5 Unconventional Eco Friendly Tips: Earth Day 2012 Celebration Week

April 22nd,2012 is Earth Day. Like so many of us, we are all doing our part to be as Eco-Friendly as possible. Many households recycle, make their own cleaning products, and donate items so that they can be reused & re-purposed. But what can we do to think outside the box?

I have compiled a list of Top 5 Unconventional Eco Friendly Tips. Please keep in mind that not all tips are for everyone. But for some it’s a little something we can all do to maintain & preserve our beautiful plant!

Top 5 Unconventional Eco Friendly Tips:
1. Create a Family Compost Area
Families have been doing this for generations, but many families are still on the fence about the subject of compost. Depending on geographical area, this may not be something your able to do. You can easily create a homemade compost bin to add in any space backyard.

2. Take Gardening to the Next Level

So many of us have family gardens, but why not take it to the next level? Join a Co-op or create your own local Comminty Garden. Do you live in an apartment or have a small back yard, this is the perfect idea for you. I have a friend that helped create his Church Garden. Church Members participate in cultivating, planting, weeding, & harvesting the Community Garden. The church family reaps the rewards. Food is then used for their church food bank or to create pot luck dinners for Church Events.

3. Organize a Earth Month Challenge in your local Community

Great way to spread awareness locally within your community whether it is at your workplace, school, or Church based. Help fellow community members save water, conserve energy and reduce pollution follow end of month challenge with a party at a local park.

4. Mulch Memories

I’m going to lose many mommies here but bear with me!

Did you know paper make a great mulch? Your small children bring home tons of art drawings worthy of be hung on the Refrigerator Museum. After they have been hung, we carefully save & preserve those memories. Are you really going to save every scrap piece of paper your child creates. Why not use your digital camera to snap a picture of your child’s best Piccasso rendering, then shred (gasp) the piece to create mulch for your garden. Naturally your going to want to preserve some of their drawings, but not every piece. Why not use those memories and plant a fruit tree with the art shreddings. The art can be restored into a beautiful fruit tree creating new memories of it’s own.

Still with me? HA!!

5. Create a Workplace Recycling Center

Ever wanted to know what happened with all those soda cans in your coworker’s waste bin? Or all the misprinted pieces of paper in the shredder box? Create a Recycle Manager Position at your workplace (no extra pay of course). Rotate the position to another coworker weekly or monthly. You can take the paper or aluminum/glass cans to the recycling center. If your recycled items generate a small income use that money for an end of year party or to donate back within the community.

Have any tips you would like to share??

Earth Day 2011

My friends and family are pretty eco-friendly. Some of us recycle, buy earth friendly products, or just try to reduce waste on a daily basis. I think it’s great that today’s youth is also so energy conscience. My kids are really good about doing small things like turning of the lights when not in use, or picking up garbage on the floor. But how can children and adults take it one step farther?

My son recycles aluminum cans. My daughter uses can tops to make jewelry at her school. They sell them for 50 cents and use the profits to donate to the charity of their choice. I think it’s a new way of life.

But as the main purchaser of goods in my household, what can I do to make small change within our household? P&G has a Future Friendly Facebook Challenege to promote their newest campaign. You can sign up to take their challenge at www.facebook.com/futurefriendly

1. I make 1 household shopping trip a week. I go from 1 store to the next all on one route. I don’t have to go day to day thinking of another item to purchase. Deal or no deal, it cuts down not only on gas (which is very eco-friendly), but reduces my time away from work or my family.

2.I also look for brands that are eco-friendly as well. What good is buying detergent that is mostly water, when water is already in the washing machine? Concentrated packages are your best bet. Why pay for water? Why take up that storage space on something that can be reduced to 50% smaller packing?!?

3.Re-useable bags, gentle household cleaners, and even recycling your sunday’s newspapers are easy ways to change your shopping trips.

4.I even use my children’s schoolwork that they bring home graded, and use the backsides to print internet coupons! Now that’s saving the earth and money at the same time.

Disclosure: Shespeaks asked me to be apart of their nationwide blog hop. I was not compensated for this blog post, in fact, P& G has offered to provide 1 WEEKS worth drinking water to the Children’s Safe Drinking Water Inititive for EVERY person that participates in this Facebook Challenge! Don’t forget to join P&G’s Facebook Future Friendly Challenge and visit www.shespeaks.com/futurefriendly where you can find the other bloggers participating this P&G’s Future Friendly Blog Hop.

Maria