making a smaller footprint

Happy belated Earth Day! I’ve always been fairly planet friendly, but being a mom opened even more doors to increasing my awareness of the three Rs: reduce, reuse and recycle, and reducing my carbon footprint.

Reduce
We reduce our carbon footprint by carpooling to work and daycare whenever possible.  We bring reusable shopping bags (when I remember) to  the grocery store. We never buy bottled water. I aim to buy natural baby products and cleaners.

We try to buy used and take advantage of local consignment sales for baby clothes and equipment that lasts a whopping three weeks before Henry has moved on to other entertainment.

Reuse
We use cloth diapers, which is reducing the landfill waste. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, disposable diapers make up 3.4 million tons of waste or 2.1 percent of landfills (1998). That’s a lot of dirty diapers! Cloth is easier these days, and we use an energy-efficient washer and dryer for the every-other-day loads. It’s much cheaper in the long run, too, when you consider two or three kids can use the same diaper stash.

Recycle
We are lucky to have curbside recycling. Although it comes with a weekly nagging session for the hubs to PLEASE RINSE OUT THE STINKY MILK CARTONS, it’s super easy. For glass, we have a bag we add to until I get ticked off with the clutter and haul it to the Ripple glass recycling bins (find a location near you). Our glass consumption has tripled with baby food jars, which I either recycle or give to my craftier-than-me friends.

Calculate your carbon footprint here. What steps have you taken to reduce your carbon footprint?

LWTK’s mommy blogger, Sarah, is attempting to be a good mama to little Henry, wife to Shea, full-time employee and part-time grad student all while avoiding making dinner from a box every night. In her non-existent free time, she’s running, eating popcorn and blogging about it all at The Gatsby Diaries.