How Green Are You?

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April 22, 2009

Happy Earth Day! As the country gears up for a national conversation on global warming and its impact on the future, our Momversation panelists are having their own conversation about being green. And as Kermit the Frog once so eloquently said, it's not easy. There's lots of time and money involved, and neither are in abundance these days (check out Tips for Eco-Shopping, written by Diane MacEachern of BigGreenPurse.com). With this in mind, Heather Armstrong of Dooce asks the panelists, "How green are you?"

What do you do to live green? What don't you do? Do you find it a pain? Do you go the extra mile to have a smaller environmental footprint? Or do you think that the green movement is just a buncha hippies? Join the Momversation in our comments.

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Panelists

Alice Bradley - Finslippy Heather Armstrong - Dooce Karen Walrond -Chookooloonks

Keywords

Home and Garden Shopping

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25 Comments

legpub

It can be difficult to be green. I feel you should start at home because you cannot control kids at school to be green but you can encourage it.

Fri, 2009-10-02 06:26

ghoh

We live as green as we can - we have for as long as my husband and I have been together. Having a child has challenged us - the whole how to cope with the demands of living with a small child v's the planet. We also live in apartment - it's tiny but we have a small garden.

The most "controversial" thing we have done is use cloth nappies - we use 'modern cloth nappies' they work pretty much like a disposable made of bamboo with press studs and then a cover over the top. http://www.babybeehinds.com.au/www. When I tell other Moms that I use use cloth I seriously get incredulous stares like I'm some huge martyr for the environment or something. They aren't that hard people! You wash ALOT when you have a small child - these new nappies only require a quick rinse before a regular wash so for me they aren't any extra work - also I don't use them exclusively - if they aren't dry or if we are out/traveling we use disposable nappies.

That said - I believe this green stuff only works if you can do it easily - there is no point committing to stuff that doesn't sit with your lifestyle yet.....

Sun, 2009-05-10 04:05

SomethingGirl

Who gets $4 chicken?!! You darn Americans and your cheap food. You have no idea how good you have it. That's extra money you could be spending on... well, me. I promise I'll put it to good use.

In all seriousness, I believe we are stewards over the earth and I don't want to be introduced to the turtles and such that my garbage killed.

Anyone interested in going green should buy the book Green For Life by Gill Deacon. It's is jam packed with awesome, bite-sized info and places to buy healthy, green make-up and all kinds of stuff. Google it.

Mon, 2009-05-04 13:15

denise karis

goodness, this is a good topic. It IS expensive to Go Green - like Dooce was saying, when it comes to $12 chicken VS $4 chicken, I can't spend 3 times as much on groceries trying to take care of the enviornment. Eric and I walk to the store though when we can - we dont waste, we do recycle and maybe one day when we dont care about money, we can care about going green more :P

Fri, 2009-05-01 20:43

acm

Interesting to hear Alice talking about the footprint of home-ownership -- one of the underdiscussed benefits of living in a city is that it becomes much easier to reduce your footprint, as townhouses insulate one another (reducing heat/AC costs), transit means you can give up your car or rarely use it, and wires and pipes need travel only a short distance to bring us utilities. That makes me feel a little better about the other big footprint-increaser: a baby, with all the additional trash, laundry, and other waste that she has brought into our household! Looking forward to the end of diapers, although that won't be the end of the chaos and waste, I'm sure. (Can we talk about the light-switch game?! sigh.)

Wed, 2009-04-29 08:07

npc10202001

Here's what I always wonder about as I wash my baggies to be re-used - is it more wasteful to throw away plastic, or to use water to wash it? We've been recycling for decades, but I use a fair amount of water to wash food away from glass or plastic containers before recycling them (don't want to attract rodents). There's a big water shortage in California. Which should I be more worried about?

Fri, 2009-04-24 11:17

momma81

It definitely takes less energy to heat up some water to clean the baggie. Think about the energy and plastics that go into creating baggies. Tons of pollution, production lines, etc. Not to mention the impact that baggie has as it's leaching into the soil in the dump. Reuse the baggie.

Sat, 2009-04-25 18:45

Diary of a Quitter

You could catch the water you use to rinse out your glass & plastic containers in a basin and use it to water your plants. If you're really concerned about wasting water, look into graywater recycling. There's lots of info on the internet about what you can use different kinds of graywater for - like you can use your bath or shower water to water plants (if you use biodegradable soap) but it's not safe for a veggie gardern.

