Hello! Hey, it’s Me.

Living Green, part 1

I’ve been around a lot of talk lately about green living.  And I like it!  We try to be as green as possible around here.  We mostly succeed, but there is A LOT more we could do (of course).

I started thinking about this more today because today is the brag day for Project Support Beauty in Nature over at Sarcastic Mom.  I, because I am totally lame, have no photos of us picking up trash.  In all honesty, our neighborhood stays pretty clean!  People around here don’t want to live with trashy yards, but they don’t always pick up their dog feces (and I’m not about to let the kids pick THAT up…ewww…).

Anyhow, I am here to tell you about being green…from my perspective.  It’s hard for me to even think back to the basics - many of the “basic” things are like second nature - we just do it and I just assume everyone else does, too.  And unfortunately, the basics that we all know about do *some* for the environment, but they really don’t do *much* at all.  To truly be “green,” you really have to make some sacrifices.  This all sounds good in theory, but in reality, people just don’t want to do it…we get used to the luxuries in life, even if those luxuries are what are causing the most serious and irreversible damage to the environment.  Not that I’m pessimistic about this or anything…

Another issue?  We feel like we aren’t going to make a difference.  I mean, I don’t drive an SUV or eat beef, but I am only one person.  What about John and Joe and Judy on our street?   They drive SUVs all day long and eat beef every day!  We’ve been through this in our family.  How is my one little contribution - almost minuscule contribution - really going to make a difference?  The truth?  It doesn’t.  BUT when you and three neighbors and four readers and all of California make these changes, that DOES make a difference.  We are each a piece in this HUGE jigsaw puzzle - everything has to fit together to make a difference.  So if we all work together, WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

So the obvious:

~Reduce (as in Reduce, Reuse, Recycle): this, along with “reuse” is often forgotten when we talk about recycling.  REDUCE can mean so many things - cook for your family and eat your leftovers; set a few “no buying” days per week and stick with it…that means not hitting Target just to browse (and ultimately buy); use the fronts, backs and sides of paper in your printer rather than putting another ream of paper in; better yet, invest in a good PDA to keep track of life rather than a paper calendar and commit to using it for a specified period (3-5 years); and take your own grocery bags to the store instead of bringing home a handful of bags each and every time you shop (or keep one or two in your purse or diaper bag for shopping on the fly - check out the compact Chico Bag).

~Reuse  (as in Reduce, Reuse, Recycle): this, along with reduce, is oven overlooked.  It’s easy to reuse!  Invest in reusable batteries to cut back on some of the most toxic waste - you will end up paying yourself back in the end; reusable grocery bags; if you have an abundance of water (unlike us!), use cloth diapers; reusable menstrual products (they aren’t really gross…I promise!); and store food in washable containers with lids (such as Polyethylene Terephthalate (PETE or PET) or High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) plastic containers) rather than in plastic bags or covered with foil or plastic wrap.

~Recycle - Treehugger does the best job at explaining how to green your recycling.

Oops…past my bedtime!  I can go on and on, can’t I?  Stay tuned for Parts 2, 3, and 4 (and maybe 5, 6, and 7…)