What are you doing to live a more environmentally conscious existence?

I recycle and use old bags for groceries when I remember, which isn’t as often as it should be. I don’t eat meat, not because I disagree with the standard foodchain, but because of ethical and environmental reasons. When the weather is nice, I bike instead of driving a lot of places. I teach children how to compost and recycle. There’s so much more I could do though…
I once made a bride-to-be mad at me when I refused to release a helium balloon at her bridal shower. I think I made an animal happy, though.

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I use OneNote on my computer to take all of my notes. When I’m in class, I sometimes use paper for notes, but then scan them into OneNote and then recycle. I don’t use as much paper as most student…probably 2 small notebooks per semester total.

Right now we’re focusing mainly on our (old) house. We’ve totally switched over to fluorescent light bulbs and re-insulated the attic. We have also installed a more energy-efficient heat pump.

I wish the public transit system was better here, i’d definitely utilize it more often.

I try and bike places if I can and recycle and reuse whatever I can. I also try to buy eco-friendly products as well as try to remember to unplug things from the wall whenever i’m not using them.

I limit the number of baby seals I kill every day to 3 or 4.

I was raised to be very frugal. “Do It Yourself; Make Do; Do Without” was our family motto. I was also an original hippie in the 1960’s and followed the ‘live off the land’ trend. I have never gotten with the consumer above all concept. Since I have always followed the environmentally counscious path, the best I can do now is help other people who don’t know how.

I’m doing everything I can to help the environment. I just started a compost pile. It’s in the back seat of my car.

@Yarnlady..awesome!

@chucklmiller Why thank you kind sir : – )

Lots of little things, but the first I’m going to focus on is whole, local, cook-at-home foods. A lot of the garbage accumulation in my household that couldn’t be recycled or composted came from pre-packaged, separately-portioned food products and containers from take or fast food.

TMI WARNING! Things you probably never wanted to know about me.
The other thing I’m going to mention are feminine products like reusable pads or menstrual cups. If it’s true that the average woman uses 12,000 pads/tampons in her lifetime, I want nothing to do with that. It’s a ton of unecessary waste. And buying disposables over and over is not nearly as cost efficient.

I’M VEGAN

Car pool, recycle, compost, donate.

I sell chemicals that are far more environmentally friendly than their counterparts.

Hey Chuckie, I have environmentally friendly car deodorizers that you can hang from your rearview mirror in case the compost scent get to you. I think I have one in the shape of a mailman. The scent is aptly called “Newman”.

I go to school online, which means I don’t have to buy books, print out papers to turn in, or waste gas driving to class every day so there to all you anti-online school people. Like @seekingwolf, I use OneNote instead of regular notepads. I try to buy organic or natural products, especially stuff like hair and bath products. I guess I generally try not to waste and try to conserve in general. Use things over and over if possible, turn out the lights… stuff like that. I need to get better.

Oh, and I refuse to shop at Wal-Mart.

I also subscribe to the newspaper so that I can recycle and save a tree.

I don’t throw rubbish in the street or on the ground. I drink tap water in preference to bottled (most of the time). I reuse things: bottles, bags, boxes, old clothes. I try not to waste water: hard to do, if your plumbing is old. More could be done.

I reuse my plastic bags. I shower with cold water and for short periods of time. I unplug electronic devices Im not using. I try to never leave the lights on, I carpool. I use the plastic cups of yogurt, fill them with orange juice and put them in the freezer. They make delicious popcicles!

I buy only energy/water-efficient appliances, buy food with less packaging, CFL’s for all my lighting, etc. In addition to everything @Likeradar said (except biking and pissing off brides), but I do eat meat and either raise my own animals or hunt to avoid supporting large-scale farming of meat.

This is a great question. We recycle. We are starting a compost this summer. We use reusable bags. We try and reuse everything. Hubby takes public transit a few times a week. Half of his job is recycling and educating on zero waste. We also buy organic and support local farmers. We are trying to switch to other environmentally friendly products as well. We are very big environmentalists and we have a whole checklist of things we want to do within the next few years to change our lifestyle.

@Amoebic so how do you find using the reusable feminine hygeine items is? I am very environmentally conscious but that is one thing that seems so difficult to switch to

@bea2345 I think not wasting water is so important! We switched out of plastic water bottles for the environment and because we are now finding out that plastics are so bad for our health. We do use a water filter on our tap though and it is wonderful! We go to some ceremonies where wasting water is just not permitted. I’m trying to put that into my regular life as well. I do some things like not turn my water on when brushing etc… but I could do more.

@RedPowerLady there’s definitely an adjustment period (pun intended), but now that I’ve gotten into the habit of it, I wouldn’t go back. I did a lot of casual research on the feminine product industry, and decided the practices and tactics of most of them to be unsavory. If you would like more details, please PM me! I’m not shy at all about discussing the physiological aspects of it, as well, but for the sake of the question we should take it elsewhere.

Very little aside from recycling, choosing products with less fussy packaging, not taking drives to combat boredom, monitoring water use at home. Public transit isn’t an option for me where I live and I don’t shop and buy enough things to make much impact on what factories they are produced in.

@RedPowerLady As a girl, I used cotton towels, not disposable pads. I hated them with a passion. You see, I had to wash them myself. When Modess (is it still in business?) brought out the disposable pad, ah, joy. Environmentally speaking, the reusable towel is workable; but you need water, and lots of it.

@bea2345 @RedPowerLady I don’t think the subject is off topic, it’s done the same way re-usable diapers are done. Fold up a square of cotton, pin it on, use it, wash it.

@bea2345 I use a 1 gallon seal-able soaking bin (not filled all the way) to reduce the amount of water used, and just add a little more water each time I add a pad. It’s primarily to keep the blood from fasting to the cotton fibers before washing, and just wash them all in the laundry with the dark clothing/cold water wash. I think this will only work for pads that are stitched to hold their shape, as I think soaking rags that long may deconstruct the fibers. I think you’re only going to use a lot of water if you’re doing a steady rinse to do away with as much blood as possible each time you rinse one.

@Amoebic That’s how I washed mine, except I don’t remember having a bucket to soak them in. They went into a special cloth bag made for the purpose and then, at the end of my period, they would be soaked in cold water overnight; the next morning, rinsed and well soaped using a hard brown soap. By then we had acquired a washing machine, so I had it easier than my mother. BTW, there was, to my recollection, almost no odour – which was Modess’ big selling point.

@bea2345 LOL. I just find it really interesting.

@Yarnlady I was thinking the same thing.