Practical Enviromentalism

For the life of me I can't get the little song Kermit the Frog used to sing about, "It's not easy being green" out of my head. It's odd what sticks in your head from time to time isn't it. Why couldn't I stick something useful in there like how to cure autism or something.

Ahhh!!!! I might be slowly turning into a card carrying tree hugger. I'm not what you would call a big environmental person yet. I like the practical approach to being green. I do think there are probably too many preservatives in the food we eat and the medication we ingest. I don't want municipalities telling me that I have to use canvas bags. (I do use those little plastic bags from the store as trash can liners. If you take those away I will have to BUY trash bags....how will that help the landfill?) If you want people to do more curbside recycling, make it easy, provide bins (made from all of those trash bags) and then charge people for any refuse above X number of bags.

Here are a couple of practical green examples from our life. We bought some water bottles not so we could reduce the amount of plastic in the landfill (although that is a good side benefit) but because it would save us money from buying water at the store 2x a month (approximately $10), besides our water tastes good but I realize that is not true in all areas of the country. We recently bought some canvas grocery bags from our local health food store. They are great to travel with and since Jordan is on a special diet we travel with our own grocery store. I can use the canvas bags when we go to the library and bring home a couple of shelves of books. Also, this same store is donating to Habitat for Humanity every time you use a canvas bag, I like that.

There are some really new and interesting products on the market that look promising. I like the idea of products made out of bamboo which is a hardwood and grows quickly (and it's attractive too). Mark was reading in Popular Science the other day about some new solar technology that is inexpensive and easy to install, it sounds exciting and practical. I look forward to the day in the near future when it is practical to plug my car into an outlet in the garage but that day isn't here quite yet. When I can go long distances on a charge, when I don't have to drive in a car the size of a dishwasher, when the car doesn't cost a bizillion dollars sign me up. If it makes the air cleaner in the process- all the better.

A good motto to live by: "What is one man's trash is another man's treasure." Be generous and pass things that you just don't want anymore on to someone else who can make good use of them...practical environmentalism.

I guess I don't mind being a little green but it's got to make sense.