I donated my car 2.5 years ago. Travel by bike and bus. Last month I sold my fridge. A week ago I gave away my microwave. I line-dry my clothes. I vermicompost all food waste (learned about this on NoImpactMan!). Hand wash my dishes. Rarely shop - easy for me since I don’t like to. I love this lifestyle and keep looking for other ways to be more radical.
This post was submitted by Robyn.
We started using cheap fun-colored washcloths for napkins. We bought two dozen for 6 bucks and now avoid buying paper napkins, have much more absorbant napkins/paper towels, avoid waste and have added some color to the dinner table.
When I was pregnant, I realized how much money I was spending on granola bars not to mention how much waste is involved with individually wrapped snacks. Now, I make a full pan or two of my own no-bake energy bars - very tasty treats that I can throw in tupperwear and bring with me on the go! (1.5 cup PB and .5 cup honey warmed with 6 cups seeds/oatmeal/flake cereal mix)
This post was submitted by Hilary.
My partner and I have made more sustainable living a permanent choice. We built our small (600 sq ft) house mostly out of straw, earth, trees we cut ourselves, and other, mostly on-site or local materials. We live off-grid with solar panels and a microhydro system. We have solar and wood-heated hot water. We have a composting toilet and reuse our graywater. We are in the process of growing our own food, much of it from trees. Most of our water comes from our roof or a pond. My partner commutes to work with an electric bike most days (otherwise a Prius). We have already met the UN’s climate goal of an 80% reduction in carbon emissions, yet we pretty much still live a US middle class lifestyle (except that we don’t fly for vacations). It helps that we chose a rural area with permissive building codes, but many of these things are possible in urban neighborhoods and suburbs.
We have been empowered by taking control of our ecological and social impacts. By being more self-reliant, we don’t have to work at jobs we hate that are raping the planet. In addition, our lifestyle supports our health, with lots of exercise and good food. Individual choices like ours won’t solve the problems we face by themselves, but they are a crucial part of the picture.
This post was submitted by Rain Tenaqiya.
Lower the temperature on your water heater, you really don’t need burning hot water coming out of your faucet. It’s safer, too.
Put the lids on pans when cooking or boiling on the stove. You will find yourself able to turn the gas way down and still keep the food simmering, or boiling. You will have to watch the food to avoid boiling over, but you’ll feel good about yourself every time you have to adjust the heat downward.
This post was submitted by Andrea.
you write in your web site about using cloth diapers but I have an even better idea. One that is practiced in different parts of the world and used by some in the US. It is called elimination communication (EC) and it involves the gentle practice of communicating about eliminating. Babies give cues when they need to go but parents often don’t recognize them until they know what to look for.. There are also the easy times like when the baby wakes up from a nap or in the morning. Imagine the environmental impact if all diaper users could do with 1 or 2 less diapers a day! Imagine if some people decided to practice EC full-time!
I also consider breast feeding to have no impact.
This post was submitted by Rossana.
As a writer, I use a lot of paper at work. I do my best to only print when I need to, but a lot of what I print still ends up in the recycling bin anyway. So what I started doing was keeping a stack of paper clipped together to use as a note pad, since I also take a lot of notes. The extra paper is piling up in my desk drawer, but it’s better to get as much use out of it as possible before I throw it into recycling. I’m working on getting other people in my office to do the same rather than tossing out still-usable paper, buying expensive notebooks, and overusing Post-Its.
This post was submitted by Liz.
In order to make the most of Hawaii’s year round climate,we use walkway solar lights for dinner table illumination each evening and we shut off all interior lights and TV and have dinner together each day. We started a backyard victory garden for our daily salads and home lunch sandwich greens. Instead of two cars, We now use only one car and Honolulu’s Municipal TheBus for transportation. I even have a solar charger for my iPhone.
This post was submitted by Ronald.
Before leaving for the day, after I shutdown my PC I unplug my both monitor and PCs power cable. Just all of us know that even when they are turned off they suck electricity.
I do the same for my Modem, wireless router and microwave at my home before going to sleep.
One last thing, please shutdown ur PC and unplug it. 5 Min next morning you can take God’s name when your PC starts.
This post was submitted by Ankit.
I only put clothes that reguired ironing in the dryer the rest I hang and it is good to go!
This post was submitted by Alexandra castañeda.
I bought a 1985 Benz last summer and am now running it on veggie oil during the warm months of the year. I am surprised how simple it has been to convert the engine’s needs to have this option available to me.
This post was submitted by cindy.