Baby Steps to a Green World - Part 4

If you're over 30, ask your grandmother about this one. If you're not, she may actually be part of the problem. The whole disposable construct infiltrated our culture over fifty years ago. Women had always had to use rags for "that time of the month" and then had to wash them for the next month. The invention of disposable sanitary pads was a miracle. All sorts of disposables started appearing to liberate women from their housework chains. The other great influence was plastic, especially the disposable kind - plastic bags and bottles, polystyrene plates and cups, plastic forks and spoons....

Funny how innovations so wonderful should turn sour on us once we've become addicted to them. But back to the Recycle Mantra. A few more generations earlier, when there were no plastics, no disposables of any kind, no supermarkets and - gasp - no Internet, that mantra was a very real way of life for most folks. Like the song says, "everything old is new again" and recycling has been revived.

Let's ignore the official recycling of paper, cans, glass and plastic bottles. The jury has not found that system to be working satisfactorily or worth the effort...yet. Products made from recycled materials are usually more expensive than the regular stuff, which seems seriously self-defeating. Let's think less about the big R word and more in terms of Great-grannie's mantra.

Google "or do without" and you'll find the mantra is alive and well all over the Internet. One site, www.43things.com offers "a place where you can write down your goals, get inspired by others, and share your own progress." A whole raft of people wrote in about their determination to stop buying more clothes and gadgets when they have plenty now. Not a bad idea.

Just on the first page of the huge list that Google came up with were several blogs and similar sites devoted to this principle. If you are serious about living greener, tune in to some of these. Kinda like going to an AA meeting. Besides the reinforcement of getting together with like minded folks, you will learn what others are doing.

www.almostfrugal.com
www.free2befrugal.blogspot.com
www.thenonconsumeradvocate.wordpress.com
www.makinglifebetter.com - rather commercial but lots of little tips and recipes and stuff

Use it up

Stashed in your kitchen and bath, you probably have a bunch of products that never quite produced the miracle they promised. So you bought something else but its miracle failed also. Forget the miracles, these products still do some good. If they didn't, why did you keep them? Use 'em up, kid.

Wear it out

Have you noticed how much living green seems to involve living frugally? Not a coincidence. One of the definitions of living green is to avoid wasting resources. Which implies not buying something new to replace something that doesn't need replacing. Remember the saying, "Don't fix what ain't broke." Some people buy a new car every year or two, even though there's nothing wrong with the car they have. They'll tell you it's cheaper than messing with repairs as a car starts getting older. Baloney. A properly maintained four-year-old car is not likely to be nearly as expensive as financing a new one.

Make it do

Instead of all those specialized cleaning products, stick to one all-purpose cleaner that doesn't smell too obnoxious and maybe doesn't need to be rinsed. Then Google "bleach uses" and you'll find it does lots of things besides whiten laundry. Bleach kills weeds and poison ivy, removes moss, algae and mildew, and... and... Just don't mix it with ammonia.

Then do a search for "vinegar uses" or visit www.vinegartips.com. You will become a convert! With bleach, ammonia and vinegar, you may not even need that all-purpose product. Your great grandmother didn't.

Or do without

Hot flash, folks! You can actually live, and quite nicely, without the latest "must have" clothes, games, and gadgets. The real trouble with the latest fad is that it is a fad. What burns hottest burns out fastest. Before the new wears off, it's passe and you mustn't be seen with it. Living green means taking a longer view. Get off the crazy merry-go-round, it don't go nowhere.

Giving up the need to be trendy can be the hardest part of trying to live more green. If you can't do it, be cool. Do what you can.