Can you be more green?

I keep hearing all over the news and Internet that we really need to start doing something about the amount of energy we consume and waste we create. Simple Living has challenged herself to reduce her emissions to 90% of the national average. She is also challenging her readers to reduce their emissions - not by 90% but just reduce. I personally feel that if we all do a little it will help a lot. So after reading her blog I have decided what I can work on.

Gas for the car - The national average is to consume 41.6 gallons of gasoline per person per month. After some math I believe that Joe and I consume about 70 gallons total, which puts us at about 35 gallons per person per month.
Right now I am trying to ride my bike to work every day. I am going to keep riding my bike to work as much as possible. Also on the weekends I already try to do all of my errands at one time in order to reduce time and gas.
So my goal will be to only put in 40 gallons of gas per month or 20 gallons per person per month. I will keep track of this by keeping a gas receipt for every gas purchase.

Electricity - The national average is 900 kwh per household per month. I have no idea what we consume and not too sure how to reduce our electricity usage. I need to buy the energy efficient light bulbs and a clothes line to dry out clothes outside. After I receive our electric bill early next month I will address this issue.

Garbage - This is another tough one for me. The average person generate 4.5 lbs of garbage per person per day. So we are generating 13.5 lbs per day. On average on a weekly basis we put 2.5 cans of garbage at the curb for pickup. I already recycle what I can and since I live in a small town it is not much. Mikayla is still in diapers but we are working on potty training and since we are almost done with diapers I am not going to switch to cloth for a few months. I am thinking about creating a compost pile. I would have to buy something that is enclosed so the dogs do not get into it. I am also going to buy re-usable lunch bags for Mikayla and myself. Right now I put our lunches in a plastic bag from the grocery store and toss the plastic bag when it gets too old. I am also going to buy more canvas bags so when I go to the grocery store I will have re-usable bags instead of plastic bags. I have cut down on paper towels by using cloth towels but I need to get Joe to do the same. The next time I buy toilet paper it will be recycled.
This goal might take a little while but I am going to aim for 1.5 cans of garbage per week.

That is all that I am going to tackle for now. Are you up to the challenge? What would you like to do to help reduce your emissions. Here are some great blogs that address these issues and really open your eyes to what needs to be done. Also remember small steps are better than none at all and most the these links that I am sending you to have been doing this for a while so don't think you have to do what they are doing.

Simple Living

The Green Mommy

No Impact Man

Walk Slowly Live Wildly

From all of these blogs you can find other green blogs as well.