Comments (6)

By Mom Unplugged, March 23, 2007 8:06 am

One of the things I strive for in life is to make my actions match my intentions. This sounds like an easy task, but why is it so hard sometimes? One of the areas in my life that needs improvement is in my recycling and “zero impact” efforts.

I have a compost bin, but while I was quite diligent about it pre-baby, it has fallen by the wayside over the last year. Somehow, emptying the pail into the bin and cleaning it out was just one more task that I had no time for. Think of all the lovely compost I would have had for my spring garden if I had just kept up with it!

We don’t have much in the way of recycling opportunities here. There is a place to take cardboard, and the local humane society collects aluminum cans. Except for the shipping boxes that I hoard (see post on Stuff), I try to keep up with the miscellaneous cardboard. But sadly, I have not been doing aluminum. My excuse for this: My garage is so disorganized that I have no place for a recycling bin. I know, pretty pathetic excuse, and I hang my head in shame!

The Not Quite Crunchy Parent has been posting about shopping at socially responsible stores (The Not Quite Crunchy Parent: Shopping Green). I would be fine with that, if we had any of those here in the boonies! We do, of course, have a Super Walmart which I avoid as much as possible. I have ordered Seventh Generation toilet paper, trash bags, and paper towels online, but I am not consistent with this.

I have always felt guilty about using disposable diapers. My official public “politically correct” excuse for not using cloth is because of all the water needed for washing. In reality, since I am confessing true sins here, I just think they sound gross.

However, I see here an opportunity to finally make up for my past sins and gain back a little good karma! I have decided to try out the new flushable diapers (have you heard of gDiapers?). In theory they sound great: you flush the poopy ones, and you can either flush, or even compost, the wet ones. My gDiaper starter kit has just arrived and once I figure it out, I will begin “The Great Diaper Challenge.” I will post our progress online, and if it works, hopefully I can encourage others to give it a try and help our environment.

So, if you are curious about the flushable diapers, please keep checking back for daily updates as I try to improve my environmental karma score.