green living

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Green is the new jeans-and-flip-flops these days. As in, it’s the norm to be a mom who’s environmentally-conscious, yet not wear corn rolls and insist on not showering until global warming ends. You’re no longer in the minority when you care about toxins in plastic or reducing waste. It’s just common sense.

Photo by *sean

I personally have a lot to learn. All the talk going around about carbon footprints and household product chemicals can be really confusing. For me, anyway.

I recently found Ideal Bite. It’s a site dedicated to providing easy-to-understand advice about everyday things people can do to positively impact the environment. Their motto is “a sassier shade of green.” Isn’t that cute?

I just subscribed to Ideal Bite’s Daily Tip. They’re short, they’re witty, and they’re useful. And they’re free! Woo-hoo for that.

I seriously didn’t need one more thing added to my in-box, but I like that I can peruse their daily tip, archive it if it’s helpful (thank you, Gmail!), or delete it and move on if it’s not. They tend to be about frugality and health while focusing on eco-savvyness (yes, I just made up that word).  They obviously have advertisers around their content, but if you can get past that, there really is some good content.

Here are a few examples:

• If you think you’re all out, cut the toothpaste tube in half - you’ll be surprised how much is left.

• Add a little water to your almost-empty shampoo or conditioner bottles, and you can use them a few more times.

• Did you know that staples are recyclable? That means you don’t need to remove them before you throw your paper in the recycling bin.

• Turn off your car if you’re going to be idling longer than a minute (like when you’re waiting to pick up your kids from school). It uses less gas to turn on and off your car than it does to idle. It’s estimated that Americans use 2 billion gallons of fuel while idling each year - that’s $100 in gas per driver per year.

I love this little snippet from their “about” page:

Ideal Bite offers bite-sized ideas for light green living – ideas for real people who lead busy lives and want to make small changes that add up to big results. … The secret sauce? A spoonful of “incremental environmentalism” combined with a keeping-it-real attitude.

I think I’m going to use that phraseology about myself now, kinda like calling myself “chewy granola.” I’m light green.

So I recommend signing up for Ideal Bite’s Daily Tip. It works for me!