More Green
Earth day has come and gone and I did little to observe it, outside of my normal habits of recycling and really thinking hard about a lot of things that I do that I feel contribute an over all negative impact to the environment. That all being said, a few things I have done at the new place that I am settling into has made me realize that you do not have to achieve 100% from the get go, but rather many small steps will eventually go a long way.
As we were moving into our new place a few things were pretty obvious from the get go and a few other things I made my opinion known fairly quickly. Fortunately, my lovely wife shares a lot of my same viewpoints, so it was not a hard sell on most of these. For instance, we both agree that recycling is a must for those items that are easily handled. Turns out, we do not have a pickup point for such in our new town, but we do have several drop off locations throughout town, with clean, organized compartments that seem to be regularly attended to by the appropriate county/city personnel. As we moved in and have slowly emptied up boxes all the cardboards has ended up in the container, as well as several plastic and glass containers.
Next up was several lights that were out because of bulb failure. I suggested that we would want to replace those with the much more efficient cork screw bulbs. You know the ones, they use less energy and like a mini flourescent in a corkscrew format. Typically the bulb itself will last four years or more and you get sixty Watt equivalent lighting for thirteen watts of power burned. When we shopped and found that six packs of those can now be had for five dollars that was all the convincing needed (you can also get one hundred Watt equivalents in three for five dollars). At first, it was a replace as bulbs go out, starting the most likely used ones. Now, I think we have just about all replaced excepting the extra bedrooms upstairs.
Similarly, in the basement/garage, we needed more lightly and went with fluorescent lighting strips that we will add to as we have time and funds. The need will increase for more lighting as the workshop across the end becomes more organized and functional. I do admit, to accidentally purchasing a ‘green’ light for this the first time. I was thinking green in regards to energy and such, where as it really was for growing plants and fish tanks. It has been corrected though and is good to go.
On a slightly different note, I finally have all most stuff together again for the first time in nearly three years. I had, prior to moving three years back, reduced a lot, putting a lot of stuff up for sale and donating a lot to free-cycle (if you have not tried this, you should – get rid of what you do not want/use and maybe find a good something you do need to put to use for free) and organizations like Goodwill. I realize after getting it all back together that I lived without a vast majority of that stuff for the past three years. So, a big garage/yard sale is planned in the near future and then more free-cycle and Goodwill will be in order.
I know some of the above is some really small steps, but something I realized last week when thumbing through an old copy of Natural Awakenings is that small steps are the key. In that particular issue, there was a focus on Earth Day. The editor, Heidi, (someone I know via her prior management of a small wine shop – hello!) was saying just this. A few small steps is much better then my typical past approach. Largely I have been the one that felt like if I could not get the perfect sustainable farm that ran on all self-generated power and produced no waste that was not re-used within the farm, why bother? But reality is changing those lights is a big deal, both energy and waste are reduced, nearly to one fifth previous on both accounts. And just wait until I post about the granted very small, but vibrant and thriving patio garden that has been started over on Traveller’s Haven Farms later this morning – another relatively small step, but one that everyone can do.
* – Image shamelessly taken from random site on the internet and I have no idea who or where, as I could find no information about such, though it does remind me of an artist I saw on exhibit at the Cincinnati Art Museum the last time I was there… Makes me wonder.
I think the 'small steps' comment is key. We all think we have to make a major change, a grand gesture, not realizing that taking that first step is the real key. It's so hard to change our habits, so any change is worth celebrating.
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