Recycling and conservation

K Byte

We recycle newspapers and magazines, paper products mostly. Our church has one of those paper recycling things in the back of it so we just collect our paper products into a crate and take them over to the church (when we actually remember to do it, haha).

I do turn off the water when I brush my teeth. I couldn't turn off the water when I shampoo my hair though, no way. I'd be so cold. I take long showers, I don't even care.

AllAboutTheBenjamin

I recycle paper at work.  A radio newsroom blows through paper like you really wouldn't believe.

DodgersBride

I drinks bottled all the time. I buy them in bulk at costco or whenever the market is having a good sale. I try to recycle them but they sometimes get thrown in with the regular trash.

Nebb

I just got a reusable 1L water bottle for christmas and I love the hell out of it. As it was I usually just bought a 1.5L plastic bottle and would reuse it until I got grossed out by it and then replace it, but this just seems better.

katiewhompus

I was looking at this guy, but mainly for the price.
http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202179871/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

This one is nice too.


H just comes from a family of "buy new, buy often" kind of attitudes whereas I'm always repurposing/fixing. His attitude is "why get a rain barrel when we have a hose? Water is cheap." Not the point!

midgetthemighty

I'm a huge recycler and FI puts up with it.  He doesn't have recycling at his apartment right now, but he still has two cans, one for garbage and one for recycling. I take the recycling to my house because we have a HUGE bin for it.

Steph0871

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_snarky-brides_recycling-conservation?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:17Discussion:a5e4e1a3-ca15-4353-b4f8-ddf0092afcb7Post:7232d78e-ec4f-43e4-9e0a-2b0fdda0c289">Re: Recycling and conservation</a>:
[QUOTE]I wish I could take shorter showers.  I don't know if I'm just exceptionally slow, or if I'm doing a lot of really unnecessary things in the shower.  I always blame it on my hair, lol. 
Posted by AllAboutTheBenjamin[/QUOTE]

Ditto all of this.  But, honestly? If I shower quick without washing my hair it takes like 2 minutes, so I think it's a legit excuse.

Also, there's no way I would regularly shower with H.  My time, thankyouverymuch.

[Deleted User]

Our shower is small, but we still take them together. We don't mind being smushed together, and we don't take long showers anyway. We do turn off the water when brushing our teeth.

Ranchers, I turn on lots of lights too. I hate being in the dark, or in dim lighting. Dim lighting annoys me (which is why I hate dawn/dusk).

Nebb

KW id tell him tough tittie and just get a regular old rain barrel. If anyone thinks it makes the house look bad, theyre obviously an idiot anyways. Whether water is cheap or not, that doesnt mean it should just be used whenver if there are other options.

midgetthemighty

I'm super anal about turning lights off. Even at work. If you're not in the room, the light does not need to be on.

I've always filled a small cup with water while brushing my teeth. I've never left the water running.

kimheartsscott

I would love to be able to shower with Scott but he is so much taller than me that the water bounces off of his shoulders and into my eyes and it just plain sucks.  I think if we did shower together it would keep me from whining for 20 minutes every time I take a shower though.  I fucking hate showering.

There is a recycling center across the street from my office so every 2 weeks or so I fill up my trunk with mostly cardboard and cans and drop it off because we have nothing in our neighborhood.  My new job has a recycling center on the opposite end of the parking lot so that worked out well and I will start taking everything there in 2 weeks.  I love recycling.

Steph0871

We're good about recycling.  I honestly don't understand why people can't be.  It takes zero extra effort.  We just have a small garbage can under our sink for recycling, right next to the garbage can.  That being said, our city is fantastic about recycling- it's included in your water bill so you might as well do it.  We also just dump everything in the same bin. (cardboard, plastic, paper, glass, etc.)

H and I have a compost now too, which kind of freaked me out at first.  But we've been eating so much healthier lately, so all of our fruit and veggie scraps go into it. (and the yard waste.)  I'm hoping for some awesome garden dirt this spring.

We really want a rain barrel too, but we probably need gutters first

[Deleted User]

Ranchers, my H would tell you to use natives. His customers always bitch about plants getting a fungus or dying because of water restrictions, but it's because of the plants they use. Our yard is mostly native and the plants thrive, and we don't have irrigation. Our plants look better natural than those who fertilize and water.

H focuses mostly on natives, so I hear this all the time, ha.

LesPaul

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_snarky-brides_recycling-conservation?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:17Discussion:a5e4e1a3-ca15-4353-b4f8-ddf0092afcb7Post:3da38e7d-314c-497d-9f05-1085f40612aa">Re: Recycling and conservation</a>:
[QUOTE]I could never save time by showering with my husband.  I just can't imagine there being enough room, lol.  Getouttamyway.
Posted by AllAboutTheBenjamin[/QUOTE]

Yeah, this.  We've tried it, but just end up bumping elbows and stuff.  We both take short showers, so it's not a problem.

Steph0871

oh, the original post... yeah. I'm not turning off the water in the middle of my shower.  It takes like 5 minutes for the water to get hot as is.  I do turn off the water while I'm brushing my teeth, though.  I'm a nutball about turning off lights in the house; we also replaced all of the lights in our house with CFLs. 

We kept our a/c at 80 in the summer and keep our heat at 68 now (62 at night and while we're at work.)

This all probably explains why our gas and elec bills have stayed the same in our 2000 sqft house as they were in our 750sqft apartment.

sleblanc72

We're pretty good about recycling, my city has a zero-sort program so it makes it nice and easy.  I'm also constantly turning off lights at home and at work that don't need to be on but we could deifnitely be better with unplugging things that aren't being used.  We both take fairly short showers (under 10 minutes) but I love my hot water and sometimes like to just stand there in it.  We also don't buy cases of water bottles or anything else like that, we just use a filter at home.  The one thing I think we're most wasteful with is our Keurig just because of the plastic cups.

