Living Even More Lightly on the Earth

“A truly good book attracts very little favor to itself. It is so true that it teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint…What I began by reading, I must finish by acting.”Henry David Thoreau, Journal

Author’s photo

I’m at it yet again! Seeking more and even better ways of reducing my carbon footprint on this precious earth. I wrote about this last year, but I wanted to tell you about some improvements I’ve made since then.

I’m vegan but I also began eating more raw foods this past summer, so I had a lot of fruit and vegetable scraps–peels, stems, bruised leaves, etc. My grandmother had taught me an old household trick of putting them in a bag in the freezer until trash day so that they don’t smell up the kitchen. Well, my refrigerator freezer is pretty tiny so that doesn’t always work for me–not to mention throwing away bags of frozen food scraps every week! And, since I live in an historic co-op, I cannot have an outside compost. My solution? An indoor food composter. It’s small enough to fit in my laundry room and the compost is ready to use within a few weeks!

Here are some other things I now do to help reduce my footprint as well:

• Switching from laundry soap to soap nuts=soap nuts are compostable, gentler on skin and clothes
• Making my own almond milk instead of buying aseptic cartons=less to recycle
• Saving documents to PDF and/or a scanner instead of copying or printing=less (or no) paper

What’s next? Stay tuned.

How about you? Got any more great eco tips I can use?

~Maria, who feels guilty that she drives to work–but, being from flat Michigan, is terrified to ride a bike in the ‘Burgh!