"How can I be Green?"

A few months back I wrote an article on "Going Green" that explained what the "Green" word meant and how to look for homes that were green. And, there are many builders today trying to build their homes more Green.

I just finished my GREEN designation classes this week, and I am committing to living as Green as I can. As most of you, I already have my home that was built four years ago so it meets a lot of the green requirements, but, certainly not all of them. However, we talked about Green being a lifestyle; and I'm going to change my lifestyle to be more green. So, you might ask, "What are the things I can do without changing my home, to be more friendly to our planet". I'm so glad you asked that question, because that is the purpose of this writing. Here are some things you can easily start doing:

1. Use less toxic cleaners in your home (some of these can be homemade). You can find some recipes online, but here are a couple of websites you might check out: the Consumer Reports Web site (www.greenerchoices.org), and the National Geographic Green Guide (www.thegreenguide.com).

2. Composting waste is a good "Green" thing. Just remember, no animal products can be put into a compost, but here are some of the things that can:
*Brown ingredients to provide carbon, such as dead leaves, branches, and twigs
*Green ingredients to provide nitrogen, such as grass clippings, vegetable and
fruit waste, and coffee grounds
*Water to provide moisture and help to break down organic matter
The composting process takes about 3-6 months. Once decomposed, compost can be applied as mulch to enrich the soil in garden beds, under shrubs, on the lawn, or in potting soil. To get a complete listing of what you can, and can't, put into a compost, go to www.epa.gov.

3. Collect rainwater from our home gutters to use for lawn irrigation to conserve on water usage (our limited resource--but something all living things have to have).

4. Using the cloth grocery bags instead of getting plastic ones each time you go to the grocery store. Now, I know it is difficult to always remember to take these bags back to the store. I am very guilty of this. But, I am just going to put those cloth bags in the trunk of my car so I will always have them when I go grocery shopping. That saves our trees and it saves on the landfills that house all those plastic bags which, as you know, are not biodegradeable.

5. The plastic containers that we have and will continue to have until we have better choices for containers (filled with everything from potato salad to party trays--and that's just at the grocery store)can be recycled. So, I'm going to get even better with that.

There is so much more that we can do, but this is a starter list that can keep some of us busy for awhile.


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