Diva 2.0 – My Renewed Quest to Go Green

In 1988 I sat in my kitchen with several neighbors and a representative from the county government discussing ways to get curbside recycling service in our neighborhood. That same day my girlfriend Linda and I started an experiment to see if we could live without paper towels, paper napkins and plastic baggies. I did it successfully for four years. The county moved us up to the front of the list for curbside recycling pick-up and I’ve been recycling ever since. Unfortunately, the ban on kitchen paper products and baggies eventually fell by the wayside.

if everyone in the United States tied their annual consumption of plastic bags together..the chain would reach around the Earth..760 times!

Almost 20 years have passed and I have just completed my first 30 days without disposable shopping bags. And, yes, I have even renewed my pledge to life without all those paper products. I refer to this time in my life as Diva 2.0. The new and improved Diva will not sacrifice the good of the planet for mere convenience.

Recycling and composting are second nature now, but I want to do more to reduce the amount of waste I contribute to the landfills. To keep it simple and make changes that would stick with me I chose five things to start with.

Use Reusable Shopping Bags

First, I would only use reusable shopping bags. According to ReusableBags.com, each year we introduce 1 billion single use plastic bags into our environment. In fact, the average American uses between 300 and 700 plastic bags per year. I was shocked to learn that if everyone in the United States tied their annual consumption of plastic bags together in a giant chain, the chain would reach around the Earth not once, but 760 times! I certainly do not want to continue to be part of that problem.

Americans will buy an estimated 25 billion..water bottles..22 billion will end up in a landfill

Recycle and Replace Disposable Plastic Bottles

Second on my go green hit list was plastic water bottles. This is an important issue because most people do not recycle their water bottles. The Container Recycling Institute says Americans will buy an estimated 25 billion single-serving, plastic water bottles this year. Eight out of 10 (22 billion) will end up in a landfill. Even though I am pretty consistent recycling the bottles I felt I could easily eliminate them altogether if I could find a good alternative. My perfect bottle had to be similar size and be very easy to clean.

Luckily after searching around my local stores for a few weeks I found the perfect bottle at Co-Op America’s Green Festival in Washington, DC. Kleen Kanteen offers several sizes in a slim shape and with a wide mouth. The slim shape fits into a to-go bag and into my car cup holder. The wide mouth makes these very easy to keep clean. I did notice the Klean Kanteens in my local MOM grocery store last week or you can order them online.

Like most of us I already have filtered water available on my fridge. Now that I am used to filling up in the morning and tossing the bottles into my bag before I leave for work I don’t even miss the plastic.

Replace and Compost Paper Products

Based on past successes I decided to make the third item on my list a renewed pledge to stop using paper towels and paper napkins. Then I found out that you can compost these paper products so I am using a combined strategy to compost paper towels and switch to cloth napkins.

Replace Disposable Containers

Fourth, I would stop buying and using disposable containers for leftovers. Once I started mentally keeping track of the number of baggies I used and then threw away I became more motivated to stop. I am a little ashamed of the stockpile of bulk gallon and quart sized bags I have in my basement. I am transitioning to alternative storage for leftovers and will save the storage bags for times when I really need to use them. I did look on the internet and found a special dishwasher insert to clean your baggies so they can be reused. I haven’t tried it yet, but I did mark the site on my favorites and just might give it a try.

Use Energy Efficient Lightbulbs

Switching my light bulbs over to compact fluorescents is the final item for my initial go-green campaign. This is a fairly simple, but not inexpensive exercise. For now I have a small stockpile of bulbs waiting to be swapped in as the old incandescent bulbs burn out. I even convinced my contractor husband to switch to the compact fluorescents. Now he leaves behind few with every job. The prices appear to be coming down on these bulbs and I have to say that with the current cost of energy this item makes good fiscal sense.

my goal is to get out of the store today without any plastics bags

These five changes have been easy to incorporate into my daily life and I am confident I can sustain them well beyond my old record of 4 years. The water bottle goal and the reusable bags were the hardest to implement. These two changes involved changing and adopting new habits.

The plastic shopping bags have the extra dimension of dealing with store clerks who have their routine down pat when ringing up your merchandise. It was frustrating the first few times when they stuffed my items into a plastic bag and I had to really be forceful and say I did not want the bag. Watching them then take my item out and ball up the plastic bag and toss it in the trash was tough. I felt I really did not accomplish anything with that interaction.

I am getting better. Now, I walk right up and place my stylish reusable bags on their counter and say, “my goal is to get out of the store today without any plastics bags.” Then I offer to help bag the stuff. That seems to work pretty well.

Diva 2.0 is off to a great start!