Ok everybody . . . you might have seen in my “hello” that my new year’s resolution was to be “greener” and I would love to inspire other people to do the same!  Here are some quick ideas:

1.  Use reusable grocery bags.  You can purchase some really cute bags online (just google “reusable bags” and you’ll find some REALLY cool sites) and some grocery stores are selling their own bags.  I also know some stores give you a discount for using their brand of reusable bags of 5 cents or so off of your bill.  Hey-every little bit helps!  Soon you’d have those bags paid for.  We use millions and millions of plastic bags every year, and they are NOT biodegradable, they photodegrade, which means that instead of breaking up into nothing harmful, they just break into smaller and smaller chemical pieces that can harm us.  So give up those plastic bags!  Soon you’ll realize how many you were using and be disgusted.

2.  Um, recycle?  This seems so simple, but it can be a difficult habit to get into.  We recycle in my apartment, but we had to cart it all out to a center which was difficult.  Now, our apt. complex has recycling bins.  Talk to you landlord and see if they would switch to a company that offers recycling.  Recycling is the simplest thing we can do to keep the planet clean and not overuse our resources!

Those are my tips for today Don’t worry, I’ll have lots more.  This is my new pet project and I hope all of you will adopt it as your own.  A cleaner world for us = a cleaner world for our pets and children to grow up in!

Great recommendation! Using reusable bags are an easy way to be “Greener”.  Nature’s Earth offers a great Shopping Tote for 200 Pine Perks points!

I would suggest composting, you can discard the pooh and add all the fluffed up feline pine in.  If you garden you can then add this as mulch to your soil.  I would suggest this over just putting the used pine right on top of your soil.

Ok, so here’s a new one:
Switch to green cleaning items and cut down on “cleaning” products that just leave more stuff there.  I read the other day that inside your home the air is MORE polluted than outside the threshold.  Isn’t that crazy?  But, it’s because we use harsh cleaning products and things with unneccessary fragrance.

Michelle, how do we shop through that site?  Is there a link on the Feline Pine website?  And what else is there . . . maybe, toys for Herman?  Haha.

Oh, Michelle, I looked for myself.  No toys . . . so, I suggest toys!  I would totally cash in points for some good toys.  Herman destroys his soft mousie toys every couple of weeks.

Sorry it took me so long to get back to you. The direct link to Pine Perks is http://www.naturesearth.com/specialoffers

I will look in to getting them to add some cat toys!

So, this is probably the hardest thing for most people: drive less.  I try to drive my car about once a week, and this is only possible because I’m a student and I can ride a public bus to campus every day.  If you have that option, I think it’s great!  Public transportation is totally underrated in the US.  When I was in Italy for a study abroad trip, all everyone did was ride trains, ride buses, or walk (the European secret to staying thin is the walking, I swear.  My legs were amazing when I was there!  Haha.).  Plus, as a student I save so much money by buying less gas and not coughing up the INSANE amount school charges for a parking permit.  But if you have the option of taking a bus, do it, especially in the summer when the weather is great.  I love my five minutes in the morning waiting for the bus.  I close my eyes and just breathe in the air.  You day is not the same unless you get some quality outside time.  Anyone else feel like that?  If I don’t make it outside for a bit (and ENJOY it), my day feels so cramped.  Other options of course are walking or biking . . . I always lived too far from things to do those when I was growing up, and I don’t think I can ride a bike anymore (it’s not just like riding a bike for me ), but I love taking walks. 
I can’t wait till it’s warm again!  It’s supposed to be in the 50’s tomorrow and I’m pumped!

Maybe it won’t be hard to drive less . . . I just got gas for 3.50/gal.  yikes.
A follow up to that I guess would be to buy a hybrid.  If you’re looking to buy a new car soon, I think it would definitely be worth it to explore those options.  My best friend just bought a hybrid (I don’t remember what it was right now, I’ll have to ask) and she loves it.

$3.50 a gallon?!? Youch!! It’s still ~3.25/gal here, and I think that’s insane!

Unfortunately I have to commute way too far to work (~40 miles) so I have to drive. For a while hubby and I worked in the same far-away town, so we carpooled together almost every day, even though we started and ended shifts at different times. Plenty of extra time for reading! But he was transferred recently and now he has to commute almost the same distance in the OPPOSITE direction. *grrr* Frying Pan… Meet Fire. We haven’t sprung for a hybrid yet, but we both went with very fuel efficient cars and we try to keep our non-essential driving to a minimum. Unfortunately there isn’t much of a public transportation infrasturcture around here, but we used the DC metro a lot when we lived up there.

