A while back, I was completely fascinated with a video I saw about the Johnson family in California who produce no waste. That’s right, NO WASTE.
Think about that for a minute. That means that no packaged or processed foods are purchased by the family. All meat and cheese gets put into glass jars at the grocery store. All produce goes into mesh bags. There are no paper towels, no cotton balls, no kleenex, and, of course… no toilet paper.
Watch the video to learn more about this zero waste family:
Having cloth diapered with my first child, I can personally attest to how much money it saves and how easy it really is to do. [Learn why I cloth diaper] Most moms who cloth diaper will tell you that it becomes a sort of addiction; you learn to truly love it. It did, however, take me a while to find my groove and it didn’t come without its frustrations.
I knew long before I was ever pregnant that I wanted to attempt to cloth diaper. While writing an article for another mom website years ago, I read that over 27.4 billion disposable diapers end up in landfills across the U.S. each year, and it is estimated that it takes 200-500 years for a disposable diaper to decompose. That means that your grandchildren’s grandchildren will still be living on an earth that is filled with your child’s disposable diaper waste… um, gross. I felt compelled right then and there to do my “duty” (pun intended) and reduce the number of disposables that end up in landfills.
Once I actually had my child, life quickly became about saving money. I was shocked at the price of disposable diapers, and equally as shocked at how quickly my newborn daughter went through them. Even with coupons, I was spending anywhere from $50-100 a month on diapers.
Ever since I had my daughter 16 months ago, I’ve been big on buying organic produce. With cancer so prevalent this day in age, I want to do whatever I can to keep my family as healthy as possible. Reducing the intake of pesticides is one easy way that I know how.
In honor of Earth Day (April 22), I thought I would share some interesting facts that I came across and what you can do to help save the earth bit by bit…
Fact:
Did you know that 38 billion plastic water bottles end up in landfills each year? That’s enough to circle the globe 150 times. What’s worse? They take 700 years to decompose.
