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Going green!

3K views 24 replies 11 participants last post by  Coney 
#1 ·
How did you start living a green lifestyle! I mean was it difficult, did you run into any problems? What has been the major benefits? I now its trendy thing now but I have always wanted to live my life this way, I just need a way to get my foot in the door so speak!
 
#2 ·
Well, being totally poor helps. I want light bulbs that last 10 years. I need a garden or else I wont ever see tomatoes. I need to ride my bike because they are re-possessing my car. Uhm what else? Serious. For me it was a mixture of expediency and love of do-it-yourself-ism. I have a home-made out door solar hot water heater, make my own bread, ride a bike, am saving for a corn stove, have a larger than normal garden. My living expenses are very low compared to other folks in my area. A lot of people think that green has to do with buying things. I think it has to do more with giving things up. Quality over quantity. Choice over not having a choice, and having the choice to say, "no," to a lot of things.

I've been into the green lifestyle for over 30 years (I was a teenager in the 70's). I'm glad that some things have gotten better, solar cells and so on, but believe me, they could be much better. No one has been working on that stuff. Billions we spend on war and nothing on living on solar energy. It gets me mad.
 
#3 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by locs19 View Post

How did you start living a green lifestyle! I mean was it difficult, did you run into any problems? What has been the major benefits? I now its trendy thing now but I have always wanted to live my life this way, I just need a way to get my foot in the door so speak!
Easy ways to reduce your environmental footprint include

* going vegan

* reduce car use by walking, biking, or using public transit

* fix broken things rather than throwing out and buying new

* use reusable products instead of disposable

* recycle

* use less heat and air conditioning

* compost

* take shorter showers

Lots of other good ones too. Sometimes there is a smal sacrafice but I've found there isn't any real hardship. Things like recycling take no effort since you'd have to carry it to the trash anyway.
 
#5 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by locs19 View Post

How did you start living a green lifestyle! I mean was it difficult, did you run into any problems? What has been the major benefits? I now its trendy thing now but I have always wanted to live my life this way, I just need a way to get my foot in the door so speak!
I Have always been green.

I Recycle and Reuse everything that I can...I even take others recyclables out of the garbage.

I take shorter showers and sometimes baths.

I turn the water off while washing my face or brushing my teeth.

i Grow a garden and compost

I try to use and fix what I have and not just run out and buys something new.

I dont use plastic bags...I use green bags at the grocery and other stores.

I buy at goodwill...and amvets stores like that.

I buy books at the used store or go to the library.

try not to take the car as much...bike or walk.

try to reduce use or air conditioning and heat.

I use a lunch carrier instead of throwing a brown bag away each day.

I have a water bottle...but still buy bottled water..but make sure to always recycle no exceptions!!

It wasnt hard for me at all...didnt have that many problems..took some getting used to but after that its great to know that you are making a difference in the world...and thats what I have always wanted to do.
 
#6 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by jenni-anti-fur View Post

I have a water bottle...but still buy bottled water..but make sure to always recycle no exceptions!!
Great job on reducing your environmental impact
. It sounds like you do a lot!

However, just so you know most bottled water companies are selling you municipal tap water. Unless you live in a particularly dirty area, the water out of your tap is likely just as safe as the water you buy in a bottle. If you don't like the taste of your tap water you can buy one of the reverse osmosis filters which will clean up the taste.

By not buying bottled water you reduce the amount of plastic that needs to be made and the amount of transportation used in the production. Not to mention you stop giving your money to the companies that deceive their customers by selling their tap water back to them.
 
#7 ·
Thanx for the kind words and Thanx for the tip....but I cant drink the Tap water here....it has too much chlorine in it and has a wierd smell to it and since I was younger it has given me horrible stomach cramps and had a ton of stomach distress and issues and it was reccomended by a doctor that I dont do it....and I wont be going through that again.....I have been drinking bottled water out of necessity since i was in my early teens and am an avid recycler.

forgot to mention a few other things I do too...Like I wont run the dishwasher or do Loads of Laundry untill I have full loads...to save water.

I also exchange Magazines with Family and Friends we all subscribe or buy different ones and exchange and then always recycle in the proper area...the magazine recycle area is at my local post office and I take the there.
 