Fri, 2009-04-24 16:35

run4rain

Going green is great! I hate being wasteful and love being able to do my part to keep our trash down. I try to buy organics simply for the fact that they're better for our bodies to digest. The closer to the natural foods you can get straight out of the ground, the more nutrients you absorb, which is awesome. Unfortunately, our neighborhood we live in doesn't recycle, they don't even have trash pick-up service! Has anyone heard of that before?! Thankfully, where we live is about 10 minutes from a site where they separate out trash from aluminum, glass, plastic, etc. and do recycling. The best thing about that is it costs less than $3 to take in a whole month's worth of stuff.

However, I'm one of those people who don't believe in global warming. I studied meteorology in college (the science/research part, not the tv part) and I don't know what's changed in 6 years (other than Al Gore's backing), but when I was studying this stuff, global warming was just a simple scientific theory that couldn't be proven. If you look at the records throughout our history, the earth periodically goes through times of warming and times of cooling. It took what, 4 years or so to warm 2 degrees and in two years, we've cooled back down by a little over a degree. If it was truly global warming, we'd keep heating and then go through an ice age. Think of the last ice age our planet had. We weren't here with all this CO2 pumping technology.

Also, if they were so truly concerned with global warming, why don't they plant more trees, grass, shrubbery, and plants and stop cutting down the rain forests? All of these take CO2 in and convert it into oxygen, making our CO2 production less of an impact.

Fri, 2009-04-24 06:51

momma81

I'm just wondering who "they" is? Isn't "they" us? We should all plant more trees and shrubbery, and whoever the hell is cutting down the rain forests ... make them stop!

I think those who are truly concerned with global warming aren't the ones who are cutting down the rainforests.

Sat, 2009-04-25 18:42

kristi

I grew up being green in many ways. We didn't have a lot of money so we always had to reduce, and reuse...but the biggest thing I remember is the recycling. I'm from Nova Scotia, Canada and they have a HUGE recycling program. Heather, they come and pick up your recyclables every week! That includes glass. There is a regular garbage day, recycles (like bottles, cans etc) and compost! And they provide the huge compost bin. It was wonderful. Unfortunately I now live in Northern Canada and we can’t recycle and where I live is a dump! People just throw dirty diapers out the back door all winter long.
Go to my blog post that I just did earlier today to see pictures!

http://thedrennans.blogspot.com/2009/04/when-snow-melts.html

I love hearing all of your efforts! There’s not enough I can say on the subject except for baby steps! I’ve been making baby steps for a few years now and just working on getting a bit better every day. I use as many natural cleaners and cloths that I can. We try to keep things unplugged and lights turned off. AND because we have lots of bears up here that dig in at the dump…I leave a little bit of food in my cans to give them some health and variety….this way I’m helping with our local wildlife’s welfare! That has nothing to do with going green but I feel it's equally important! ;)

Thu, 2009-04-23 20:14

Asianmommy

Like many of you, I'm trying. I use Method household cleaners and Seventh Generation dishwasher and laundry detergent. I try to use rags instead of paper towels, cloth napkins instead of paper, & reusable containers instead of Ziplock bags. I try to recycle as much as I can. I try to buy organic food and bring my reusable bags. I try to walk to school when the weather's nice. Every little bit helps.

Thu, 2009-04-23 18:25

mommytoall

When our daughter was born Hubby wanted to do cloth diapers I told him only if he paid for a diaper service he changed his mind.

I am so not green. But I do buy second hand clothes and books mostly for the savings and I have a little girl who gets holes in her jeans in a week

. I give my water bottles to my neighbors to recycle I reuse stuff around my house and I donate old things.

I have a Big Ol' SUV. maybe I should move to Texas. I live in a apartment and I just hate having all the stuff piled on my patio trying to separate cans , bottles, paper whatever. I know Its Lazy but I just throw it all in the trash Please don't crusify this California Girl who I guess shoulda been a Texan

Thu, 2009-04-23 10:07

otherpeopleschicken

My favorite way to be green is to buy secondhand-I've been doing almost exclusively used clothing for my children for about the last two years-and books are even more of a no-brainer. If you live in a community with some high-rollers, you can totally capitalize on their wastefulness-maybe even reducing their carbon footprint FOR them (how benevolent!) by purchasing their barely-worn castoffs at your local Goodwill store. Not everyone is comfortable wearing the clothes off someone else's back, and believe me, I've had more than one southern gentlewoman (think Dixie Carter) get the vapors at the mere mention of "thrift store", but the compliments I receive on my daughter's wardrobe far outweigh the wrinkled noses. Miniboden, Oilily, a Da-Nang skirt with the Neiman Marcus tags still on-I mean, don't you feel like setting up your sleeping bag, Black Friday-style, just to be there when the doors open tomorrow morning? Buying used has been my greenest move yet; I consider the $2.60 per-item price tag the universe's way of saying thanks.

