Change the World Wednesday - pick up trash

It's been awhile since I've been able to participate in Change the World Wednesday with Reduce Footprints but I'm glad to be back!  I love reading the other posts for this challenge and I like doing the challenges myself.  You never know what tips and tricks you'll pick up.

This week the challenge is to pick up trash you see as you take a walk or reflect on ways to reduce trash in your home.  Both of these are excellent!

I'm very happy to report that when we walk the dog every night we rarely see trash in our neighborhood. So glad the neighbors are good about keep their yards clean and picking up trash if they see it, or maybe people  in the neighborhood just aren't litter bugs..even better!

We live in a cul-de-sac and I noticed several months ago a couple of bottles in the middle circle where the landscaping is.  We have new neighbors with 3 teenage boys and I thought maybe it was there's. So for about a month I saw it every time we walked the dog and every time I got annoyed by it. haha!  I finally picked up the bottles and put them in our recycle bin. I should have done it right away but was hoping whoever left it would be responsible and pick it up themselves.  Oh well, the good thing is that it ended up being recycled by somebody.

I run at a local park every weekend and am happy to report that even though a lot of other runners use the park and use gel packs, etc, I rarely see any trash along the trails.  Go runners!

As far as ways to reduce trash, unfortunately we've had a lot of trash lately.   I hate it!  With the impending arrival of Baby Girl (3 weeks!!!) we've had to get her room ready and get everything that we need.  This means a lot of waste.  I've bought organic where I could but even organic items are packaged.  I have hated seeing so much waste go into the trash but haven't seen another option.

The best thing, however, is that we have bought as little as possible.  This might come back and bite me as I run out of something but we are both with the belief that we don't want to buy a ton.   We have also been incredibly lucky that my sisters have young kids and are both not planning to have any more.  This means that we have been able to borrow a lot from them.  I didn't have to buy any swings, we have a bigger one and then a smaller one that we'll use in the bedroom when Baby Girl comes home.  One sister just bought her youngest (he'll be 1 next month) a new car seat and since the infant seat was less than 5 years old we have both her bases and the seat.  In fact, as far as the bigger items most people register for, the only thing we needed was a stroller.  Not too bad!

Both of my sisters felt bad asking me if I wanted all their stuff and bringing it to me, thinking that with this being our first (and as far as Husband is concerned our only) that I would want all new, etc.  Not the case! I told them that I would take as much from them as I could. It not only saves us money but it keeps so much packaging and other waste from hitting the landfills and resources used to make the products.   I even talked to one sister today and since we haven't received many toys for Baby Girl, I'm going to go "shopping" at her house after her arrival and pick out toys that I think she might like that my 3 yr old and almost 1 yr old nephew don't use anymore.  Win-win!

Oh..and for inquiring minds..we will be using cloth diapers and cloth wipes.  We already bought all the diapers (either no packaging or recycled packaging for all of it!) and wipes and are ready to go.   I'll be sure to do a post on what we plan to do and then another post on how it actually works out.  Husband is on board but would rather use disposables, so it's going to be an interesting adventure.