Earth Day at The Spaz house

If you were buried under a rock somewhere and don't know, yesterday was Earth Day. I've never been too much of an Earth Day participant, really, but this year it occurred to me that it's pretty important to teach my kids to love their planet.

So yesterday we made some baby steps in the right direction.

First of all, I ordered new recycling bins from the Solid Waste Authority since we currently don't have any. A couple of years ago I watched a Penn & Teller show on recycling and it thoroughly convinced me that recycling was bunk. (Warning, that link is NSFW due to language!) However, my more wise and open-minded self has decided that, though some of the points in that video are probably valid, it's important to look at it as entertainment propaganda. Therefore I'm deciding that this family is going to recycle due to overwhelming evidence that it is helping our environment. Just as soon as those bins get here.

Later, I picked Goober up from school and we had a talk about his lunchbox. I've attempted to make lunchboxes eco-friendly before but I always break down a couple of weeks in and start packing Capri-Suns and sandwiches in ziploc bags. So I thought maybe if I could get Goober excited about the prospect of having cute little containers in his lunchbox rather than disposable packaging, it might keep me doing the right thing. So we purchased some cute little containers for sandwiches, juice, and snacks and Goober is super excited to get his lunchbox.

I swear I'm not being paid for this post.

Another issue we have as a family that is just terrible for the environment is water. We live in the boonies and are on a well and the water tastes terrible. So we buy jugs of water. Tons of them every month. So, in honor of Earth Day, today I purchased a Brita Water Pitcher and two 1 gallon pitchers to hold lemonade and iced tea (staples in our house).

Then, at checkout I noticed these great reusable grocery bags. They fold up and snap into a little square so I can throw them all in my glove compartment and bring them with me every time I shop. Not only that, but they hold about three times as much as a normal plastic grocery bag and they're way easier to load and unload in the car. So I bought six of them at $1.50 a piece, which is way cheaper than the Baggu bags I've been considering for almost 6 months.

They're not at all girly, Dad!

It's not like we've eliminated our carbon footprint or anything, but I'm proud of the steps our family took today.