Smaller Footprints

Each week we are making small steps at my house to reduce our Carbon Footprint (how much greenhouse gas we put in the air) with last week being a big one we bought Ade a bike. She hasn’t ridden one in about 20 years (I know hard to believe being married to me and not riding a bike) but the Schwinn cruiser is perfect. We all rode to the swimming pool on Saturday afternoon. Not a big ride but in the past we would have driven a wasteful 2-3 miles to go to the pool. Instead now we all have bikes to ride and an easy fun free (don’t forget gas prices) way to the pool.

The whole cruiser bike is pretty cool for getting around the neighborhood, so much so I might have to buy one soon. The racing bikes are nice but to be casual and look good a cruiser might be a better fit. I also found a grocery store, Albertsons on 2nd and Quebec that has plastic bag recycling. This is huge as Americans use 100 billion plastic bags a year with a minimal number being recycled. The Albertsons will let you recycle newspaper bags, grocery bags, and even the plastic used to cover dry cleaning. As much as I’ve never been a fan of shopping at Albertsons this may be enough to get me to switch, at least some of what I buy, to support their efforts.

Another beauty of the summer is farmers markets which are great for food. Inexpensive, local, organic fruits and vegetables. The food tastes better and there is less environmental impact. It is still early in the veggie season here in Colorado but some things were great. As the summer goes on more fresh foods will appear and many places have recipes that let you try out the fresh crops.

Sunday was a big riding day, another 6 hours on the bike. I rode to Golden up Chimney Gulch (the dirt trail up Lookout Mountain) down Apex (the backside of Lookout) and home. I got in about 2 hours of mountain biking and 6 hours total. A 2 hour mountain bike ride is pretty damn good and usually involves at least a ½ hour of drive time each way, but the commute by bike makes the dirt even more fun and doesn’t waste gas. I tell you I’m trying to reduce my waste, maybe not great yet but all the little efforts help. What have you done recently?