#8 ·
There's really nothing hard about being 'green' persay. Start small then you'll become addicted.

being vegan and buying local produce is a huge green step, if you're posting here you're at least half way there heh. Reusable shopping bags and refillable waterbottles are another biggie, as is remembering the childhood days of Reduce, Recycle, Reuse. My current efforts are to remove paper napkins from the table for cloth. Haven't bought enough napkins to do that yet though, I'm workin on it
Salvation Army hasn't had good stock this month.

Start reading something like http://www.thegreenguide.com or (shameless, shameless plug) http://greenmarmalade.wordpress.com . Green Guide gives me great ideas, like where to buy organic cotton shirts, etc. I feel the more I read, the more I want to help.

Good luck
 
#9 ·
I've been transitioning into a greener lifestyle. I go one step at a time so I don't feel overwhelmed by the change.

Things I've already done:

Brita water bubbler at home instead of buying bottled water

Recycling

Switching over to CFL light bulbs as the incandescent ones burn out

Unsubscribed to as many mailing lists as I can think of

Just purchased reusable grocery bags--now I just need to get in the habit of bringing them to the grocery store with me.

Buying more organic foods and products. I choose local over organic, though.

As I run out of conventional housecleaning, dishwashing, and laundry stuff, I replace it with a green alternative.

For my daughter, I'm starting to try out training pants that are more green--I'm trying the Whole Foods brand right now.

Next in line is to start buying more recycled products. When I run out of paper towels and toilet paper I will replace them with the recycled version. I don't use that many paper towels (a roll lasts at least a week around here) anyway, but creating a demand for recycled products helps ensure that what is put out in your recycle bin gets recycled instead of ending up in a landfill. Likewise, when I run out of printer paper or notebook paper, I will replace it with recycled paper.

Ideally, I'd like to use a car less, but public transportation isn't all that good around here--getting to work takes about 5 times longer as when I drive. I'm looking into seeing if I can start up a carpool at work with someone, but I go in earlier and leave earlier than most everyone, so I'm not sure if it will work out.
 
#10 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by tearhsong2 View Post

I don't use that many paper towels (a roll lasts at least a week around here) anyway.
Have you tried using a microfibre cloth? (you can find them in dollar stores, even) it will help you curb that appetite for paper towel. They soak up a lot of liquid and can be squeezed almost dry. They have enough texture that you can even clean without chemicals a lot of the time. They do not leave streaks, and you just need to add water to harness their mighty cleaning power.

ETA: I thought that was a facetious remark about not using much paper towel, I use a roll every two to three months, a roll a week seems excessive.
 
#11 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sketchy View Post

ETA: I thought that was a facetious remark about not using much paper towel, I use a roll every two to three months, a roll a week seems excessive.
It's not excessive if you have kids or dogs.


I recycle everything the center here takes. I wish we'd get curbside, but it's not that hard to haul it there myself, especially since glass/plastic/metal doesn't have to be separated. I buy bottled H2O too because the water here is crap but I recycle all the bottles.

I would never have a need for AC, but my dogs don't agree. So I use it at home. I don't use it in the car though.

So yeah, I could be doing more. I'd totally buy reusable bags, but I need the plastic ones for walking my dogs and dogs at the shelter.
 
#12 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wolfie View Post

It's not excessive if you have kids or dogs.
Still seems excessive, I'm not starting a debate here, just offering my opinion. I have a few friends with dogs and babies who use the microfibre cloth as a direct substitute for paper towel.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wolfie View Post

I buy bottled H2O too because the water here is crap but I recycle all the bottles.
Bottled Water Drinkers Are The New Smokers

Pablo Calculates the True Cost of Bottled Water

"the manufacture and transport of that one kilogram bottle of Fiji water consumed 26.88 kilograms of water (7.1 gallons) .849 Kilograms of fossil fuel (one litre or .26 gal) and emitted 562 grams of Greenhouse Gases (1.2 pounds).

UPDATE: Due to the incredible response to this post, Pablo obtained more information and has recalculated, and it is not as bad as previously stated but still staggeringly bad, 6.74 times as much water as is in the bottle."
 
#13 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wolfie View Post

I buy bottled H2O too because the water here is crap but I recycle all the bottles.
When you say your water is crap, do you mean the taste or the health effects?

If you mean the taste see my previous post on bottled water. A filter may be what you need to clean up the taste.

Recycling the bottles is better than throwing the bottles out, but avoiding buying the bottles in the first place would be the best solution. Since all houses I've been to come equipped with a water dispenser in the kitchen, I see bottled water as pure waste in most situations.
 
