Earth Day is right around the corner!  So, on my work's website, it has a section about how our company is green, and asks for suggestions to make it greener..  So, wrote on there the most obvious steps to be a "greener" company..  RECYCLE!  We've been told this our whole lives..  Recycle, Reduce, Reuse, and some places still can't figure it out.  I work at a clinic, which is only a small part of this entire healthcare system.  I know some clinic's are greener than mine, and some are not.  Where I work, we have ONE tiny can intended for recycling bottles and cans (what about all of the paper we throw away every day!?).  So while I was reading the suggestions listed on the website, I told my coworker what I wrote and she says "well we do recycle!"  I said "No you don't!  You throw your bottles away in this trash every day!  If it was more convenient, you probably would."  She says "Yeah, but that's my problem."  Which is true, but it goes to show you that if we don't make it convenient, many people won't go out of there way to make sure their bottle get's into the correct container.  They just don't care that much, I guess.  I'm not quite sure where this blog is going, but I do know that i'm going to try very hard to make sure that each of our departments have local recycling bins, and that our custodians quit being lazy, and actually place them in the recycling!  I'm also going to try to enforce paper being recycled.  So much paper here is thrown away each day, it's unbelievable!  Again, recycling is bypassed, because the means for it aren't directly in front of them.

It just blows my mind..  this isn't anything new.  We've been hearing Recycle, Reduce, Reuse since we were small children..  and it's the easiest way to prevent waste.  If we all work together, it could make a huge difference!

Trash doesn't just vanish into the air!

Also, it's a good time of the year to evaluate things you can do to be a little "greener".  For instance, do you have a water bottle, or coffee cup that you use?  Or do you purchase new ones every day?  Unplug your phone charger when you aren't charging your phone?  I'm guilty of that.. but i'll work on it!  Do you bring your own bag grocery shopping?  That helps a ton!  I have one that wraps up into a tiny bag and I throw it right in my purse.. so it's always in there when I go to the store, and I don't even have to think about it!  This is where I got it.  On that same website, I purchased reusable "Skoy Cloths"..  they are like dish rags, and certaintly cut back on paper towel use.  They are washing machine safe, absorbent, and 100% biodegradable.  I actually liked that product more than I thought I would! 

I know some ways to be "Green" can cost a lot of money, or a lot of effort..  but these ideas seem very inexpensive, or free, and pretty mindless.  Do you have any ideas?