Abigail’s class had an assignment to make a litterbug in preparation for Earth Day. The litterbug was to be constructed from recyclable items found around the house. Lucky for us, all our recycling was sitting in a huge pile in the kitchen rather than being taken out by the road. Abigail decided to make a fly so she gathered pieces and laid it out so we could plan.
I did the spray painting but she did the hand-painting and hot gluing. Initially, we had planned to give the fly rigid legs so he could stand, but we couldn’t find anything good in our junk pile. Instead, we decided to make him flyable. We had just emptied out some old cough syrup so the empty bottle made a perfect handle. So we constructed her litterbug and she flew it to school. It occurs to me know though…I wonder if her litterbug will ever be recycled now? I suppose if he makes it home, he will find his way to the recycle bin during one of our seasonal “hoe outs” where we run the kids out and then throw away everything in their rooms (shhhh…don’t tell).
The other cool thing the school did was to take Abigail’s class (and others?) to the movie theater to see Earth, the new Disney movie. Abigail gave it 2 thumbs up so I figure we’ll all see it soon.
All this got me to thinking about how we might celebrate Earth Day. I am not one to go hold hands and dance around a tree. Still, I see the day as a neat time to consider what we might do to lessen our impact on things. We have already changed to using all CFLs rather than incandescent lightbulbs. We recycle or compost much of our waste and I stopped using gas powered lawn equipment. I don’t mean to try to sound like Captain Earth or something, but I wonder what other things we ought to be doing to lessen our impact and live more sustainable.
What sorts of things do you do to live more sustainably?
Nathan recycles plastic and cardboard. I give him all the credit because I have yet to make a trip to the recycling bin and he has to often remind me not to throw stuff in the trash. What is amazing is how much we have reduced in our weekly trash pickup. Now we only have 1 bag or two. The land fill is not too far from our house. I just get concerned about this growing mountain in the boro.
What a great fly! We’ve been recycling lots of wood lately building steer and pig pens – so far we haven’t had to buy anything. Which is great on the budget.
Kris Bair’s last blog post..Friday
It amazes me how much we recycle and compost and how little trash we have now. In a typical week, we usually only have one bag of trash for our family of four. Our neighbors, who do not recycle, only have 3 in their family and usually have 3 trash cans full of trash!
What?! You’ll go out and LICK public monuments but you refuse to hold hands and dance around a tree? Sheesh!
I love that last photo of Abigail peeking over her litter bug’s wings. Cute!!
Hey, did I miss the update on the 6:30am meeting with her teacher?
Farmgirl_dk’s last blog post..Chicken saddles
Cute little bug!
I must say, we are not very good in the recycle department but I am trying. We used to throw away all the bottles and cans but now we recycle those. I try to reuse some containers or coffee cups.
YDavis’s last blog post..Golden Friday
We’re the trashiest family in St. Albans – The Evil Twin takes out at least one bag a day. I do make my family turn out lights that aren’t being used (like why does the hallway light need to be on if no one is in the hallway?). Other than that, we’re pretty lazy. Can we still be friends?
Evil Twin’s Wife’s last blog post..Somewhat Random
We do a TON of stuff to be green, but STILL we seem to make a TON of trash. Honestly, if they sent one of those teams of people here that embarrass you by putting all your household trash from a month in a gated off area with your picture in front of it for everybody to see, well, we’d be plenty embarrassed. But enough of that talk! We resolve to do better! Instead, I will just say that Abigail’s school is cool and I think I can handle my kid going to K if she gets to make litter bugs and penguins and the like.
Lynnie’s last blog post..Waiting….
Loretta – we were shocked too as we started to recycle how much it changed what we set out by the curb…amazing!
Kris – that is awesome! I always keep stuff around for projects. One never knows…
Emily – yup!
farmgirl_dk – yup…I am picky! So…Abigail’s mtg went well. Abigail likes to talk..all the time. We have some work to do on that! They also mentioned something about Nobel Prize or something..we’ll see what comes of that!
YD – keep up the effort!
ETW – I won’t likely go driving around St Albans looking for your place so don’t worry! And of course we can still be friends!
Lynnie – we are mostly very happy with the kids’ school and especially their teachers. They are brilliant!
We try, that’s all I can say. We do recycle, they gave us a bin when we moved in. When The Boy takes out the garbage, he has commented several times that we have the least amount of trash in our area.
I try and buy in bulk to save packaging. We are not opposed to to repairing instead of buying new.
Love the Litter Bug! Good job Abigail!
Capri Kel’s last blog post..Oops, She Did it Again.
I was amazed at how much my electric bill went down when I started line drying. I used to do it only in the summer but now I switch to a line in the basement when my fingers start freezing. Even in misty moisty RI I can manage without the dryer most of the time. If it leaves stuff too wrinkled you can try low heat for a few minutes when it’s barely damp. It all helps.
I try to use what we have on hand for things-and make do, I hang out most of my clothes to dry, we have changed over to the new light bulbs, we compost and try to recycle. I think we should try to take care of the Earth-but the real true reason I like to be green-it’s usually cheaper-and I’m all about saving money 🙂
tipper’s last blog post..Say What?
Way to Go, Abigail!!! Your bug looks great!
Warren, good job on the lawn equipment too. I can’t imagine mowing with an old fashioned mower. Get your exercise for sure.
Funny that Abigail liked Earth. It was supposed to be terribly realistic—father polar bear gets gored by a walrus and bleeds to death. Baby elephant gets separated from herd and dies.
Let me know if you go see it and what you think. I know that stuff really happens, but I just have a hard time watching it.
ceecee’s last blog post..The Florida Weave
Thanks everyone for your thoughts on what you do to be more “green”
Capri Kel – We have nearly the exact same approach to all of it!
Diane – that’s the next thing I would like to try. We all have tons of allergies so I worry about pollen, but I suppose a quick run through the dryer would shake most of that off as well.
tipper – we switched over to cfls and could see a definite difference in our power bill. I was, of course, pretty excited! I am all about the money savings as well!
ceecee – it’s funny…as hilly as it is here, it is actually easier to use a reel mower than a heavy gas mower on the hills. As long as the blades are sharp, it’s not as bad as people remember!