Frugal Environmental Goals

This year, my two goals are to get my use of handkerchiefs and cloth wipes down to a science. I would also like to walk or bike to school a few days a week. I recently bought a pair of rollerblades from the local thrift store (just $2!), so I have a whole menu of options. My car's revolt will add another incentive to walk to school.

This past year I focused on recycling and using cloth bags for groceries. A lot of stores in my town give a discount to cloth bag users (anywhere from three to five cents per bag), and some donate a small amount to charity when you use a cloth bag. I also began to use a drying rack for my clothes, and cloth pads during my period. Overall, it was a very successful year---so much so that I was left searching frantically for my (nonexistent) cloth bags in stores when I went home at Christmas. What a difference a few months make!

I recently transitioned from plastic Tupperware to glass mason jars, and am feeling really good about the switch. No more lingering food smells (somehow orange scents never come out of the plastic!). No more worries about toxic chemicals leaking into the food when I'm too lazy to heat my food on another set of dishes and just toss it in the microwave. I'm psyched!

What are your green goals for this year?