As for composting, I haven’t done that yet, but I’d like to get more info on that. I don’t garden much here, Florida has a different ecosystem than I’m used to. We have an exceptionally bland patch of weeds and grass that I would really like to do something with, but we really haven’t worked anything out yet. We have Bahia grass, which has exceptionally low water usage and very low maintenance for this region, but it’s disappeared altogether on my shady side and is very patchy everywhere else. I’ve been trying to get some info on xeriscaping, but I really need to go over details with someone who can translate to those of us lacking a green thumb.

I know FP says it can be used for mulch, but I was worried that the residual scents would attract the rest of the neighborhood felines and other critters to come and use my yard for their litterbox. Anyone else been using it as mulch? Or have details on composting? For utter beginners? Perhaps start a new thread?

Going back to the posts about plastic bags and composting:

Now we know that it takes thousands of years for plastic bags to decompose and that it’s actually worse when the chemicals do finally break down. We’re also aware about the plight of the sea otters because of TG. Composting seems like a great alternative to bagging or flushing used cat litter, but what if you don’t or can’t have a compost heap?

Feline Pine’s website promotes trashing used cat litter (at least for coastal communities), which inevitably means placing it in some kind of plastic bag. The question I want to throw out there… Are there any bio-degradable, environmentally friendly “plastic” bags? I just feel so bad every time I scoop my cat’s poop and all I have to collect it in is a plastic grocery store bag. And then of course it ends up in an even bigger garbage bag which is also plastic. Are paper bags more environmentally friendly?

If you are interested in gardening and/or landscaping, you should check out Garden’s Alive at http://www.gardensalive.com

They sell amazing, environmentally responsible products, especially in terms of lawn care. The catalogs usually come with great deals like $25 coupons, etc. They also sell pet care products!

Enjoy!

Well, paper bags kind of are more environmentally friendly . . . they are completely biodegradable, so they don’t leave behind any scary chemicals.  However, using an abundance of paper only leads to more trees being cut down, etc.
So I guess I’d rather throw my trash away in paper, knowing I’m putting less bad stuff in the ground, and just try to reduce paper use every other way.

We have a policy at work now that we print on both sides of our paper and we set margins to minimal spacing unless it’s something that has to be on letterhead and standardized.

Megan,
Like you, I have also been looking for a biodegradable litter box liner and have just located one that I think will work. It is Fresh Kitty Jumbo biodegradable Litter Box Liners. I have a really large (jumbo) litter box and this I think is going to work for me. The only place I have found that carries it is Petco and they sell it for $14.99/20. There is another brand, Bio Bag, but their cat pan liners are much too small for my use. And that same company actually makes a full product line of biodegradable plastic bags for other household uses. I can’t really speak about the Fresh Kitty product as I just found it today and have not had a chance to use it but since it is the size I needed, it should work. It has been bugging me for quite a while that although I dispose of the used litter in grocery store bags, the dirty litter was always enclosed in a non-biodegradable plastic liner.

If you can use the smaller bags, here is a link to a site that sells the full product line.
http://biobagusa.com/biobag_dog.htm (scroll down for the cat ones).

i use biodegradable bags for litter and poop.  buy them through my local grocery called “food fight,” but you can order online.  they have biodegradable kitchen sized bags, and also biodegradable dog poop bags (which work just as well for kitties.)
http://store.foodfightgrocery.com/bibikitrba.html

Just thought I’d let y’all know that it’s $3.50/gallon down here now too… *GRRR!!!*

I’m not a big fan of the non-biodegradeable bags for poop, but I thought we HAD to use somthing non-biodegradable to keep the ickum in the kitty litter from leaching out into the soil? That’s what I read a few places, but maybe we can get some clarification here? As for litter liners, I don’t bother with them, since my cats shred them to bits on day one. I was looking up home composting systems (out of my $$ range for now) and it sounds like you can compost the kitty and puppy poop, but only in the vermiculture composters… that’s the ones with worms. I think that’s a little beyond what I’m capable of right now. I saw something called a doggy dooley for disposing your puppy poo that eventually filters out into your yard, but I doesn’t seem like you’re supposed to put kitty poo in it. I was kinda hoping they had somthing like that for cats - I can handle just dropping poo in a bin, raising worms is a little beyone me for now.