It's not easy being Green...

(Apologies to Kermit the frog!)

I really feel very strongly that I should minimize my environmental impact as much as I possibly can. I feel badly that there is so much waste in my household. I recognize that it is significantly less waste then neighbors of mine, but I still feel that it is too much. I am doing my best to recycle as much as possible. I am striving to conserve water. I'm working to minimize how much food is just plain wasted on a weekly basis.

In the light of all this, I know that some people would say that I am doing a very good job of being ecologically responsible. Every time the garbage truck arrives, however, I wind up getting a good look at how much stuff is getting thrown away. (Our living room has two big windows right by the dumpster. I don't particularly like that fact.) It disturbs me that the thing is regularly full to the point of nearly overflowing.

I recognize that there are some changes that I just can't make right now. I can't just stop using disposable diapers. We simply don't have the means to wash the cloth diapers as they get soiled. I can't set up something to collect rainwater for watering my plants. And there's literally no way for me to get rid of using non-biodegradable garbage bags. I am certain that aside from paper bags, there has to be biodegradable garbage bags on the market. I just can't find them anywhere.

Some of the changes that I have been successful in making, however, are going to count in a big way as the year goes on. I have planted a bunch of containers of herbs, vegetables, and strawberries. I am recycling old plastic containers that products we've purchased have come in as planters. I am in the midst of researching what I need to do to start composting vegetable waste. My hope is to do so in a bucket underneath the deck where it is out of the way and yet still accessible. I am doing my best to water my plants when they won't get burned by the sun. I'm working to make sure that our electricity consumption is as low as possible. When I do laundry, I do my best to load the machines in such a manner that we don't have too small of a load for the machine size so that we conserve water.

I keep looking for other ways to be 'green'. I know there are more ways to be responsible with the resources we have. And I am sure that they don't require some type of insane level of effort.