some impact girl
hi guys, happy weekend! i’ve had a couple days to drop out, refocus, and get set for a 90 day regime. from today i’ll be making little changes that will hopefully have at least some impact on ma vie. (things like going to bed and getting up earlier, taking the stairs, and tackling the things that wake me up at night for starters)!
i read about no impact man a couple weeks ago and was intrigued by this new yorker who conducted a self experiment to see if his family could live without creating trash (and he had a baby in diapers at the time), or negatively affecting the environment for a year. it’s wild what one person can do.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fITT6rVPds
it’s not a glamorous topic and will take effort, but i’d like to try to experiment myself and reduce the packaging i buy, use less electricity (not sure i could give up my curling iron), and unplug everything at night. but is is really possible to go completely without? or necessary? i just started the book last night so i’m not sure how he possibly did it. but doing a little green research for it led me to a lot of great resources. this gorgeously green book is enticing with the cute cover and makes it look sort of like fun!
one thing led to another and i’m stumbling on people and groups who are involved in changing things all over the world ( and look like they’re having a damn good time doing it).
pricilla woolworth is promoting products that are sustainable, earth friendly and made by hand.
i met these guys at the gift show and love their natural soaps from brazil.
giselebundchenblog.blogspot.com
and if you want a little more glam with your green, there’s always gisele’s blog.
what are some things you’ve been doing to go a little greener? one of the things i read was that women are responsible for 80% of what’s purchased on the planet for their families. is there something specific you’re doing at home? do you think air fresheners and swiffer pads will ever be things of the past?
have a great weekend!
ps a little food for thought:
Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage /video.google.com
the paris apartment 
thereddahlia replied:
Thanks for posting about this, I’m also happy to see more people making an effort to decrease their environmental footprint. My partner and I have made a lot of changes at home (some big, others small). We’ve changed to a vegetarian diet (a bigger change than some people would be comfortable with, totally understandable), we grow our own veggies, compost, recycle everything we can or repurpose it, we’ve decreased the amount of garbage we produce to about one bag a month (small bag!) and we try to buy organic/local/recycled products. The only difficult part is sometimes the logistics, like trying to compost while living in an apartment, but we’ve found creative ways to get around it. :)
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September 18, 2009 at 8:25 pm. Permalink.
theparisapartment replied:
wow! that’s and amazing effort you’re putting in, especially living in a city! my parents always had the ‘mulch pile’ at the back of their property and we’d toss biodegradable stuff back there. how are you doing it in an apartment?
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September 18, 2009 at 8:47 pm. Permalink.
Sherry replied:
Not quite so impressive as thereddahlia but my hubby and I still try to make an effort every day. We do unplug the toaster, coffee pot and other misc. things we aren’t using now. I definitely bring my own bags to the store. We recyle everything we can. We turn off the water when brushing our teeth (NEVER did that before). Every little thing helps. It’s challenging but in a really fun way. I love to see what I can do to “save” this or “change” that, from buying in-season food items to products that are using recycled materials. Good luck, Parisapartment!
Let us know what you do…
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September 18, 2009 at 9:32 pm. Permalink.
theparisapartment replied:
yes, i agree, she’s ahead of many of us. i heard the plugs referred to as ‘vampires’ with their little ‘teeth’ sucking energy out so it’s a lot easier for me to remember to unplug now too. and the water thing too. but then i have a phobia that whatever you waste may be what you someday lack!
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September 18, 2009 at 9:55 pm. Permalink.
Pamela replied:
Such an important topic. I am so relieved that we now have a president who recogizes this to be a real issue, rather than some sort of urban legend.
For me, I recycle like crazy. Walk places whenever I can. Never use plastic bags…I take my own to the market and I soooo prefer it now. However, I don’t think I could live without my Dyson vacuum cleaner. I love that thing.
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September 18, 2009 at 9:32 pm. Permalink.
theparisapartment replied:
lol i agree, brooms just aren’t quite as efficient are they? as for the bags, i have to get in the habit of bringing them to the store. that’s one i can’t seem to master but will make a concerted effort to do it now!
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September 18, 2009 at 9:57 pm. Permalink.
theparisapartment replied:
Hi Claudia,
It’s definitely not easy, living in an apartment. Luckily my parents live just out of the city so we take our under-the-sink compost pail out to their house once a week to empty it. A bit of a pain, but better than tossing it all in the trash. We also started using a lot of the compostable stuff (coffee grounds, banana peels) in our veggie and flower pots on our balcony because the nutrients help the plants flourish. It would be very difficult if we didn’t have my parents’ compost as an eventual spot for the compost. One nice thing is that some cities like ours are starting up composting pick up (for a fee), where you leave your bin at the curb and they pick it up, sanitize it and take away the compost. Then you get a certain number of bags of soil for your garden at the end of the season. Isn’t that a good idea?
