by Karma Brown (Guest Blogger)

There are times I don’t recycle when I could, I drive an SUV daily, and I sometimes feel like as a family of three, we make more garbage than we should. I want to be more conscious about my habits and I think about it a lot. But we all know thinking about something and taking action on it are very different things.

So I decided to start small, hoping that would up the chance for success. For a week we wouldn’t have any takeout – no coffees to go in paper cups, no lunch sandwiches packaged in Styrofoam, and no springs rolls and green curry delivered to our door in enough packaging to nearly fill our kitchen garbage. I planned a week of meals, went to the grocery store, and washed out my reusable coffee mugs. I broke the news to my husband, who really looks forward to his weekly Thai delivery, and got busy in the kitchen making our first dinner.

Truth be told, we didn’t suffer much this week without the ‘convenience’ of takeout coffee and food. We typically have one or two takeout dinners per week, so it wasn’t so much of a change I suppose. But the coffee thing was another story. I was so proud of myself for remembering my mug…except the day I ordered an afternoon café misto and realized half a block later it was in a takeout cup. It’s all about progress, not perfection!

All in all I figure we saved about $150 this week and at least a kitchen bag of garbage. Not bad for a small start! We just might have to keep this going…

Karma is a mom, wife, and writer who will hopefully never drink another coffee in a paper cup! www.sheshavingourbaby.blogspot.com