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In 2015 I completely gave up meat and dairy due to the environmental impact and haven't touched it since. By far the best "green decision" I have made.
Have reused any plastic containers received from getting take out and turned them into kitchen storage/reusable containers for my food.
Became way more conscious of my recycling effort, trying to get to where everything in my trash bin is degradable.
Planted a garden for the first time this year to grow my own food and cut down on our footprint even more.
Stopped using the dishwasher and hand wash everything so I can observe water use and also switched to quicker showers.
The one thing I haven't been able to switch/change much is my vehicle usage since my job is to drive my personal vehicle, but as soon as I'm in the market for a new car I will be switching to electric/hybrid.
60k miles on a 15 y.o. car- 4 cylinder compact wagon, related to that obviously walking prodigiously or taking public transit whenever it's a smart choice. And a 90 y.o house that produces 1000 kWh more than we consume every year because of a modest solar PV system installed last year. Infrequent showers and toilet flushing. Recycle everything.
Yeah I still eat meat occasionally, but hey, you gotta still enjoy life. As an American we just naturally consume a great deal of resources but you can lessen your part without too much hardship.
We continue to live without a car and get around by walking and transit, with a car rented on those instances when we want to go outside the city. Cheaper choice to. We don't heat the house too much and wear warm clothing. We got rid of our Tassimo coffee maker and make drip coffee.
We rarely get takeout food so we don't accumulate that trash. I cook meals at home and package in our reusable containers to take to work.
We have planted gardens for 35 years. We have fruit trees.
We planted trees in our front yard to shade the house from the afternoon sun.
We rake all leaves and yard waste into our wooded area to decompose naturally.
We use wood from our property to build furniture and to burn for heat. We compost the ash back into the garden.
We worked at home for most of the last 20 years, saving fuel costs. Now we work just 3 miles away. We keep our vehicles until they die. I'm driving a 9 year old economy car.
We buy fresh meats and produce so we don't accumulate packaging from processed foods.
We don't run the dishwasher until it is completely full. With just 2 of us, that might end up being 3 times a month. Same thing with laundry.
We buy the 5 gallon reusable jugs of water so we don't use many individual bottles.
We rarely turn on the A/C, but would rather keep the windows open with fresh air blowing through the house. We chose to live in an area with a fairly moderate climate.
We try to minimize paper waste for holiday gifts, reusing gift bags, bows & tissue, never using the cardboard gift boxes, just wrapping clothes in gift paper if we don't have a bag.
We stopped the newspaper & magazines years ago, reading news online. We have recycled since it started in the late 80's/ early 90's. We don't really have that much for trash or recycling because we don't buy those sorts of products that have packaging. Most of our trash/recycling is from unwanted junk mail.
We stopped the newspaper & magazines years ago, reading news online. We have recycled since it started in the late 80's/ early 90's. We don't really have that much for trash or recycling because we don't buy those sorts of products that have packaging. Most of our trash/recycling is from unwanted junk mail.
I am assuming you mean recycling started in your area in the late 80's since I started recycling in the early 70's. No pick up but it was only a mile to the drop off.
I used to get 5 newspapers a day and 20 magazines a month. Over the years I cut that to 0.
I wish something could be done about junk mail. I only get 3 or 4 pieces of real mail a week. I go paperless whenever possible.
Still too many boxes much bigger than necessary. Amazon is a big offender.
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