It’s not easy being green…at work
I’ve been paying a bit more attention to my routine at work. At home, I recycle religiously, avoid packaging where possible, use green bags and eco-friendly cleaning products. The office is a whole different story.
I already bring my lunch in reusable containers, print everything possible double-sided, and recycle the massive ink cartridges we use. I am bad, though. I use disposable plates, bowls, plasticware, and *gasp* bottled water! It would be super simple to bring a bowl, plate, and silverware from home, and just keep them up here.
So far I’ve dramatically reduced my use of post-its and note pads by creating a digital to do list in Excel. This enables me to have multiple pages, so I can separate everything, and keep my desk cleaner.
I finally bought one dish to bring to work that I can just wash instead of throwing out. It’s kind of a bowl/plate combo; either a really wide, shallow bowl, or a pretty deep plate. I had soup in it yesterday, and it worked great. Plus, it’s Corelle, and it was only $1 at Goodwill! (I also found some fantabulous shoes while I was there, which might show up in a later post).
I turn off my monitor when I leave for the day (I can’t shut down the computer because of the way things are networked), and I’ve stopped using my candle warmer. I’m trying to wear warmer clothes, so I don’t have to turn my space heater on as much, and I have a CFL in my lamp instead of a normal bulb. I take dead batteries to be recycled instead of throwing them in the trash.
I’ve been trying to print less overall, but our work is very paper-dependent. That might be changing in the future (the company is slowly crawling toward a paperless office), but we’ll see. Of the paper we do print, most of it has to be shredded when it needs to be disposed of, but it all gets recycled. The stuff that doesn’t need to be shredded used to all get mixed into the same pile, but now I’m trying to avoid wasting the electricity of shredding excessively, and throwing it directly in the recycle bin.
There are things I will not do to go green, all of which I will tell you about right now! (if you get the movie reference you get a gold star!)
1) Hankerchief – that’s disgusting. No, just no.
2) “Let it mellow” – also disgusting.
3) Pretty much anything that’s too disgusting to comprehend.
Other than that, I do what’s practical, and within my budget. I’m still looking for little ways to improve my routine, but there’s a lot that not under my control at the office. I’m sure that’s how it is for most people, but little things have an impact, too.