Wed, 2009-04-22 20:05

mosey along

It just makes so much sense NOT to be wasteful. Great topic and discussion.

Someone gave me the book Gorgeously Green a while back, and it's a great resource - tells you how to make small steps to being more "friendly" to the environment, has recipes for your own home-concocted cleaning products, etc. There's a website too.

Wed, 2009-04-22 14:08

momma81

I am slowly but surely trying to change my ways.

My wake-up call was the garbage bags full of dirty diapers. Nowadays, cloth diapers are so advanced! Heather, think about it:
www.bumgenius.com
We made the switch when he was 6 months old, and are still going strong with them.

My next step was cleaning products. I made the switch to buying green cleaning products, including laundry detergent, then realized that I'm still creating waste by buying the plastic containers they come in. So, I started making my own laundry detergent. Then I started making my own cleaners.

We stopped buying bottled water a long time ago, and use a Brita filter. We have our recycling and compost picked up by our municipality.

One change at a time! Otherwise it can be so overwhelming.

Edit: Forgot about the Diva Cup! http://www.divacup.com/
Seems very crunchy, but it's really not. The Diva Cup is actually more convenient than tampons.

Wed, 2009-04-22 17:43

bethany Coffey

That last sentence was PERFECT, Heather. It's such common sense and you are so right! "even if you don't believe in global warming and going green, don't you at least believe in not being wasteful?" As my group of friends' resident tree hugger, (as they like to call me), I think that that very simple question just might have the power to make people stop and go, "oh...yeah!" I am just so very thankful that I grew up with a mother who instilled recycling into us at a very early age. And now, I couldn't not do it even if I wanted to, I think i'd sleep walk out to the trash can and start separating the garbage back out into bins all while still unconscious!

Wed, 2009-04-22 12:11

JadeViolet

We are really working on being green. What Alice said about how much bigger your footprint is if you're a homeowner really struck something in me. I never thought of it that way! We do have quite a bit of yard space that we're in the process of turning into a nice vegetable and fruit garden, which is one thing we couldn't have done in an apartment. We have converted to all CFLs and we have all the low flow shower and faucet heads. I've been trying to be better about using less water and I'm a little too anal about energy use. Instead of just turning off appliances like the coffee pot and the radio, I unplug them.

We were just at the library this morning and I grabbed a book for my kids called "Earth Day" which is a little story about exactly what's being discussed here. We can talk about saving the whales or the rainforests or we can actually do 100 little things here and there every day that can really add up. Those little things make a HUGE difference!

Next I need to start working on our trash consumption. I was proud of how much we are recycling, but we need to work on what we're throwing away too - things that can't be recycled. It's still a lot. And our community is not great for things like public transportation, etc. So it's not that easy to be green here, but I'm willing to put in a little more effort because it's important to us.

Wed, 2009-04-22 09:51

bwankel

It’s not about all of us taking the huge, expensive steps. It’s about all the little steps we all take, if we take all the steps we’re able. If you can afford a hybrid, great. If not, that’s fine too, just go green in other areas of your life. Use re-usable grocery bags. Use earth-friendly cleansers (you can use lemons, baking soda and vinegar). Walk more. Get online subscriptions to things rather than paper versions. Get on a no-junk-mail list. Use cloth diapers. Use CFL bulbs. Turn the thermostat down 3 degrees. There’s a MILLION little things you can do that really add up.

The thing is, being green is typically also good for you in addition to being good for the earth. Think about it that way. You’ll be able to breathe the air, drink the water, walk down the street and feel safer about it. And, aside from buying super-expensive organic food (it’s not that expensive at a farmer’s market btw) or buying a hybrid car, most green actions will actually save you money.

Being green is ESSENTIAL to human survival. I’m so with Heather on this one. Even if you’re one of those people who doesn’t think global warming is actually happening, you should still wonder if all this pollution and strip mining and pesticides and gobbling up the last of the earth’s supply of oil is good for the human race. And if you think about it for five seconds you’ll realize, no, it’s not. And you may not see the effects, but your kids will and your grandkids certainly will.

