead of the sink so I do not use as much water. I put all of my children in cloth diapers, and hang all of our laundry to dry on a clothes line (I installed one in my basement for the winter). Aside from our major appliances and our alarm clock, everything is plugged into power bars so that they can be turned off when not in use. We bring our own reusable bags to the store and compost as much as we can, and if I cant compost it, the neighbourhood animals are always around for our leftover treats. Anything that we no longer use either goes into our annual yard sale or is given to the charity shops and I buy as much as I can second hand. I use vinegar to clean as much as I can and have started a vegetable and fruit garden so I can do home canning and am in the process of learning how to use a sewing machine.

[jittergirl25]

Use a hand-cranked tumble washer. When my washer dies, I'll replace it with an energy efficient front-loader (for jeans and sheets). Hang clothes to dry. Make my own laundry soap. Dishes by hand. Public transportation, bicycle or foot. Recycle as much as possible. Online day to day transactions for pay, banking, insurance, bills, etc. Buy healthy and fresh (or frozen) food. Eat very little meat (yes, that burger impacts the environment). Avoid buying junk (usually over-packaged, anyway). Put plastic over the windows in the winter. Use ceilings fans year 'round. Energy efficient bulbs in all lights. Recycle plastic bags for shopping and garbage. Will never buy a plastic shower curtain again. Keep showers short, and on alternate days, sponge bath - takes a whopping 2 litres of water (I have used less, but only in the face of no alternative). Use environmentally friendly cleaning products. Clothes exchanges with friends and family and whatever's left goes to charity. Books get donated to hospitals.

None of this is a big deal - I never had a dryer or dishwasher growing up, so that was no adjustment. I have a strict budget, so when I buy food, even comfort food, it has to be nutritious, too - fruits and veggies - whatever's in season or frozen, for treats like strawberries in January. I hate garbage piling up - recycling helps with reducing that in the house. I cannot stand clutter - I'm in the process of moving and, despite some minor stress, am actually looking forward to a MASSIVE decluttering.

I do have to look into apartment composting, though. Maybe after I learn how to keep plants alive... Sewing, however, it out of the question. I know my limits and will simply stick to sales and second hand. It's all about the hunt for the deal, anyway - not the actual clothes

[wawamegan]

I live in a small town in northern Ontario and our community doesn't recycle. I have to hoard all of my recycling in the basement and take it with me when I go the closest community (2.5hrs away).

We compost all year long. We collect rainwater to water our garden. We use canvas shopping bags for all our shopping, not just the grocery store. Our Christmas presents get put in reusable bags. We try hard to not buy cheap, plastic things that will just break. So we spend a bit more and get something that will last longer.

Myself and a friend started a committee in our town called the Healthy Earth Committee (HEC) and challenged our town to reduce the number of plastic bags they used. It was quite successful. Our next challenge is reducing the number of stupid, single-use, plastic water bottles that end up in the landfill. We are also looking at trying to get a community composting facility.

[amberlee]

Our island community has been at the forefront of recycling for 45 years. We have become fanatic recyclers and do almost everthing mentioned above except a handcrank washer - ours is a new efficient front loader using half the soap and water the old one did.
We use earth friendly cleaning supplies, buy things that are not overpackaged and have often emailed the manufacturers of overpackaged things.
One Christmas, I cleaned out my scarf drawer and wrapped all my presents in scarves I didn't wear any more - everyone loved it because they got an extra gift.
We compost all vegetable waste the chickens don't eat, bury fish waste under our fruit trees or take it to the beach to feed the eagles and keep them away from our chickens.
I use my crock pot and an efficient convection oven rather than my large oven and all our bulbs were replaced with the new fluorescent ones as they burned out.
We put a small water heater in our rental room bath and warn people that water is short here - that way there are no long showers taken.
There are 2 garbage pail in every room and the true trash ones have very little in them.
Magazines all go to the medical clinic after they are read. I feel embarrassed if I don't have my own cloth bags when I go to the grocery store although they have recycled plastic ones and boxes available.

[Phamilton]

I've decided to use cold water wash detergent regularly. Works just as well, and I don't have to worry about running out of hot water for everyone's bath/shower when I do a lot of laundry. Big blankets/sheets and some clothes dry fine on the banister, and add humidity to the house. In the summer I try to use the backyard when ever I can.
I'm also a local garbage picker at the park. I figure if I let the dog off-leash when I'm not supposed to (only when no one is around), I'll make up for it by cleaning up all the garbage that often gets blown from the streets. I wish everyone would help do this a little actually.

