Stacy:

Why wait? Going green is good for business. City leaders would be wise to recommend expanding its recycling program. This is very profitable.

Maybe the Gazette could offer their E-Edition to people who don't want a newspaper subsription, with its acumulation of paper that gets picked up only every 2 weeks. After all, we don't all need fish wrap or bird cage liner or puppy trainer. Some of us just want to read all the news available from the Gazette online.

I've been meaning to look into building a rain barrel for about a year now. Then I saw one at my aunt's house yesterday--here's the website of the organization that sells them. If you can get up to Madison to pick it up, it seems like a great investment! Water your gardens, flowers, grass seed with rainwater.
www.rainfordane.org

I know it sounds crazy at first, but CLOTH DIAPERS! Before you start gagging and imagining dunking poo in the toilet like our grandmothers did, do a little Googling on cloth diapers. They have changed tremendously and are easier and cuter than ever. No pins, plastic pants, or confusing folding involved. Did you know that one disposable diaper will sit in the landfills for 500 years? Or that two kids in diapers for 4 years total will cost you nearly $7,000? You can cloth diaper both of those kids for under $500 and still have the diapers when they are potty trained.

convince the city of janesville to pick up recyclables every week Beloit does. How many recyclables get thrown away because one small green bin isn't enough to hold the plastics for 2 weeeks?

If you forget to take your canvas bags in, grab a cardboard box. Many stores have them available, and they are easily recycled. Walmart and Sentry East have reclaim bins for plastic grocery bags - I think a couple other places do too. And, I heard the City is going to start taking 3-6 plastics recyclables. We also need to find out who is polluting, and get them to stop. In 2002 in the US, industrial facilities released over 4.2 million pounds of toxic chemicals into the environment. Yikes!

O yea--I thought of another one yesterday. Take your own to-go mug to the coffeeshop instead of using the styrofoam or paper cups that the shop provides. I know the independently owned shops are open to this, but unsure about the corporate gas stations. I own three or four travel mugs just to be sure I always have a clean one when I need one.

I do have to say that, since using canvas bags at the store has become more popular, I am getting less crazy-eyed looks from cashiers when I ask them to use the canvas bags I bring! One thing I have really been wondering about lately is: Why doesn't Janesville recycle all plastics? We only recycle # 1 and 2. We have voices in the community who are concerned about our landfills being filled too quickly by other communities. If we were able to recycle all plastics, wouldn't that help? Milton and Beloit are able to--why not Janesville?

You'll love the canvas bags. We'd never go back. They're great! The only trick is remembering to bring them to the store...that's why I leave them in the trunk of my car.