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Got some Eco-Tips to Share?
| Meet the Blogger | More Posts by Paige Brady
Happy Earth Month! To celebrate we've brought together 30 days worth of fun, tips and eco-minded partners to help you get involved and learn how every "little green thing" counts. You can pick up a really cool 30 Ways in 30 Days calendar-type poster in our stores or get a pdf version.
We know a lot of our customers are already out there making a huge difference. So tell us what you do to take care of the Earth. Are you doing anything special this month? Share your tips here so we can all spread those green ideas around.
19 Comments
Comments
I think you have a pretty good company. Although I think if you claim to be so eco-friendly and green, why do I drive by your 146th St location in Indianapolis late at night and see every light in the store wasting energy? I know you need lights on to clean, but I'm talking at 12:00 am on a Friday night, after 11:00 pm on a weeknight. When do they turn off? How much energy are you wasting? Questions I, along with yourself, might want to know the answer to. Just trying to help.
04/03/2009 11:43:49 PM CDT
I am happy that after living in Los Angeles for 16 months, I finally found a place where I can return "CRV" bottles and cans for refund! I gave up driving, so I can only travel to places accessible by foot, bus, or subway. I buy about 3 Plastic 64 ounce bottles of organic juice every month. By california law, I must pay a 10 cent deposit on each one. But most stores will not accept the bottles for return. (Even whole Foods will only take back glass bottles, and the juice I buy in your store does not come in glass.)
By sheer luck, I happened to walk through the back carpark of of a shopping centre and saw a metal shed with two small machines in one wall. They resembled ATMs, but they were official CRV return places!
Now I hope to make $20 each month raiding the recycle bins in the basement of my apartment building. I never purchase soda or bottled water, but plenty of my neighbours do!
04/04/2009 4:48:58 AM CDT
I tried composting once, but it just didn't seem to work for me. I live in a small townhouse without much of a yard, so I had hardly any grass or garden trimmings to add; it became very bug-infested and gross, and my mother pretty much forbade me from trying it again. So I had to go for a while just throwing things away, which I hated, but I didn't know what else to do. But I was very fortunate to strike up a friendship with an local organic farmer a few months ago, and after a while I thought to ask her if she'd take compost from me, and she said she absolutely would. So now I see her about once a week at the farmer's market, and I bring a few gallon bags of food waste and whatever else seems compostable, like cotton balls, dryer lint, hair and teabags. She feeds some of it to her chickens and the rest goes into her compost pile.
Obviously this isn't something that everyone can do, but if you live in a small house or apartment and can't start your own pile, maybe you could try asking around at some markets to see if there's anyone willing to take it for you. (And they might be, because it can save them some money on chicken feed.) If my neighborhood association approves, I'm hoping to get some chickens myself!
04/05/2009 6:20:11 PM CDT
my hubby made me an adorable easter basket this year full of wonderful goodies (http://www.cooking4carnivores.com/2009/04/what-did-easter-bunny-bring-you.html) but the best thing was that he used our recycled shredded credit card statements to fill the bottom of the basket. it was such a great idea i had to share!
04/12/2009 2:35:18 PM CDT
To be more green, I bought a fair trade lunchbag, use gladeware for my sandwiches, and use reuseable bamboo silverware and have a kleen kanteen water bottle. Which I all got from www.Reusablebags.com
04/15/2009 12:38:28 PM CDT
Since CO is so dry I always need a water bottle in the car, on a walk, during a dance class, snowshoeing, etc. . I have been using the same three single use water bottles for years. I fill them up 1/3 with tap water and put them in the freezer. When I need to take a bottle of water with me I fill the rest of the bottle with tap water and put it in an insulated bottle holder. At the end of the day I refill the bottle I used that day and take a new one out of the freezer. Better to have these plastic bottles alternating in my freezer then in a landfill.
04/15/2009 1:09:30 PM CDT
I rip my dryer sheets in half, (they work just as well as a whole one.) I line dry as many items as I can and air tumble them in the dryer to regain softness. I buy all my pastas and grains bulk, and put them in pretty glass apothocary jars, replacing the rubber seals every two years. I use vinegar and water to clean just about everything, and cotton towels and nappys that can then become rags, and eventually are composted.
If I cannot recycle or re-use an item, I do not buy it!
04/15/2009 1:18:05 PM CDT
I:
~ shop at resale shops for my clothes, and I haven't done this, but if you knit and feel like you have the time for this: buy sweaters at resale shops that you're able to ravel to make balls of yarn to reuse!
