Happy Earth Day! Love the earth and mother nature and all that! I'm mostly pretty green-minded. I have several reusable bags, I recycle and compost, I do my best to save paper by letting everything I can become digital. For a twist though, I'm going to make my Earth Day post about the ways I have a hard time being green about.
Fast Food/Groceries
All the better if fast food comes in paper but oftentimes it comes in wax paper, aluminum foil, or Styrofoam. I do my best to avoid this by cooking at home and choosing places that I know don't use styrofoam but it is really hard to drop the habit of this convenience because it's everywhere. As for groceries... at least the little plastic bag that veggies come in is reusable/recyclable, but what about bigger things? Potato chip bags? Anything that comes in a box? Yogurt containers? When SunChips announced their new compostable packaging, I considered renouncing all other chips just to support their efforts. But that is just one biodegradable bag out of the thousands of food packaging out there.
Feminine Hygiene Products
If you're a guy, this section doesn't matter to you and you can skip down to the next one. Ladies, you feel me on this -- that time of the month sucks. I can't wrap my mind around the green alternatives -- a reusable cup or cloth. The cloth is tough since I'm sometimes out all day, for 10 or 12 hours. No way am I hauling that around with me. And the cup? Honestly, I really just don't like the idea of reaching up there. I don't like the idea of the Nuvaring and I don't even use tampons. It's unfortunate, but I just can't get green about this.
Toilet Paper
Yes, toilet paper. And its cousin, the tissue. Mental Floss has an amazing article on the history of toilet paper and discuss how other parts of the world have widely accepted water as their primary method of cleansing. How much water, money, and paper would we save if we were't using toilet paper -- or even more, if we don't use water-based toilets? I also read on Mental Floss about a composting toilet, which essentially routes your excrements to become compost rather than... well, yeah.
Too green? Maybe.
Transportation
I live in Southern California and that should speak for itself about traffic. Even with all the public transportation innovations, the choice method of getting around is still with your very own car. Things were better when I was in college in San Diego, where I walked places half the time and took buses/shuttles most of the other half, but that's because most things I needed were in walking distance. To be really green, I'd have to eat up a lot of time on buses or splurge on at least a hybrid car. Tesla Motors is looking to begin production on the Model S, the first fully electric mid-range sedan, by next year. Two years after that, they are hoping to begin production on an economy-priced sedan.
Being green is tough sometimes -- some things are just unreasonable or unfeasible, but some are our mental blocks. What are some things that are hard for you to get green about?
Posts
I've been using pull ups with Ethan. Which pisses me off. Ha! But my cloth diapers have seriously... died. And they are not all that quick to pull off when child says "I have to go now!" and he can't unclip himself on his own. So we're in pull ups.
ReplyDeleteHair dye! I cannot give up the hair dye. I've considered going to the natural henna dyes... but they don't come in hot pink or teal. So... I dye my hair with the bad stuff.
I stopped composting. The kids took the lid off my homemade bin and it got SOAKED and I didn't feel like messing with it so I just quit. I did see compost bins at Lowes that I might get. I hate throwing away things that could easily be composted.
That's pretty much it. Ya know I'm the whole tree hugging vegan hippie. :P