what got me thinking about this

It started out when I noticed this on an ad for Seventh Generation dish liquid:

"If every household in the U.S. replaced just one bottle of 25oz petroleum-based dishwashing liquid with our plant-derived product, we could save enough oil to heat and cool 7,400 U.S. homes for a year."

As it happens, my favorite dish liquid is a plant-derived productcalled Sun & Earth, and I've used it for years.  I like it because of the way it works, and the way it makes my hands feel, and because I'm not worried about what's in it contaminating my household or the water system.  It had also crossed my mind that by not purchasing the alternative (petroleum-based) product, I was diminishing our dependence on oil. But really, how big of an impact could one dish wash purchase make?


Seeing the Seventh Generation ad was an ah-ha! moment.  It made me realize that although the petroleum in one bottle of dish liquid more or less might not seem like it would make much of an impact, I was forgetting the multiplier effect.  So I continue to use the Sun & Earth, and have switched almost exclusively to plant-based cleaners of every kind, and I encourage everyone I can to do the same.  (Although my husband drew the line at buying dish liquid to all of our friends and family as holiday gifts.)

The 3 "R"s

When I first heard about recycling, it was presented in terms of the 3 "R"s. (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.) The order of these pieces is important. The best option is to reduce your dependence on things that will become waste. The next best is to reuse items that you might otherwise throw away (or come up with reusable alternatives to items that would usually be disposable.) Recycling is what you hope to do with things you can't do without, and can't reuse. (I say hope to do, because not everything is recyclable.)

Here's an example of how this works:

You're at a restaurant, and you've only eaten half of your food, and want to take home the rest. You can:

a) Pat yourself on the back for choosing a restaurant that features recyclable or compostable take-out containers. (Good, but the containers did take energy and other resources to produce, and can only be used once, even if they're not landfill-bound.) - Recycle
b) Bring a reusable container from home to carry your left-overs. (Better, as long as you remember to eat the food later, otherwise you waste resources cleaning the reusable container.) - Reuse (Though this gets upgraded to a "Reduce" if you remember your left-overs, and don't use an additional container for lunch the next day.)
c) Plan ahead and split your entree with your dinner companion so there are no left-overs. (best!) - Reduce

All of these are better options than the standard styrofoam take-out boxes you find at most restaurants, but they are not all equally good. It's a lot easier to recycle than to reduce or reuse (at least in most places.) But reducing and reusing are worth the extra effort, and they are the focus of this blog. Look around, and maybe you'll pick up a few new habits!

Starting something new

For some time now, I've been musing about how small changes can lead to big results when they're repeated enough times by enough people. Change One Today is my outlet for these ideas. I hope other people out there will happen upon this blog, and join me in compounding some of my efforts.