~ bring my own containers to natural food stores for purchase of bulk items & deli food, and to restaurants for leftovers to bring home
~ don't have a flour sifter, I sift my flour & other dry ingredients with a wire wisk - works just as well! No need to buy another "thing"
~ make napkins from my fabric stash
~ knit cotton dishcloths
~ was given, for FREE!, an older Raleigh brand bicycle & my bike fixer buddy, Don, is fixing her up for me
04/15/2009 2:37:04 PM CDT
Wash out and reuse ziplocks....cut make-up remover cloths in half(they have too much cleanser in them anyway)you will save a ton on those too...use cloth napkins, they go in any load of wash and you can use them at least a couple times(unless you have really messy food)and they're so nice...enjoy & save!
04/15/2009 6:23:00 PM CDT
One of your green suggestions is to refill water containers with fitlered water instead of buying bottled water.
I used to do this at the Whole Foods Market Georgetown store in Washington, DC, until they removed the filtered water machine when the store was renovated.
Although the staff reassured me several times that the filtered water machine would be reinstalled, it wasn't.
The reverse osmosis filtered water makes a delicious tea. It is amazing how one can taste the difference.
Where is the nearest Whole Foods Market filtered water machine?
Kent
04/15/2009 9:08:00 PM CDT
One of your green tips is to refill containers with filtered water instead of buying bottled water.
I used to do this at the Georgetown Whole Foods Market in Washington, DC, that is until they removed the filtered water machine for a store renovation. Although the store manager and staff reassured me that the filtered water machine would be reinstalled after the renovation, it wasn't.
Lead, pharmaceuticals and perchlorate have been detected in our drinking water. The water treatment facility is operated by the Army Corps of Engineers.
What can we do to get a filtered water machine at either the P Street, Georgetown, Tenleytown or Bethesda store?
The reverse osmosis filtered water made a delicious herbal tea.
It would be even better if your kitchens used filtered water for cooking. Please don't tell me you are using the water provided by the Army Corps of Engineers.
04/15/2009 9:20:52 PM CDT
I reuse every glass jar to store left-overs, rice, nuts and dried fruit instead of using plastic.
04/15/2009 9:58:40 PM CDT
Speaking of dryer sheets, I always bought plastic air fresheners for my closets and replaced them once a month. I saw something on another website that said to use scented dryer sheets instead of air fresheners to freshen your closets. I tried it and it worked! I feel better not having to ad all those plastic containers to the landfills.
04/15/2009 10:42:14 PM CDT
We made some simple lifestyle changes, one of the simplest being where we sleep. We have a colonial, but found that the bedroom, which is over the garage, was much colder in the winter and hotter in the summer than the rest of the house-- by up to 6 degrees. We discovered that by moving the mattress downstairs to the formal dining room (which we weren't using as a formal dining room anyway), we could turn the heat down to 61 degrees in the winter and we could avoid running the air conditioning altogether, except occasionally on really hot nights and sometimes during our daughter's nap time. It might be slightly unconventional, but it works for us and it's saved us money as utility rates have gone up.
04/16/2009 11:10:29 AM CDT
Hey Kent...Why don't you just buy your own R/O unit for your home...you can convert your own water that you already pay for into R/O water w/out having to go out & get it...save some time & money (& frustation at your store)just look into it and never worry again
04/16/2009 9:36:44 PM CDT
I read an article which alerted me to the fact that so called "soft" toilet paper is one of the most harmful biproducts of humans. After reading this, my partner and I decided to start using reusable bath tissues. We made them ourselves out of some old white t-shirts. Now I know it may sound gross, but if you think about it, this is no different than using a cloth diaper on a baby. Disposable diapers were thrust upon the human race in the 1950's, before then, I am pretty sure babies got along just fine with cloth.
Pierre
04/19/2009 5:27:28 PM CDT
Last holiday season I gave my friends and family more environmentally friendly gifts. I bought them all green (literally and figuratively, ha-ha) handerchiefs with their initials embroidered on them. And rather than wrapping them in wasteful paper that would eventually clog our landfills, I put each of them in a reusable grocery bag, a Whole Foods one naturally. With the handerchiefs I enclosed a sheet of recycled paper which said, "use me instead of disposable tissues", along with other tips on how to be a more evironmentally responsible person. Needless to say they were a BIG hit. I plan on giving my partner's nephew the same gift for his graduation next month, I hope he doesn't read this in advance of his big day.
Pierre
04/19/2009 8:38:42 PM CDT
Tres Bien Pierre! Your gift bags sound splendid. I have several Whole Foods bags myself and they are very handsome. The personalized hankerchiefs are such a thoughtful gift, your friends and family are lucky to have you. I never gave thought to reusable toiletries, how intriguing. I love this website and I love Whole Foods. You are all my friends!
-Olaf
04/20/2009 8:52:08 PM CDT
I save baby food jars to use as spice bottles. Spices in bulk at whole foods are inexpensive. I let my older child decorate them. They also make great gifts.
06/25/2009 1:32:09 PM CDT