Thank you to everyone who entered to win a copy of Colin Beavan’s No Impact Man book. The randomly chosen winner was Nancy Adams, who will be receiving her very own used library copy in the mail mightily soon.
Here are but a small sample of the inspired comments on how you, the readers are making changes to make less of an impact in your own lives:
Jennifer: “Made reusable sandwich/snack bags for my child’s school lunches out of scrap fabric I had on hand. Now I’m getting requests to make them for friends!”
Kimberly: “Don’t say “It’s about time”, but my kids and I just set up a recycling center on the back porch. I only did it as part of homeschool since I just started that this year. Turns out, we have cut our trash in half! I never thought we even had enough that we could recycle. There would be more if our center accepted glass, too.”
Kat C: “We gave up our car almost two years ago and primarily walk or take public transit. We rent a car when we need it on the weekend. Saves a lot of money, and is good for the environment.
We also compost and recycle. I have a veggie garden which (if it stops raining) produces some veggies throughout the summer. I try not to buy coffee in paper cups and instead make coffee at home and bring a mug with me. Next on my list is to make some cloth napkins to use at home.”
Rachel: “I live in a material world and i’m a material girl! used, garage sale, thrift store, reclaimed, refurbished, refurnished, hand me down, thrown out and discarded are my favorite materials. our entire house is furnished in items of just that description…with the only exception being my hubs and i’s mattress and one family room couch (total panic impulse purchase I will never let us live down!) feels good to know that each toy bin, book shelf, tv watched and chair sat on made less of an impact for our world!”
JenniWaka: “We try to reuse packaging for everything at home. Wheat goes in old mayo jars, cardboard boxes get used to send gifts to friends and family far away, etc. We combine errands even if it means waiting a few days to pick up ingredients or toiletries. Oh, and here at work I save fax cover sheets and other waste paper to use the backs for notes.”
Kristi Stone: “I am gardening/growing our own food, supporting our local farmer’s market, bought a water filtration system (as opposed to using bottled water), hanging out my laundry and a few other things. As my husband and I learn more of what we can do, we make those changes. It’s been really exciting.” 
Jenn L.: “Recently we became a one car household. many of my friends and family do not understand how this is possible, seeing that we live in Los Angeles, but we make it work. i take public transportation (yes it exists) to work most days and my love rides his bike everywhere. we are finding that we don’t even drive the one car we have as much anymore. it just takes a little extra planning, but it really is easier than i expected! i love reading your blog.”
LBC Teacher: “I am carpooling to work this year with a coworker, saving gas and creating less pollution. I also just today printed out the rules for my community recycling to hang in the kitchen so I can make sure everything eligible for recycling makes it into the container. I also requested to stop receiving catalogs from various vendors.”
A Marie: “My husband and I do a lot of the stuff that other folks have mentioned, but to keep it to one thing (and one thing that hasn’t been noted above), we have a “kill-a-watt”-type monitor on our electricity and consult it regularly. It’s a real help in remembering to shut off unnecessary lights, turn off the computers when we’re not using them, etc. Remember, the less electricity we all use, the less complicit we are in the destruction of my beloved Appalachians (I’m originally from Tennessee) for coal.”
Thank you to everyone who took the time to write your No Impact changes in the commenst section. Click HERE to read all of them!
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”
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