Hello world.
Today I want to get personal; spend a moment to share how I live eco-friendly. I’m not going to cover the whys - it’s overdone and we should come to this choice on our own - but the hows. Society can be confusing, making the green choice look easy look easy; just bring our own bags to the store, that alone will change the world. Or, the flip side where not driving a car again, recycling all of our water, or not eating another scrap of meat can save the planet.
And you’ve joined the cause and decided to go eco-friendly.
What do you do?
I have no idea who is right. I just know what I can do to live green. We need to make changes but not everyone can be a vegetarian and I can’t even afford that Tesla.
To me being green is being mentally conscious. I wake up every day and choose to question everything. Don’t be discouraged. It becomes second nature. Before buying that bar of soap, take a moment and research the ingredients. Are those suds going down the drain polluting water sources? What does the company stand for? Do they give employees a fair share or do they produce in a solar-powered factory? Can you buy more local produce? Take a Saturday and visit the local market. These little steps, if everyone made the same choice, could be a change. All you have to do is take a moment to question.
A great example for me was buying boxes for our move last weekend. I had saved most of the boxes from our cross country move over a year ago, but even in that time, we accumulated more stuff…. yay… that or I can’t pack as well as my mother-in-law. I think we'll go with the second option. So we stood looking at the options. And guess what, most of the sets were covered in plastic wrap, that disgusting single-use plastic. Gross. Why are we wrapping these boxes in plastic? It’s that whole thing of putting a bag in another bag. The super-sized pack, a lovely 15 box set, which we did end up needing all of, was the only plastic-free option. Yes, it was more money at the time, and we really didn’t think we’d need that many, but we wanted to make a cleaner option.
Here is the point of the story. We looked at the options and we chose the one we thought would be the best on the environment. Did we make the right choice? I think so because I did use all the boxes. But that’s a whole other story.
And this is the start of change. Our country runs on consumerism. If we as a society force companies to question their production practices, then we can become the difference.
Take trash bags. Yes, they are a lovely convenience, but why must they be made of noncompostable materials? So let’s change that. Buy different bags. Companies will see the drop in sales and focus on what consumers are buying. Or better yet, attend county meetings and try to set up composting in the county. Imagine the amount of trash that could be cut back on.
So for the next month, I challenge you all to just question. Want to buy in bulk? Don’t grab those nasty plastic bags offered. Why not see if there are some paper bags in the produce section. Guess what, that was a huge change. Instead of throwing that old t-shirt away, why not cut it up as washable makeup wipes? Image how many more uses you could get out of that same square of fabric.
For us as a society to be the change, we need to change our thoughts. We can do this. It just takes a little mental training my young padawan. Do it and show others that it can be done.
Good luck!
Love Kait
