Happy Earth Day!

To celebrate, here are some pictures from a few weeks ago taken in my garden:

I’m always eager to hear of ways to help the planet. The best one I came by this year was to switch to recycled toilet paper. I’ve used the recycled, industrial-strength tp before — particularly back in college — but have never been a fan of how rough it was. Now, though, I’m delighted to report that recycled toilet paper has improved dramatically and is way softer, cheaper, and easier to find than it used to be. Plus, using recycled tp is a huge boon to the environment. Rudi forwarded me an article earlier this year that got me thinking about where my priorities ought to lie. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council,

If every household in the United States replaced just one roll of virgin fiber toilet paper (500 sheets) with 100% recycled ones, we could save 423,900 trees.

Scary, eh? So I’m thinking that buying less lovely toilet paper — which I’m going to be getting rid of immediately upon use — is worth saving a few trees.

Honestly, I hadn’t given it a lot of thought, but when it was pointed out, making the change made sense. I’d be happy to consider other ideas to cut down on my negative effects on the planet. If you have suggestions, please leave them in the comments.