I contacted my Alder

The plastic bag legislation was introduced and has been referred to committee.  Time to take some action. 

First I had to figure out who our alder is...Lucky for me..right on the City's website you can click on  "Find your Alder"   Ours is Chris Schmidt.

Also lucky for me...I could write an email to Chris right on the website...so I did...see below..

Chris: I noticed that legislation related to plastic bags is being considered in Madison. I'm a little disappointed that it is to recycle clean bags as opposed to just banning all plastic bags which has been done successfully in other cities and countries. What is your perspective on this..and if I want to get involved ...any advice? Thanks, Julie

May Action: Reducing Plastic Round 2

We voted at dinner on Sunday and decided to focus on plastic for another month. One of the things that influenced our decision is that Madison is introducing legislation to ban throwing away clean plastic bags.

Although we excited that Madison is concerned about plastic bags...we are disappointed with the proposed legislation.

• It will be difficult( impossible!) to enforce.
• It may actually increase use of plastic bags...since now it will be easier to recycle.
• Since it is OK to throw out "dirty" plastic bags...we still have plastic going into landfills and lakes.

It is a stop gap measure. Right now very few plastic bags are recycled..the hope is that this would decrease the amount of plastic bags in land fills and oceans by increasing the amount that gets recycled. What do others think?

We should have been on Oprah!

Oprah did an Earth Day show.

 

Oprah Earth Day Lunch Challenge: Switch from disposable to resusable for your lunch box (or bag), water bottle and silverware.  To get us started, check she is gving us coupons. 

Sigg has a great selection of metal water bottles, metal lunch boxes and you can get water bottle cleaning brushes and exta water bottle tops. With Oprah's coupon you can get 20% off Sigg water bottles through 5/31.

At To Go ware, like their tiffins ( round metal food carriers), the side kicks ( small metal food containers..we use these for lunch box snacks , dips and dressings) and I'm thinking about getting their bamboo utensils ($10)  With Oprah's coupon youcan get 20% To Go Ware  through 7/30. 

She has two lists Oprah's 11 ways to save the planet and Go Green at Home. We do 17  out of the 22 actions Oprah's suggests!  Here is her list (and how well we are doing.)

1. LED light bulbs ( so far we only have Christmas tree lights)
2. Compact Flourescent bulbs (yes)
3. Programmable thermostat (yes)
4. Weather Stripping ( need to do)
5. Drapes (could do better)
6. LCD TV (on Marks’ wish list)
7. Smart Power Strips ( need to check this out)
8. Water aerator (yes)
9. At home filtration ( so far we drink from the tap and use re-usable water bottles)
10. Energy star appliances (yes to fridge, washing machine, heater and dehumidifier)
11. Resuable cloth dish towels (yes and napkins too)
12. Eco friendly cleaning ( yes, we use vinegar, baking soda , borax and Dr Bronners)
13. Insulated water heater (yes, we dream about a solar water heater)
14. Re-usable coffee mugs (yes)
15. Ice cream cones instead of cups ( questionable whether we will save the planet on this one..but yes we do and both the boys are happy to keep helping on this one.)
16. Cloth bags for shopping (yes)
17. Reduce junk mail ( in progress)
18. Recycled Toilet paper (we try to buy 7 generation TP)
19. Delint the dryer  (yes and cleaning out the dryer hose made a huge difference)
20. No VOC paint ( most of the time)
21. Short showers ( I do a little better at this than Mark J)
22. Turn of the computer ( yes)

Oprah's 11 ways to save the planet and Go Green at Home

Hat tip to Sarah Apple for telling me about Oprah.

We've been busy

We haven't been blogging but we have been keeping busy!

We completed our salamandar survey at Dunn's Marsh. No salamanders but we did catch 2 tadpoles which is a good sign.





Like my new hip boots!
We spent spring break in Arizona with grandparents.
Here we are exploring the local caves.

We are now back in Madison! We will use the rest of April to catch up!

Our first Earth Hour

We had friends over for a dessert potluck last night ( I highly recommend dessert potlucks). Everyone left just after 8:30, so we said goodbye by candlelight. They walked out into gentle blizzard....winter's last hurrah.

Because I couldn't see them..I forgot about the dirty dishes. Because there weren't any lights on...we all gathered by the candles in the living room. We sat close together and talked...for 45 minutes. It has been a long time since we all gathered in the living room to sit together and talk. Maybe we should bring out our candles more often.

Earth Hour made the news for us, it was a quiet night with friends and family.


Photo: flickr earthhour_global

Don't Forget to Vote Earth Tonight

Sydney already Voted Earth....
4000 more cities and towns around the world plan to do the same.

Turn out your lights tonight from 8:30-9:30 pm to show your support for efforts to reduce global warming. Even Macdonalds plans to dim the golden arches.

Candlelight here we come!

Salamanders on the Move

We got distracted from our March actions because we got word the salamanders were moving. We participate in the annual WI Salamander Survey.

Each spring when the weather starts to get warm, after the first rainy night..the salamanders move to a nearby pond to lay eggs.

To find out if a pond has salamanders, we put 5 mesh traps into the shallow water. We check the traps each day for five days. This year we are surveying Dunn's Marsh. This is Julia, Patrick, and Ben putting in the traps. It is cold, wet work. We are crossing our fingers that we will catch some salamanders. Keep your fingers crossed!