Anjuu with Mother Earth

Whole Foods has made the announcement that it will no longer offer plastic grocery bags in US, Canada and the UK by Earth Day, April 22, 2008. This is wonderful! If you have not done so, I highly recommend buying some reusable grocery bags. Mine are from Whole Foods and cost me less than $2 each. As an incentive, Whole Foods provides you with a 5 cent refund for each bag you bring back and reuse on your next shopping trip. This is good at every transaction at Whole Foods, not just a one time deal.

Stop! Before you reach for that second (or third) napkin, ask yourself if you really need it. We use approximately 6 napkins a day. If we gave up just one napkin per day, reducing our consumption to 5 a day, we could save a billion pounds of paper waste. This is a billion pounds that ends up in our landfills each year!

Do you know what Vampire Standby Power means? It is defined as the power a plugged in appliance uses when in the 'off' position. For example, the hairdryer is an appliance that many of us just leaved plugged in day in and day out. Each day, that hairdryer is still sucking up energy the 23 hours and 55 minutes that it is not in use! Unplugging your hairdryer can save you upto $2 a month on your electric bill. Because of this, I have gone through the entire house and unplugged appliances that are not often used or in rooms that are not used. Unfortunately, my husband won't let me unplug the automatic coffee maker since that needs to be reprogramed each time. I'm hoping I don't go to hell for that.

As this demonstrates, even small changes can make a huge difference. Remember to show your thanks and gratitude to Mother Earth in any and all ways possible.