[Carol Ann]

Talking about garbage pickers.... As the snow is melting, you sure see a lot of garbage that is tossed from cars over the winter. It makes me so mad when I see that. Why do people consistently do that? Would they throw garbage on their floors in their homes? I don't think so. I'm thinking this week as more snow melts, that I'm going to take a big green garbage bag and go for a walk up our street and collect it all. We live near a University so their is alot of coffee cups and pizza boxes chucked out the windows. I thought the young kids were better educated than that. I guess they just don't care. I'll do my good deed and clean up behind them.

[Sonia C]

The first thing I did when I moved into my own home was to call and cancel the delivery of junk mail sent from the city - the local city free newspaper - as I view it online. And it has actually stopped being delivered! Now if I can only get Canada Post to stop sending me junk.

I also take public transit, recycle, energy efficient appliances (including the dishwasher), use rechargeable batteries, cfl's and powerbars everywhere, and I use cloth bags for groceries. I always use cold water for laundry and I never run the washer or drier during peak consumption hours. I have heard though that washing dishes by hand uses more water than a dishwasher. Who knew! Who knows?

I am impressed with wawamegan and hoarding all recycling until visiting the closest (sort of!) community. We need more people like you! Way to go.

I also do a lot of what was mentioned above so I won't repeat any more here.
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Cheers!

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When worries call, hang up.
Life is a gift. Open the box and enjoy!

[lyndafaye]

read all newspapers and magazines on line.
saves paper and money.

We can't save on fuel as we live in a small town on the transCanada hwy and you have to drive 1 hour in either direction to meet the next town.
3 hours to reach the nearest city for major shopping and entertainment.
My husband drives 1 hour to get to work with no public transportation to be seen.

If we have to buy small things in big packages we open it at the checkout and let the store deal with the over packaging. Heck maybe they will start looking for ways to get companies to package less.

I use cloth bags for groceries and I always have 1 in my purse for those times I pick up stuff when I am out.

I don't compost because of the bears that wander through our yard and the skunks, foxes and other critters. Just don't want to leave them a tasty treat as lots of people let their pets out and children are around a lot.

We canoe instead of boating which is great exercise and also environmentally friendly.
The only stuff we toss from cars is KFC chicken bones. The ravens and birds love us. We only do this on the way home from a trip to Thunder Bay since that is the closest KFC around here.

We have the smart hydro metre and it seems to be showing that doing laundry and dishes at night is a good thing.
We rarely have TV or radio on but the 3 computers are going 24/7.
But really they do not use that much power.

I recycle what little the town allows us to recycle.
cans which I use rarely.
pop cans lots of .
cardboard
that is it so really not much point to it.

I use a slow cooker a lot.
My rotiserrie a lot.
My indoor grill a lot.
BBQ when summer finally arrives almost everyday.
In the winter once in a while. Usually during a snow storm.
I think that is just to be stubborn.

Fast showers never baths.
I don't really conserve water.
But rarely water the lawn as it isn't necessary.

[jeep]

Wow some of the people here are amazing , I have just started into the recycling as where we used to live they didn't have any place to take it. We have just built a new house so now the yard work starts and we are getting a compose bin fromthe village. I sort and take all the things I can to the recycle bin and I am amazed at the amount of garbage I have now about 1/4 from before. I have a nice deck on the back of the house and I have had a retractable clothes line put up to hang out washing I also wash in cold always. I never run the D/W until it is completely full sometimes once every 2 days there is only 2 of us here. I try to remember to take my bag to the store but that isn't working so good I am always forgetting it but am really trying to find a system that works for me. I never take a bag to put 1 loaf of bread in most times I don't any bag unless I can't carry the items I have. We turn lights but the TV runs to much have to work on that one. I have to drive to work to transit here and I work until 11pm and we live 12km from work. I work around our little town to get mail and go to the store. DH gets wood to burn for heat such nice heat and free. If everyone does alittle it will help.

[amberlee]

For those of you who forget to take your bags to the store with you, here's what I have done:
I made 3 simple nylon bags and a very small stuff bag to put them in. THese are in my purse all the time. For a large shopping day, I usually remember to take my other bags with me. But, at least I always have 3.