ONE SMALL CHANGE: THE EARTH DAY WRAP UP

Well I didn't honestly think I would learn anything from this challenge. I was wrong! In January, my portion of the one small change challenge was to reduce my waste paper consumption. I learned that we have many wasteful things at work, while doing well in other areas like double sided printing as our default, then turn around and have one page of paper say "This page is intentionally kept blank" on a third page- makes no sense! I have talked it over with the boss, and we will see what happens in the future. But I do notice my efforts to reuse blank pages and such as scratch paper have a significant reduction in the amount my recycle bin for paper needs to be emptied!
In February, I decided to finally seal the light switches and outlets on all the exterior walls in my home. The benefits are as one expects- warmer house with no little mini- drafts. This was particularly important doing Crunchy's Freeze my buns off challenge as well.
March, I opted to not buy any soda or sparkling water. The one thing that helped was I got a soda stream for my birthday. I can make my own sparkling water. And the CO2 cartridge gets shipped back to the soda stream company, and you re-use the bottles. Whats more I found I like espresso syrup in my soda! (Glass Bottles) Anyway, couple that with the fact Martin quit his 6+ day coca cola habit, we have much more room in the recycle bin!Reduced waste is too cool! Guess what- I still haven't bought a soda or water!
Finally in April, My plan was to reduce the waste from take out. The best answer would have been no take out, but that wasn't an option for me. I did pretty good about getting my sandwiches, Chinese food pizza what have you with no plastic containers. I also had a big fail- I bought a salad that came in a plastic clamshell- low blood sugar induced panic. Well ever since then I just realize that when I have to go somewhere on an empty stomach, eat something or bring along a piece of fruit! This is crap I know, just needed a reminder.
Thanks to Hip Mountain Mama for bringing this challenge. What I learned is none of things are that difficult. It takes planning in some instances, in others labor (someone had to seal the outlets ans light switches- I got the sealing kits for free form the electric utility!) and that a few small steps turn into some big giant leaps!