Easy being green?
Over the last 2 years, I have seen my life becoming more and more green, or eco-conscious. I recycle, use compact-fluorescent light bulbs in over 90% of the fixtures in my house. I buy all eco-friendly cleaning products, have a high-efficiency washer and dryer, take short showers, give my dog baths with earth friendly, biodegradable shampoo and conditioner. There are myriad things I do in order to be “green.” Which makes me identify with a certain green friend, Kermit, who is famous for his lamenting over the difficulty of being green, even if his green was not the same as mine.
Something I don’t particularly agree with is all of the pressure to buy this or that to be more green. As if just your dollars are going to make a difference. Sure, buying biodegradable cleaners, using earth friendly products and materials does show support to the awareness that our earth is going to be around for only a limited time, but what’s behind this green movement? Is it all just some marketing ploy? I have made a commitment to buying products that are biodegradable, recycling any waste that I can, and making steps towards more efficient energy usage, but sometimes I feel like I’m being taken advantage of. Mention “plant-based”, “eco-friendly”, or “all natural” on any given product and I’m sure you’ll get the buyers you need. But is this really being green? Is it eco-conscious for a country to spend millions of dollars buying more and more stuff to make the cut of being green? Shouldn’t we just start using less?
The way I see it, efficiency is about getting the most out of what you have. Some of the “green” products out there just make you want to replace everything you have with the “better alternative”, but what if you haven’t used up what you have? Should we be punished for keeping our not-green products around? Some of the eco-conscious products are fairly expensive and take a long time to justify their costs. There are times when I feel like the green “pushers” are out there trying to get everyone to replace all the furniture in their house with eco-friendly furniture and the like and throw out all the other stuff. What bothers me is that our consumeristic culture is the least “green” thing that can possibly exist. If we go on buying item after item and just throwing away all the rest of the stuff, we’re never going to do the earth any good.
So the next time you feel pressured to do the “green” thing, really examine it for what it is. Is what you’re being sold replacing something that really needs replacing? Will it do what it promises for you? Are you buying it just to maintain some sort of status? What is your attitude behind it? I only hope that America will see a change in the way we consume. If we consume less, use less, then we are truly being green.
kyle
i completely agree! sometimes the “greener” thing to do is use up the non-green products that you already have but be conscious to replace them with the green alternative when you need to. it doesn’t make sense to buy a whole new wardrobe of clothes made of organic cotton only to discard the “old” wardrobe that still has a lot of wear in it! i see the whole thing as a process…change what you can now (for example: start recycling, use reuseable bags and water bottles instead of disposable, etc.), and, over time, begin to replace the things that still have some use in them (for example: change out burnt out light bulbs with cfl bulbs, buy high-efficiency appliances only when you need to replace the old appliances, etc.). it is not an overnight change. and it shouldn’t be, otherwise something is going to waste. when i got married, i bought a coffee table and armoire new with money that was given to us as a gift. as i became more environmentally conscious, i felt a little guilty for buying new furniture instead of finding an antique or second-hand furniture. but it would not have made any sense for me to throw out the new furniture to the curb and go purchase antiques! part of the process, for me, involved realizing how i can use what i already have and then to use things that are used, secondhand, or antiques.
mendy
12/02/2008 at 8:23 pm