Lower Your Carbon Footprint Without Spending a Dime!

Like many of you, I am environmentally aware but financially challenged. I am a single mom with three kids, receiving sporadic and minimal child support and according to the government, I live substantially below the poverty level (I think "poverty" is a relative term, but that is a discussion for another day!). I can't afford solar panels or an electric car. I'd love to buy only organic local produce but I just can't afford to feed my family and only shop at the local co-op. It is always a challenge to find ways to appease my guilty consumer conscience and live according to my philosophy of trying to walk gently upon the earth. I do a lot of things that may seem inconsequential to some but I like to believe that they all add up to making a difference in my own small way and if I can pass on my thoughts and ideas to others, maybe I can make a little more than a small difference.

Listed below are some ideas. Some are free, some might require some expenditure of hard-earned cash, but they all require a conscious choice to do something for the environment, to contribute to the crucial commitment that we all must make to stop treating the earth like a trash bin and destroying what sustains us.

1- Use your own grocery bags. I have a nifty little bag from Baggu that fits in a pouch that fits in my purse. I try to have bags in my car at all times. If you forget your bags, use paper bags! Yes, they are better than plastic. They bio-degrade and I've never heard of a paper bag strangling a fish, have you?

2- Grow your own herbs and vegetables. If you don't have enough sun or space in your own home, join a community garden. For a small fee, you can have enough home-grown, delicious veggies for your family and your neighbor's families too!

3- Drive less. This is a tough one for me. My three kids always have somewhere they need to be right now and I'm sorry, but I am not going to ride my bike to work in the rain and the dark. I'm just not that ambitious and I am that lazy. BUT, I do try to keep it to a minimum on the week-ends and as soon as I am financially capable of doing so, I will trade in the mini-van for something that gets a respectable mpg.

4- Wash and re-use plastic baggies until they can't be washed anymore and then recycle them.

5- Pay attention to packaging. Is it wrapped in plastic, put in a box and then wrapped in plastic again? Don't buy it unless it is something you can't live without! There is usually another more eco-friendly option.

6- Buy local goods as much as you can. The less distance it has traveled, the better! Even the next state over is better than buying something from overseas.

7- Compost. Not really much point in doing this unless you are serious about gardening but do think about how you throw things away. Don't put potato peels in a plastic bag and then put them in the garbage. That would just be silly.

8- Plant trees. Make shade. Cool things down. There are just way too many large expanses of asphalt in this world. Do what you can to counteract all that heat!

9- Only give consumable, useful gifts, stuff that can be eaten, drinken (drunken, dranken?) worn, listened to, planted etc. and don't forget that beauty serves its own purpose.

10-Trade in your gas mower for a hand mower. Haven't done this yet. I do kinda like my little mower with its little engine that can and it really doesn't use THAT much gas, right? I know, I know. Maybe next summer.

11- Fix up your old bikes. Even better, get your kids to fix up those old bikes. If you don't have any kids to boss around, check around and see if there is a bike swap or if a used sporting goods store might trade one of those old bikes in on a newer bike. Oh, and then ride them after you fix them up!

12- Don't run your dishwasher until it's full.

13- Wash your clothes in cold water.

14- Turn the heat down. Put on a sweater, some socks and a hat.

15- If it isn't broken, don't replace it.

16- Encourage others to recycle, reduce and re-use.

17- Have a chicken coop, raise goats, cultivate honey. I dream of chickens, goats and bees. Not a realistic prospect for most people, unfortunately, but a worthy and noble goal to have!

18- Don't use pesticides and herbicides. This really seems like a no-brainer to me but every year I have to remind my neighbor that I would prefer that she not spray poison all along the northern perimeter of my yard. I know pulling weeds can be a pain in the butt but there is something sort of zen about it. Give those slugs some beer and trap those yellow-jackets instead of poisoning them. Let those spiders live because they love flies for supper!

So there you go, some ideas from the brain of a perpetually poor, tree-hugging earth-lover. It's really all about changing your attitude and paying attention. My methods aren't flashy or loud or obvious but I am fighting the oil companies and the consumer machine every time I choose to buy olive oil in a glass bottle instead of a plastic one or re-use my coffee bean bag.

Every journey begins with a single step.