February 25th Etsy Bloggers Blog Carnival Hosted by Janet of Honey From The Bee

Theme Choices:

1) St. Patrick's Day will be our next holiday. Write about any St. Patrick's Day traditions you have or memories... crafts.... food...

2) Thinking Green... write about what you're doing to make this a greener planet. This could be about your art or just around the house or at work.

Putting the four R's - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Recover the resource into action.  Reverse the way you think about waste. Is it a matter of priorities, what you don't want to give up and what you can give up.

In my opinion, it is just ethical towards our fellow humans to not use too much of the resources and to not degrade the planet. This is a great way to think on this:  "One of the actual definitions of the word sustainability is being able to meet our current needs without compromising future generations abilities to meet their own needs. But what that really means is that not so much their ability but the capacity of the planet to provide the resources that the future generations will need."

Did you know that there are cyclical reasons to be more environmentally friendly? 

1. When you buy products in America:  You have less shipping, less overseas transports of goods which of coarse cuts down on the over all carbon footprint. Some, such as myself, see this as a patriotic duty.

2. Eat less or no red meat:  The meat industry has a large carbon footprint, energy use, water use, land  use. That quarter-pound of meat for a hamburger is rather resource intensive. We tend to have a lot of heart disease and poor health because we eat too much red meat.

3. Anything like using compact florescent bulbs, just taking the time to conserve water, conserve electricity. That helps the planet. But at the same time we pay for water, we pay for electricity. So a lot of these little things that you can do to be more environmentally friendly are also just going to save you money. 

4. Composting is the "full circle":  Composting is nature's process of decomposing organic materials through a combination of biological and chemical processes. Biological such as worms, insects, bacteria, fungi and  other micro organisms eat away waste and chemical processed such as oxidation and reduction.  The waste breaks it down further to create a rich soil.

If you are able to do this, then you create the best potting and garden soil.  If neither of these are your things, just spread the composted end product on your yard and watch the results!

5.  Cooking:  Whenever you boil something (including water), use a container with a tight fitting lid and keep the lid on so that the heat does not escape and the boiling takes place quickly and more energy efficiently. Cooking without a lid allows all the heat to escape and the process will take a much longer time (and will use three times more energy) than if you kept your lid on! 

If you are boiling vegetables or pasta, once the water reaches the boiling temperature, turn the stove off and let it cook in the hot water with the lid on. You will be saving much more energy this way.

6. Bring your own recycled cloth bags to hold your shopping so you are not using their plastic or paper  bags.  Recycling your paper and plastic products can cause pollution if not done by an eco friendly facility.

Green living can come a long way in keeping your house and your family's health at its very best.  That is my sixth-cents!