#14 ·
I am not procreating. If I raise children in the future, I will take the extremely hard and demanding route of adopting children with trauma histories. Because of their unique needs, I may find it harder to do things like insist all people in the household take showers of five minutes or less... since there can be a lot of things that children with trauma histories need at least temporarily as a calming mechanism. Once the child is emotionally ready to take shorter showers.

Still, it´s less resource consumption than if I procreated, didn´t adopt, and the children with trauma histories still exist... just live elsewhere. (Now, I will be careful only to adopt from areas without a black market baby trade, since crooks stealing young children from competent families in the Third World because the crooks want to get rich of ¨selling¨the children to people in First World countries isn´t my idea of anything ethical.)

So, for people who have not already procreated, this is a viable option, and people who have biological children can decide not to procreate for any more children.
 
#15 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Skylark View Post

I am not procreating. If I raise children in the future, I will take the extremely hard and demanding route of adopting children with trauma histories. Because of their unique needs, I may find it harder to do things like insist all people in the household take showers of five minutes or less... since there can be a lot of things that children with trauma histories need at least temporarily as a calming mechanism. Once the child is emotionally ready to take shorter showers.

Still, it´s less resource consumption than if I procreated, didn´t adopt, and the children with trauma histories still exist... just live elsewhere. (Now, I will be careful only to adopt from areas without a black market baby trade, since crooks stealing young children from competent families in the Third World because the crooks want to get rich of ¨selling¨the children to people in First World countries isn´t my idea of anything ethical.)

So, for people who have not already procreated, this is a viable option, and people who have biological children can decide not to procreate for any more children.
Not procreating is one of the best things a couple can do to not demand more stress on our environment.
 
#16 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by bigdufstuff View Post

Not procreating is one of the best things a couple can do to not demand more stress on our environment.
Or a single person, though fewer people are inclined to seek out being a single parent.
 
#18 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by tearhsong2 View Post

I've been transitioning into a greener lifestyle. I go one step at a time so I don't feel overwhelmed by the change.

Things I've already done:

When I run out of paper towels and toilet paper I will replace them with the recycled version. I don't use that many paper towels (a roll lasts at least a week around here) anyway.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sketchy View Post

Have you tried using a microfibre cloth? (you can find them in dollar stores, even) it will help you curb that appetite for paper towel. They soak up a lot of liquid and can be squeezed almost dry. They have enough texture that you can even clean without chemicals a lot of the time. They do not leave streaks, and you just need to add water to harness their mighty cleaning power.

ETA: I thought that was a facetious remark about not using much paper towel, I use a roll every two to three months, a roll a week seems excessive.
I agree. Try microfiber, Those are great for messes. My famliy consists of 4 (very wasteful) people and myself. 6 inside dogs and 3 inside cats. We use 1 roll a week. (usually less)

Quote:
Originally Posted by jenni-anti-fur View Post

I Have always been green.

but still buy bottled water..but make sure to always recycle no exceptions!!
Bottled water is no better than tap. It also takes energy to product and to recycle them. That's why reducing and reusing come first. If you can't deal with tap, I would suggest a water filter.

My Grandmother uses bottled water because of her misguided fear that the tap is bad water and bottled is good water. I've tried explaining but it falls on deaf ears. I have no countrol over her, So I have to simply recycle them.

I try to do what I can, Being under 18 and having no real say in what goes on makes it difficult but I hope to do more once i'm out of here.
 
#19 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by bigdufstuff View Post

When you say your water is crap, do you mean the taste or the health effects?
Both. It tastes like crap, often like chlorine, sometimes like fish, and sometiems like fish and chlorine together. Yum. And there are a number of carcinogens left in it *after* it's gone through the city's cleaning process. Actually the ACS tested the water of several cities around here. My city's had the highest levels of carcinogens.

I would buy a filter, but I was under the impression that the really good ones that will make my water taste like Aquafina are very expensive. The $25 filter from Target just doesn't do the trick, though it's useful for my dogs.
 
#22 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Skylark View Post

If I raise children in the future, I will take the extremely hard and demanding route of adopting children with trauma histories. Because of their unique needs, I may find it harder to do things like insist all people in the household take showers of five minutes or less... since there can be a lot of things that children with trauma histories need at least temporarily as a calming mechanism. Once the child is emotionally ready to take shorter showers.
That's interesting, but I'm not really sure I agree about that concept re. the showers specifically or other environmental things with children with trauma. I think if something is just "what is done" in the house, and it's presented as a wonderful way to be kind to the environment, or even made into a game or whatever, it doesn't have to be seen as a deprivation. Some people live in very poor situations and have to use their resources very carefully. I think whether that is traumatic or contributes to further trauma has much more to do with the caretakers and how the situation is presented than the situation itself. People can live in mansions with nearly limitless resources and still feel deprived.
 
