I have never been one to make New Year's resolutions, why make change more complicated then it already is? Over the past few years however, as we have celebrated Earth Day my small steps to being more eco-conscious have resulted in some goals for how I want to live my life. As time has gone on I have found myself setting some "green goals" based on books that I have recently read or eco-trends that are becoming the norm (bring your own bags, cloth napkins, etc.). This year I struggled with my goals because I have made so many small steps that I knew I would need to make some more drastic changes to the way I live. After reflecting on our current way of life I have decided that this year I will work to reduce the amount of food that we waste. I have always been one to save leftover food and use it for lunch or dinner the next day but what about that half of an onion that sits in the fridge, not needed for the recipe and then forgotten about for 2 weeks until discovered the night before the trash needs to go out. Yes, I threw those things in the trash because we do not have a compost pile. So there is the first big change, we will now welcome rotting food to our backyard. As happy as I am to have a "better" place to put it, I don't want the food to go bad in the first place. So here are the Daigle Green Goals 2013 edition:
1) Find a nice spot in the yard and set up a compost bin.
2) Develop a system for getting the food to the compost bin.
3) Teach the kids what can be composted and how they can help. (Maybe a new chore for the chart?)
4) Keep better track of those little bits of recipe surplus.
5) Start a collection of recipes that can be my "go to" for using the most frequent of surplus items.
Not a bad list, we will see how it goes and what other goals might stem from these changes. Any of you make any recent green goals?
