Here's one more: as soon as we can manage to get the garage cleaned out enough to work in there, we are going to replace our old hot water heater with one of the new tankless models. I'd like to replace the furnace as well but haven't looked into it; it's as old as the house, which means going on 30.

I didn't know this. That's very cool. The fact is, most people will continue to use paper/plastic bags at these stores because they are conveniently provided. If more stores phased them out, people would have to bring their own. Hmm.

We really try to use cloth bags for groceries but we are inept. Unfortunately most trips to the grocery store involve driving there. So the bags have to be in the car. But when we get home with the groceries the bags come up into the apartment. Then we forget to put them back in the car. Then the next time we go grocery shopping we have no bags.

Yeah, that's the cycle I'm in. Though since I tend to do daily small shopping rather than large shopping, I can often just carry the handful of items out with no bag, or there will often be some random bag on the floor of my car I can grab.

This is why I have 6 dozen of the Trader Joe's plastic bags. That said, I am using them rather than the paper or plastic ones from the store.

Yeah, but don't give NM credit for being "eco-friendly." While the lights may be dim, he has his home theatre system running full bore and the speakers outside blasting. What he might be saving in light energy, he is using in sound/vision energy. :D

I think he'd stop talking to me full-stop if I ever described him as "eco-friendly". He does his part to conserve energy, though, despite the awesomeness of his abode.

Hmm... this gives me an idea...

I recycle plastic, glass, newspapers, and mixed paper which is not a simple thing because my condo complex does not offer recycling. I make a trip to the recycling center at CSULB every few weeks which is a pain but it's important to me. I switched to a reusable water bottle a while ago but I still buy plastic bottles of fuzzy water. I'm switching to CFLs as lightbulbs burn out.

My concern about recycling has made it almost impossible for me to just throw stuff in the trash. Taking old stuff to Goodwill is work all by itself so I'm much more careful about buying useless stuff.

Personally I think the fearmongers aren't scaring us enough.