Wed, 2009-04-22 09:07

baumgak

I love trying to be green! I mean, it may not be easy, and I'm sure I've got a lot of room for improvement, but the endeavor is kinda fun - like a little ongoing project. This year's new year's resolution for our family was to stop eating CAFO-produced meat, and it's going pretty well.
One thing that gets me is people like my boss who like to poke fun at anyone's efforts to be greener. Like, the fact that I use cloth diapers on my daughter but drove to work today. Or the fact that I, like Heather, have to drag my recycling halfway across town. But in my view, just because my efforts aren't perfect doesn't mean that they're pointless. Every little bit helps, right?

I will say that it's rough living in a 6 unit condo building where we go to seemingly great lengths to recycle, only to see our neighbors throwing COPIOUS quantities of all manner of recyclable goods into our group dumpster. HUGE cardboard boxes, beer bottles, you name it. Occasionally makes me feel like our efforts are futile, but I persevere in the face of it. : )

Wed, 2009-04-22 08:14

Antoinette14

How green am I? I have to say that I am not fully there yet, but I am trying. I feel like since having children I am more aware of the 3 R's. In our playroom I have a recycle box that I throw anything that can be reused in. (Old broken toy wheels, papertowel rolls, etc.) Sometimes I find myself looking in there for my craft projects. Last summer I made some cloth messenger bags for my girls and I used a sturdy plastic from there to create a sturdy bottom in the bag. I was proud of myself for saving money from having to go out and buy something to place in that area of the bag.
I am still experimenting with green cleaners though. They don't seem to be as powerful as the old cleaners I grew up with. I found a really good company that I have stuck with who make their cleaners in recycled soda bottles. In fact, I started a project with my church and can send all of our juice pouches in and as they recycle them our youth group can earn a little extra cash. I also introduced this to my daughters class and we are now collecting pouches to sew and create bags out of them on our own. It truly is a great company and the bags are colorful and cute!Her teachers are awesome. They collect bottle tops and are creating a piece of artwork outside their classroom with these pieces. Let me know if you're interested in doing the same with the pouches! ( I just don't know if I'm allowed to advertise the company on here... I'm new)
I do find it hard to always buy organic. With a family of 5 it becomes a little expensive and so I go to the next closest thing. I am really proud of Costco because everytime I take a trip there it seems that more organic products are being brought in. I have to say that reduce, reuse, and recycle can be very time consuming but it makes me feel better knowing that I am teaching my kids to be responsible on their part.

Wed, 2009-04-22 07:22

tornadochaser

I am a big hippie. Haha! I am vegan, have reusable water bottles for the whole family (5 of us), I recycle and compost, use cloth diapers, switched to paperless for bills, use cloth bags when shopping. I could seriously go on for paragraphs. My husband makes fun of how hippie I am but he knows I'm right. :) It's not that big of a deal for me, after a little while it all becomes second nature.

The big thing that was pointed out is this is our kid's future we are dealing with now. Do we want to hand them a half destroyed planet and say "hey, have a nice life"? I'm doing what I can to fix the problems now while also teaching my boys. They know about the three Rs, are very concerned about litter around our parks, saving water, etc. I hope that I have given them a good start in living green so when it comes time for them to take over Earth's care they won't make the same mistakes as my generation and the generations past. (Hippie talk, I know.)

Wed, 2009-04-22 04:01

meesha

Alice, buy a reusable seltzer bottle that uses cartridges--it will change your life. Depending on how much you're spending on seltzer, you can save $0.10-$0.30 per liter, and all you have to recycle is the tiny gas cartridge. Plus, less to lug home from the store!

Re: greening, I actually grew up recycling and have always lived in communities where doing so was easy. (San Francisco even has compost pickup! Our trash-trash was almost nonexistent when we lived there.) But in the last few years I've become more aware of the first two parts of "reduce, reuse, recycle". So I'm buying far more things in bulk, favoring products that have less packaging and are reusable, and trying to acquire fewer new items in general.

Reducing your consumption also saves money that could help offset the costlier aspects of going green, like paying for organic foods.

Wed, 2009-04-22 01:25

Alice

Meesha, I said that in the original footage! But alas, it ended up on the (virtual) cutting room floor. Yes, a reusable seltzer bottle is definitely in our future.

Wed, 2009-04-22 09:58

Anastasia_NYC

My family's favorite seltzer maker is called the Penguin for a reason I don't fully understand. But it's been a life/time/money/environment saver!! http://www.sodastreamusa.com/Penguin/images/penguin1.jpg

Wed, 2009-04-22 11:57