Want to see how your lifestyle compares to other's in regards to living lightly?

Check out this site: Earth Lab

This site also offers tips and pledges you can take to help you reduce your carbon footprint and help you live lightly.

Neither! I made the switch to reusable bags sometime last summer. I'll be honest I was afraid of the reception I would get at the grocery store, but I was sick of all those little plastic bags I was bringing home and having to store since my recycle bin doesn't take them. I knew I had to make a change with one visit to the grocery store, where the bagger only put one or two items per bag, I came home with a lot of plastic bags that day, and I never wanted that to happen again. So, I started to make the switch. Reusable bags are not free so I only bought a couple at a time, and I now have seven I use on a regular basis at the grocery store, plus a few reusable produce bags. The bags are much bigger and stronger, so they hold quite a bit more stuff. I also have two that fold up small enough to fit in my purse, which means I always have a bag with me. I have used them at a variety of stores including large discount stores, the mall, auto part stores, home improvement stores, drug stores, pretty much anywhere I go and I need a bag. I have had no problems using them.

Lawmakers considering a ban on plastic bags in favor of using paper, is that really the answer? Plastic Bag Ban

Plastic Bag Facts

Where I get my reusable bags: Reusable Bags

Some of my favorite bags:

B.happybags (a girl has to have at least one cute bag)

(economical)

(produce bags)

(fit in your purse)

If you brown bag your lunch, try these: wrap-n-mat , they work great for a variety of things including sandwiches, veggies, chips, and crackers.

If you decide not to purchase reusable bags, please reuse or recycle your plastic bags.

According to a July/August 2007 Fast Company Article Americans spent more money last year on bottled water than on ipods or movie tickets: $15 billion. That figure is staggering to me. If the water we use at home cost what even cheap bottled water costs, our monthly water bills would run $9,000. (Fast Company, July/August, 2007) Now I think drinking water is very important I try hard to drink my 64 ounces a day. I did the basic math on my most recent water bill to figure out how much my water costs. I have a basic water delivery charge of $25.00 and a usage charge of 9.66 for a total of $34.66. We used a total of 4,714 gallons of water. That comes to $.00735 per gallon of water, much cheaper than $.99 for 16 ounces from a bottle. That means it cost me a mere $.0013776 to fill up my 24 ounce bottle. I'll put my math in so you don't think I am crazy. (128 ounces per gallon, .00735/128=.0000574 per ounce, .0000574 * 24 = .0013776)

Americans used about 50 billion plastic water bottles last year, these plastic bottles are recyclable. Are you wondering what our rate of recycling is? 23%, or 11.5 billion water bottles, that sadly leaves 38.5 billion going to landfills in just one year.

There is yet another side to my beef with plastic water bottles. Worldwide 1 billion people have no reliable source of drinking water; 3,000 children a day die from diseases caught from tainted water. (Fast Company, July/August, 2007) Yet we here in America and other industrialized countries have the luxury of buying bottled water almost every place we go.

I am asking you the reader to try using a reusable water bottle for a while and see how easy it is. If you like it keep doing it and save yourself some money. With the money you save you can help provide drinkable water to people that otherwise would not have it. BloodWaterMission's 1,000 wells project is building wells in African communities that currently do not have a clean water source. For more information please check out their site: BloodWaterMission. I am sure there are other great charities providing clean water all over the globe, fill free to find your own to support.

Reusable Water Bottles

Do the earth and your pocket a favor and give up that bottled water habit. At the very least please recycle your plastic bottles.

Buying local is better for the environment because there is less transportation involved, supports the local economy, and tends to be organic. I had one problem with that, there was not a good selection of local produce at the local grocery store. So, how does one find a local farm to buy produce from? I googled it and found a website that allows you to search by zip code or state: Local Harvest

Some of the benefits of CSAs (from Ideal Bite):
Delicious fresh produce. If you're too busy to put down the laptop and pick up the hoe, CSAs are the perfect shortcut, and some offer home delivery.

Less pollution. Only 10% of the fossil fuel energy used to generate food goes into growing it; 90% goes to ads, packaging, and transport.

Support for local farmers. Small farms are an endangered species due to competition from big factory farms.

Joining the organic revolution. Many CSAs source food from organic farms.

Interesting fact: Our food typically travels 1,500-2,500 miles from farm to plate.