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I’ve been married for 15 years now but one of the major challenges we had as newlyweds was our environmental views. While my wife was not much concerned with environmental practices, I value doing my part to recycle, reuse, and reduce my carbon footprint.
Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle
One of the first things I do is reduce what I use. I only buy or make what I need. For example, when eating out I know my 2-year-old will not eat an entire kids meal and neither will my 8-year-old. To reduce food waste my kids share a kids meal. My wife and I share as well. This way we don’t end up with leftovers that no one eats.
Reusing was another concept my wife had to get used to. I can find uses for a variety of things, from the empty butter containers to old socks. For the rare occasions, I do have dinner leftovers empty butter or cool whip containers are great for storing food or transporting food for lunch the next day. Old socks are great and puppets for kids, whiteboard erasers, chalkboard erasers, and overall cleaning rags if you cut them in half.
Recycling was not a new concept to my wife. She knew about the second garbage can that is just meant for recyclable goods. I started to stop using products that can’t be recycled. For instance, we changed our coffee pot from one with the non-recyclable pods to a traditional filter and reusable basket. We no longer buy water in bottles but have a stainless steel water bottle that we put ice and water in each morning to take with us. We also take our own bags to the grocery store so we don’t have to use plastic bags.
Here are my best five tips for Eco-friendly living.
One, shop online, when your clothes shop or grocery shop online I only buy what I need and reduce what I use.
Two, my kids and myself wearing a lot of resale or hand me down clothes. There are great resale shops that sell excellent brand clothes that are slightly used for cheap and no one really knows the difference. My friends and I will swap kid clothes and my father and I will exchange clothes or shoes from time to time.
Three, I save electricity and water by doing simple things like only running the dishwasher when it is full and then using the air-dry option. Another appliance tip is using the tap cold or tap warm settings on your washer and the timed dry setting on the dryer. This way you are not using electricity to heat or cool your water temperature and the dryer is not using its drying sense to continuously run until your clothes are very dry. Often I will hang them up slightly damp and let them air dry the rest of the way.
Four, drive a fuel efficient car that has an Eco mode to reduce your carbon footprint. Try driving less by carpooling, walking, or staying home more.
Five, reduce your carbon foot by buying man-made created items. There are many choices of man-made products on your wedding registry list that don’t use our natural resources. Even your diamond ring and wedding bands can have lab-created diamonds instead of natural diamonds. The only difference (besides the price) is that they are grown in a lab instead of chipping away at nature. No one can tell the difference unless you tell them.
My advice is to sit down and have a talk with your new or soon to be spouse about how environmentally friendly you want to live and what Eco habits you have.
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