#23 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sketchy View Post

Have you tried using a microfibre cloth? (you can find them in dollar stores, even) it will help you curb that appetite for paper towel. They soak up a lot of liquid and can be squeezed almost dry. They have enough texture that you can even clean without chemicals a lot of the time. They do not leave streaks, and you just need to add water to harness their mighty cleaning power.

ETA: I thought that was a facetious remark about not using much paper towel, I use a roll every two to three months, a roll a week seems excessive.
In a house with a small child, it's really not that much---compared to people I know people who use a lot more than a roll a week. They don't even have kitchen cloth towels, they just use paper towels for everything. Some go through as much as a roll or more a day. Some times I get a roll to stretch as long as 2-3 weeks. It just depends on how many messes my daughter makes.


I do use micro fiber cloths for some things (they're fabulous for dry and wet dusting and cleaning up spills), but there are things that with a small child in the house that for the sake of sanitation concerns a disposable paper towel is preferable.
 
#24 ·
Off-topic response to Irizary:

[SPOILER=Warning: Spoiler!]
Quote:
Originally Posted by Irizary View Post

That's interesting, but I'm not really sure I agree about that concept re. the showers specifically or other environmental things with children with trauma. I think if something is just "what is done" in the house, and it's presented as a wonderful way to be kind to the environment, or even made into a game or whatever, it doesn't have to be seen as a deprivation. Some people live in very poor situations and have to use their resources very carefully. I think whether that is traumatic or contributes to further trauma has much more to do with the caretakers and how the situation is presented than the situation itself. People can live in mansions with nearly limitless resources and still feel deprived.
Sorry, I probably didn't explain myself well. I've learned so much about children with trauma histories and attachment disorders in recent months, but that doesn't mean I will make myself clear the first time I bring up the subject.

Children with traumatic pasts often have things they do as coping mechanisms because of their histories. Suppose I wake up in the middle of the night and find my four-year-old sitting on the kitchen floor, with sugar all over the floor, spooning sugar into his/her mouth. Simply explaining, "In this house we don't eat sugar by the spoonful, honey, because it's bad for our bodies" wouldn't really help because the child is not acting from a logical place in the brain. Usually these coping mechanisms come from a more basic place in the brain, and it may take time for the parent to figure out what stressor is causing the child to behave a certain way. Forbidding a behavior doesn't help, since that creates more stress for the child. The child is probably not thinking, "Mom says not to do this thing, but I'm going to do it anyway." It's probably more along the lines of, "I'm so hungry. If I don't eat the sugar, I will die. Oh no, someone is telling me not to eat the sugar. I better eat it faster so I can get it before it goes away and there is no more food."

Of course, the parent's goal is to calm the child down so the child feels safe and secure and can behave in socially acceptable ways. If the child lives in constant (non-logical) fear of dying, starving, being kicked out of the home, or any number of other things their brains may be telling them are quite possible outcomes, that is not the best time for an environmentally-friendly lesson. In time, the child should be able to regulate his/her emotions without excessive use of sugar, or long baths, or individually-sized juices, but sometimes parents actually let it go on for a little while so the child can get to a mental place where s/he can talk about what s/he is experiencing and why the sugar, bath or individually-sized juice is so important.

Certainly it may help to have many healthy foods available and to eat at regular times throughout the day. This will help with the body's need for food. But the brain and the body don't always communicate well, especially when the brain's formation was hindered by traumatic events.

I would like to have an environmentally-friendly household. I would also like to be able to raise traumatized children to fully-functioning adulthood. Now and then, this may mean allowing something that isn't the most efficient thing environmentally or resource-wise, but the idea is to move in an environmentally-friendly direction.[/SPOILER]
 
#25 ·
We cloth diaper, have CFLs in our home, we're veggie of course, we signed up for renewable energy for our home (it gets added to the grid), we use canvas grocery bags, we don't own a car and walk or take mass transit.

As for purchases, we try to buy organic stuff as much as possible, and recycled paper products.
 
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