When we have our own place we plan to start a compost and get rain barrles, which can be really useful with gardening.

kimheartsscott

Edie, I just hate it.  It's inconvenient.  I think a big part of it is I have insanely thick hair that frizzes out if I blow dry it, but if I air dry it it takes something like 8 hours to fully dry.  It's stupid.

I would love to start composting.  It's on my day zero list but right now we wouldn't really have anywhere to use the compost.

katiewhompus

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_snarky-brides_recycling-conservation?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:17Discussion:a5e4e1a3-ca15-4353-b4f8-ddf0092afcb7Post:41ee10f9-3a2e-47aa-b114-ae1d28933077">Re: Recycling and conservation</a>:
[QUOTE]KW id tell him tough tittie and just get a regular old rain barrel. If anyone thinks it makes the house look bad, theyre obviously an idiot anyways. Whether water is cheap or not, that doesnt mean it should just be used whenver if there are other options.
Posted by Nebb[/QUOTE]

I use my fish tank water buckets now as a fun resistance movement. Clean fish tank, water flowers, then I "forget" them on the deck where they fill with rain water. Yep, I'm 12.

I'm totally redoing my gardens next year too. The house is going to look awesome.

Steph - How is your little composter working? Was that the one you got for under $100?

AllAboutTheBenjamin

I LOVE showering.  I just hate getting ready afterwards.  I hate doing my hair, even though all I do is mousse it and blow dry it and nothing else.  I HATE applying makeup.

kimheartsscott

Ha!  I love applying makeup. 

Maybe if we had a bathtub I wouldn't whine about it so much.  I want a tub.

LesPaul

We should be better about recycling.  We end up with lots of beer cans and bottles every week that shouldn't go in the trash.  I want to find a can crusher to make it easier (one of those that screws into the wall and has a handle to smash the can).  I do take large plastic stuff (laundry detergent, dish soap, softener bottles, etc) to the recycle bin at work.

Nebb

I hate showering to, but mostly because I hate doing my hair and waiting for it to dry and puff out. I hate blowdrying my hair too. I hate "getting ready" id rather just roll outta bed and go about my day but I look like a banshee when I wake up

AllAboutTheBenjamin

I wear a lot of makeup.  I'm not sure when that happened.  But yeah.  It takes me forfuckingever.

alynne1113

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_snarky-brides_recycling-conservation?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:17Discussion:a5e4e1a3-ca15-4353-b4f8-ddf0092afcb7Post:d9e322a6-daf8-423d-8128-1c5adbac4b44">Re: Recycling and conservation</a>:
[QUOTE]I LOVE showering.  I just hate getting ready afterwards.  I hate doing my hair, even though all I do is mousse it and blow dry it and nothing else.  I HATE applying makeup.
Posted by AllAboutTheBenjamin[/QUOTE]

Urgh me too!
I live 45 min from work, so I usually get in my car with wet hair with product in, turn my heat on high, point the vents at my hair and blow dry it on the way to work LOL.

Steph0871

ha, Kim. I've never heard anyone else say that before. I also hate showering. It's a complete pain in the ass.  My hair takes FOREVER to dry.  When I really rush it, I can get ready in like 45 minutes (shower, drying my hair to damp, make up.)

KW- it's good! I mean, it's basically just a plastic square with a top on it But so far so good! H goes out and turns it like once every week or two.  We had to buy some of that blood meal stuff, because he added way too many leaves, but it's awesome now! He said it was still really warm too, even though it's been chillier outside.

K Byte

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_snarky-brides_recycling-conservation?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:17Discussion:a5e4e1a3-ca15-4353-b4f8-ddf0092afcb7Post:d9e322a6-daf8-423d-8128-1c5adbac4b44">Re: Recycling and conservation</a>:
[QUOTE]I LOVE showering.  <strong>I just hate getting ready afterwards.  I hate doing my hair, even though all I do is mousse it and blow dry it and nothing else. </strong> I HATE applying makeup.
Posted by AllAboutTheBenjamin[/QUOTE]
Me tooooo. I hate blowdrying my hair, and right now my hair is less than shoulder length so it doesn't even take that long. I'm just a whiner I guess haha.

Nebb

Can you guys return empties (booze) for money there? We can at our beer store and usually get a good return. One of my goals for 2012 is to put everything we get back for our empties onto a gift card and have one hell of a beer binge next christmas lol

midgetthemighty

LesPaul, we sold those when I worked at Home Depot. I bought one for my dad and it works very nicely.

LesPaul

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_snarky-brides_recycling-conservation?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:17Discussion:a5e4e1a3-ca15-4353-b4f8-ddf0092afcb7Post:a2445b19-e134-42d9-95e9-b426d485e1ab">Re: Recycling and conservation</a>:
[QUOTE]Can you guys return empties (booze) for money there? We can at our beer store and usually get a good return. One of my goals for 2012 is to put everything we get back for our empties onto a gift card and have one hell of a beer binge next christmas lol
Posted by Nebb[/QUOTE]

Not in Colorado.  I think some states have a deposit built into the purchase price, and you get back a certain amount per bottle when they're returned.

SEWF

I hate showering, too, at least in the winter. I'm always cold, no matter what. The water can be hot, but as soon as I pull the curtain back, I know I'm going to freeze. My hair is thick, too, but I have to blow dry it at least a bit during the winter, because if I don't I freeze even more.

Just all around not a fun experience.