A little greener living

So by living here in OZ, we've managed a greener lifestyle.  I thought I'd share some of it with you all.
Our house:
 No heating or air conditioning.  It's all done with the windows and shades.  Being up on the hill, we get plenty of wind and breeze so we just open the windows and it's cooler.  Close them, and it's warmer.  So far it has worked.
 We have solar panels on the roof that run the hot water tank.  There are laws in place that are requiring all Aussies to have either solar panels or gas for their hot water heaters by the year 2012.  No electric hot water heaters are allowed after that.  (the government has lots of programs to help home owners switch over to this).  All newer homes (4 years or younger) have the solar panels and the rain tanks as it is required by law.
  We hang almost all of our clothes out to dry.  With lower humidity than Maryland and lots of sun and breeze, they actually dry quickly and really well.
 We have two giant rain water tanks outside and toilets and outdoor faucets run off the rainwater.  Once the tanks are dry, then we'd run off city water for everything.  The cold water on the washing machine also runs off the rain tanks.  Awesome!  There is another law that requires all homes to use rainwater for outdoor watering at a minimum.  It's harder to convert an older home to a rain water system since there is a lot of separate plumbing involved.  All public toilets at parks, playgrounds, etc are required to run from a rain water system.
Our bills:
Here in OZ, we get billed quarterly rather than monthly.  This means less paper being mailed, less fuel used by people to read the meters and less fuel used by postal carriers to deliver bills.  Also, post only comes Monday through Friday and comes by motor bike.  If you have a package that's too big for the motorbike, then you have to go to post office to pick it up. 
Shopping:
While reusable bags are being used in the States, they are much more in use here.  Most stores will not give you a plastic bag unless you have over 5 small items.  Large items are never bagged and many many stores charge for any plastic bags.  Every parking lot of every shopping place has a "don't forget your bags" sign in it.  If you forget your bags, you get these looks from cashiers as if you have committed a great sin.  No one wants that shame!  I think every lady I know carries some kind of reusable bag in her purse to pull out if the shopping mood strikes.  Love it!
Also, packaging- all Aussie stuff is packaged in stuff that makes less waste.  Spices and baking products are all packed in baggies.  You buy plastic containers for pantry and fridge and just refill them.  Products that are made in Australia are much less expensive than those made anywhere else.  Fruits and veggies at the store are about 99% Australian grown.  Garlic is from Mexico for some reason though. 
All foods here also have less preservatives.  Better for us, but things do go bad faster so we have to watch how much we buy.  The first couple of weeks here had a fair bit of wasted food that we let go bad.  We adjusted and I know how much to buy at a time so we waste less. 
Lots of people compost here, but we haven't yet.  Our house backs to bush land so we have to be a little careful.  If we start throwing out fruit and veg scrap, we'll attract mice and flies into the yard.  With the mice comes snakes.  With the flies come more spiders.   We don't really want the snakes and spiders so we've decided not to compost so far. 
The recylcing program here is good, but not as good as Anne Arundel County though.  We have to wash our containers and they don't recycle pizza boxes for some reason. 
We can also walk to the shops and to school.  To be honest, we don't walk to the shops much because I have no way of getting everything back home again.  We do walk down to the shops for dinner when we go out though.  We went out last night and walked the 30 minutes to dinner, ate, drank and were merry...then walked 30 minutes home and put little ones to bed.  I do walk to school a few times each week pick the boys up from school.  It really irritated me that we weren't allowed to walk in Pasadena as we were across the street.  So instead we walk the 2 km one way to school.  Going there is easier as it is down hill, coming home is all uphill. 
Electricity is much more expensive here, but it is split up by the hours it is used.  Peak hours are the most expensive, between 2pm and 8pm on weekdays.  Electricity cost $.35 per kw/h during peak hours.  Shoulder hours are 7am-2pm and 8pm-11pm weekdays and 7am-11pm weekends.   Rates then are $.21 per kw/h.  Off peak is all the rest and is about $.15 per kw/h.  In the States we paid about $.115 all the time.  By knowing it is more expensive during peak hours, we delay our dish washer and dryer, etc until shoulder or off peak hours.  It is better that way for the environment as well.