I’ve always been fairly ecologically minded—never run water while brushing my teeth, hate paper plates and utensils, have always recycled and even had a compost pile for a while (now that was cool…)
But the bar’s raised. The consequences of our (Americans’) habits—consumption, shopping, cleaning, driving…oh, just about everything—are undeniable and they impact not just our children and grandchildren’s world (which should be motivation enough, but it clearly hasn’t been), but our world, today. Perhaps the idea of beachfront property disappearing has finally gotten everyone’s attention.
But let’s face it—it’s hard to change. Particularly when you feel “hey, I already *xxxx*…” (fill in the blank—recycle, installed energy star appliances, buy organic, etc.)—“…and now I’ve got to do more?”
Most green guide articles—whether online, books or magazines—while educational, also end up being overwhelming. Their objective is to make it seem easy—“hey, look, here are 1000 different ways you can make a difference! See, it’s easy—pick one (or better yet 885) and do them! Now!”
But the impact of seeing 1000 things you can do, translates to 1000 things you should do…and thence comes the sense of being overwhelmed, accompanied by inertia, followed by guilt…and if you do manage to do one or two, well, there are 998 left—what are you waiting for? Rainforests and coastlines are being destroyed as we speak!
It’s time we acknowledge change is hard—and aim for, and celebrate, the small changes we do make. They really do add up. And we can’t really guilt people (ourselves or others) into it, alas (people still smoke after all and that has more negative individual impact than most green initiatives).
So what’s my story? Life kicked me upside the head last year and I’m in a change-making place right now. And have committed myself to expand my scope to living a greener life…one small change at a time.
My most recent ‘small’ change: Shopping Bags!
I’ve always tried to re-use shopping bags…paper stored Goodwill giveaways, plastic was used for trash, scooping the cat litter, other stuff. But of course we always collected more than we could reasonably use. And I’d try to save them, not wanting to throw any away without a use—it was madness.
And then Whole Foods (and even Trader Joe’s!) starting a ‘bring your bag’ campaign. It was great—and I’d think how great it was as I walked into the store without my own bag, time after time (damn! gotta remember next time…) And then got distracted and didn’t. I annoyed myself.
How did I break the cycle? Finally, after shopping one day I went around and picked up 4-5 random bags (a euro mesh-style one, a department store bag, some old paper bags) and threw them in the back seat of my car. No more excuses!
Now I have them—and use them! I also place them on the bottom of my cart while shopping, to put some of my fruits and vegetables…thus avoiding using even more plastic bags (one serrano chile and one piece of ginger don’t really need their own individual, separate plastic bags).
And when I’m at the drug store, and only buy 1-2 things? Just say ‘no bag please,’ and put them in my handbag.
Whew! So what’s next? (Only 999 to go…)