Going green? What does that mean, exactly?

If you’re overwhelmed about using paper or plastic, carbon footprints and what, if anything, switching to low energy light bulbs is doing to help the environment, then hopefully, we can learn a bit together.

In 1988, my husband, who was a diesel mechanic at a landfill for a major metropolitan area, came home telling me stories about how seagulls and other wildlife that came to scavenge at the dump were getting plastic bags wrapped around their legs and caught in their beaks.

When I told my mom the story, we decided our households would do something about it and we purchased several cloth grocery bags.

My husband poo-poo’d the idea. He was so overwhelmed by the sight of millions of tons of trash being dumped each day he didn’t believe 3 people in two households could make a difference.

But we did. Two years ago, I added up the number of plastic bags we saved from the landfill by taking the number of times we visited the store and multiplying that by the # of cloth bags we reused each week.

By my estimation we had saved over 10,000 bags from the landfill. As well, we saved around $600 in rebates we received from the store for reusing bags. Most stores offer .10 for each bag you bring with you.

However, in these past two decades, I really haven’t done much more to make our impact on the environment lighter (with the exception of recycling). Part of it is that I sometimes feel like my husband, what difference is making small changes going to make? And part of it is that I just didn’t feel I have the time to figure it out – overwhelmed and guilty about not doing more.

The time has come, though, for us all to do something. When my husband first took a job at that landfill, it was predicted to take refuse until at least 2025. Now they are doubtful it will make it until the end of the decade – and that’s just one landfill in one metro area. That means more pristine land will have to be taken for our garbage – and I sure don’t want it in my backyard – but we can’t continue to be blind to it and pretending its not in somebody’s backyard.

Now that we live among the beauty of the Ozark Mountains, I feel it even more important to live a more sustainable life – for ourselves and for the earth and future generations.

Every Monday and Wednesday, I will be posting about my latest experience in researching “green” and passing info along that will make it easy for us all to do better by our Mother Earth. I will also interview authors and environmental journalists to tap them for their expertise.
1-2 tips that make it easy each week. A little at a time, we’ll make a difference.
I hope you’ll come along and go green wherever you’re at too.
And if you have a green tip, please share with our readers! You don’t have to sign in to comment.

Today’s Tip:

Using cloth grocery bags is one of the easiest ways to help the environment. Choose strong, sturdy bags that will not rip or tear. Mine are a strong cotton material. I use about 7 bags for a weeks’ worth of groceries. To get accustomed to carrying the bags to the grocery store, leave them in your car. Even after 20 years, I still sometimes forget if they aren’t already in the car. I also now use them when I go shopping at the mall. Believe me, most sackers have no idea what to do with a cloth bag, so watch them as they will try to over-pack them to the point you can’t lift the bags.
Cloth bags can be found at most major grocery stores these days – Wal-Mart even offers some now. You can also find them at www.green-kits.com
And have fun if you shop at Wal-Mart. Watching them try to put the bags on their little bag wheel is a real hoot!
See, you get to help the environment and be entertained, too!