Take care,
*Nina
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September 18, 2009 at 10:03 pm. Permalink.
theparisapartment replied:
i think it’s a brilliant idea! is there a website or a specific organization who heads that up?
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September 18, 2009 at 10:04 pm. Permalink.
thereddahlia replied:
It seems to be specific to where you live, because when I lived on the East coast (Halifax) it was done by the city, similar to our recycling and garbage pick up. Our here (Victoria, BC) it’s done by a local organization called Community Composting. I’ll send you the link, I know it’s not local for you but it’s some general info on the idea.
http://www.communitycomposting.ca/works.html
Some US cities do have curbside pick up whereas others have community compost drop-off areas, where they receive and manage the waste. It’d just be a matter of doing a web search and seeing if there’s anything local to you. Good luck! :)
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September 18, 2009 at 10:20 pm. Permalink.
theparisapartment replied:
you are a force to be reckoned with, nina! i’ll check into that and see what miami is up to. but right now they don’t even recycle here. i have to stash my trash in places where i can find recycling bins along lincoln road!
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September 18, 2009 at 10:22 pm. Permalink.
The Antiques Diva replied:
Hmmm.. somehow my decision to recycle all my wine bottles after seeing the movie “The Inconvenient Truth” seems utterly lame after reading this post! Seriously since moving to Germany, I’ve become an Environmental Diva!
Though truth be told, this change in my daily living was largely due to so many rules on recycling in Germany! But after 7 months of paper, plastic, bio, glass, and running nespresso pods to the store for recycling I’ve got my groove and think that though I might have been a reluctant recycler I’m on the right path!
Thanks for the inspiring post!
Toma
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September 19, 2009 at 5:29 pm. Permalink.
theparisapartment replied:
hey toma! we’ll be killing a couple of those wine bottles together again hopefully soon! thanks for writing, in the no impact man book, it turns out that germany is one of the top counties working to get a hold of the problem. guess who makes the most waste? US!! i’d love to hear more about what you’re doing over there. do you think the us could ever follow suit?
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September 19, 2009 at 7:57 pm. Permalink.
kanishk replied:
i think it’s a brilliant idea! is there a website or a specific organization who heads that up?
Make website india
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September 25, 2009 at 3:07 am. Permalink.
Natasha Burns replied:
Great post, a topic I was actually thinking of writing about on my blog. We do quite a bit of recycling here in Australia. Lately though, I’ve been trying to eliminate the chemicals I use in cleaning and using natural products instead. I use bicarb soda and vinegar for cleaning the oven, bath, basins/sinks & toilet, lavender oil and water in an atomiser bottle is a good disinfectant for benchtops. I also use it to wash the floors and it smells sensational. I use diluted eucalyptus oil as a room freshener too. Diluted methylated spirits in an atomiser bottle cleans glass fantastically with a paper towel for a streak free finish. My new cleaning regime has a great effect on the cost of my supermarket shopping too!
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October 4, 2009 at 12:13 am. Permalink.
Natasha Burns replied:
oh and I forgot to say – you mentioned in your reply to The Antiques Diva that the US makes the most waste – I think if everyone just switched to using a clothes line to dry their clothes, or a clothes airer indoors in the cooler months, the energy consumption would be HUGELY lowered. Almost every house that has a yard, has a clothes line in Australia. I’m shocked that some parts of the US don’t allow them because they’re an eyesore??? That sounds completely backwards and totally crazy to me. Lots of people here don’t even own a dryer. Not to say our climate is so good that we don’t need them, because we do get some awful weather, contrary to what the perception is! I personally do have a dryer, and use it sometimes, but if the weather is good, I’m hanging things out for air, that’s for sure! On those occasions I do use the dryer, I find my electricity bill sky rockets. I think people would find that their bills got nicer, and their sheets would be brighter and smell better if washing lines were encouraged and dryers discouraged… just my two cents worth..
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October 4, 2009 at 12:20 am. Permalink.
Jane Wilkins replied:
Heh am I actually the first reply to this incredible post!
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May 27, 2010 at 10:24 pm. Permalink.