Observing an Eco-Friendly Lent
| February 22, 2012 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Green Holidays, Green Living |
While I consider myself spiritual and not religious, I was raised Presbyterian and grew up observing Lent. I thought since it’s Ash Wednesday, I would share some ideas for my religious readers on having an eco-friendly Lent. Though really you don’t have to be religious to do this.
For Lent you can give up some item that also help the earth, here are some ideas of things to give up. You may find no need to go back to them after Lent.
- Paper Towels
- Bottled Water
- Tissues
- Toilet Paper (even I haven’t done this one yet)
- Paper napkins
- Disposable Diapers
- Your Car (this of course only works in some locations and for some people)
- Processed Food
- Soda
- Smoking
- Fast Food
Those are just a few ideas, a few will even help improve your health! Another idea for having a green Lent is to not give up something but to do one thing for each day of Lent that will help you on your journey to be greener. Here are some ideas for that.
- Start composting
- Walk, ride your bike, or take public transpiration for the day
- Buy some CFLs and/or LEDs for when your bulbs burn out
- Buy a reusable water bottle and start using it
- Buy a reusable coffee mug and use it
- Switch to Fair Trade coffee and/or tea
- Switch to recycled paper products
- Switch to cloth napkins
- Cut up an old t-shirt to use as rags in place of paper towels
- Pick up litter in your neighborhood or at a local park
- Switch to natural hand soap
- Stop getting unwanted catalogs
- Opt-Out of getting the Yellow Pages
- Get a bird feeder
- Start some seedlings
- Plant a tree (if it’s warm enough where you live)
- Take your family to see The Lorax and talk about the message after the movie
- Get a rain barrel
- Build a garden for spring
- Check out your local farmer’s market
This is a small list of ideas. I would love to hear your ideas, just post in the comments below. And I would also like to know if any of you are planning to observe an eco-friendly Lent.
Photo credit: 
Some rights reserved by Sarah Korf
Giving up toilet paper? That would be true Lent commitment!
haha I couldn’t do it all the way, at least I don’t think I could. But I could for #1, just haven’t yet.
I don’t know if you’ve seen this, but here’s a link to a calendar put out by PCUSA which gives daily activity suggestions for a green Lent.
Might help if I include the link:
http://www.pcusa.org/media/uploads/environment/pdf/lentcalendarnew.pdf
I knew they had in the past but didn’t know if they were this year. Very cool.
OMG! I have been wondering how to stop getting phonebooks! Thank you so much for posting that!!! I’m sharing it on my blog!
Glad I could help.