Tag Archive: no impact

Take the No-Impact Challenge this weekend!

What are you doing this weekend? Anything to improve your quality of living or reduce your impact on the earth? Well, if those things appeal to you, sign up for a one week trial of guided No-Impact Living! The challenge starts this weekend October 18. There is no cost, just simply visit the website to sign up using an email account. Each day you will be emailed a how-to for each step along a one week period for reducing your footprint on the environment.

No-Impact: Revised Apartment Living

Using the top of the cabinet as a bookshelf.  A little herb garen below.

I have rented apartments in Minnesota and Arizona. My top complaints with these buildings are the lack of foresight into the energy efficiency of the buildings and the lack of recycling in the apartment community. In Minnesota the insulation was terrible on most places resulting in monstrous heating bills. In Arizona, so many buildings are colored to absorb rather than reflect the blaring sunlight and so few buildings capture sunlight on the roofs with solar panels. Appliances are often not energy efficient, window glass is not insulated, carpeting is made from plastics, the list goes on and on.

However, there are some things a renter stuck in a situation where they are unable to control these factors can do to have a smaller eco footprint:

No-Impact: Glass in the Bath

From right: cotton pads in little salsa jar, coffee grounds (for facial scrubbing) in a tall jar, q-tips in a spice jar

So, we’ve talked about reusing glass containers, but how about in your bathroom? Use a glass herb container for q-tips or a small salsa jar for cotton pads? This can save you money and give your bath a chic, expensive look.

No-Impact: Baby Food Jars vs Ziplocks

From right: 8oz baby jar with nuts, 4oz jar with walnut oil for salad, 4oz jar for all natural peanutbutter

Ziplocks cost money. Every bag you use and throw away is about 7 cents/bag. That bag goes to the landfill and is never used again. When I was growing up my mother used to wash ziplock bags by hand and reuse each one about 10 times before throwing it away. I’ll give her brownie points for effort, but there is a simpler and healthier way to say goodbuy to needless plastic baggies. Baby food jars! READ MORE…

No-Impact: Reusing glass jars

Clockwise from top: Juice Jar as rice container, applesauce jar as grape container, salsa jar for nuts, coconut oil jar for water

Reusing your glass jars can be fun and save money! When shopping at the grocer, select products like salsa, coconut oil, apple sauce, etc that come in glass jars. Since glass is generally easier to recycle and does not contain BPA found in most plastics, you can do yourself and the environment a favor by avoiding food products that are packaged in plastic. Jars with metal screw tops work the best for storage. When your jar is empty of whatever foodstuff came inside, give it a good washing, scrub the lable off and let it dry thoroughly. READ MORE…