Wednesday, April 27, 2011

30 Day Eco-Challenge, Part 1

So, this Eco-Challenge has been just that- challenging! I think the key to being successful is careful planning and putting in the extra effort to bring what I need with me. I packed a reusable shopping bag with a reusable plate, cup, empty glass jar, cutlery, and cloth napkins and put it in my car, so that if I ever go somewhere where I am eating, I can whip out my reusables. I also put my collapsible shopping bag (Chico Bag) in my purse, so I can get to it easily.
The first day of the 30 Eco-Challenging went pretty well. I had a cleaning job at someone's house and used my all natural cleaning supplied that I made for them, (diluted Dr. Bronner's soap for a cleaning spray, borax as a scouring powder and hot vinegar water for washing floors) so that worked out well. To wipe up counters and sinks I used a cloth rag they had, instead of using a ton of paper towels like I usually do. The one thing I forgot was that they only have disposable latex gloves, instead of reusable gloves, so I used a pair and threw them out afterwards (not so great). But I am happy to say that after all the cleaning of the kitchen, washing floors and bathroom, I did not use a single paper towel! I think this is a big improvement, because I normally would have used 1/3 of a roll or something. Also, I took their plastic bottles homes so I could recycled them, so maybe that makes up for the gloves?

So, if one roll of paper towels equals about 1 tree (according to online sources), then I saved 1/3 of a tree on Wednesday!

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