My Friend Has Gone Green
Help! She’s Trying to Take Me With Her…
One of my girlfriends has gone GREEN. Not the trendy, drive an expensive hybrid kind of green. She’s on a mission to become self-sustaining. I knew something was brewing when she stopped shaving a few years ago. No, really. I’m not joking. And no, I don’t think she’s harvesting hair to make insulation or blankets, although it may have occurred to her.
Her self-sustaining and echo-friendly mission includes working to e
liminate (and never bring back) all plastic from her household (minus the computer), to build a straw bale house with composting toilets; she’s joined a CSA, grocery shops at an agricultural cooperative, and has changed her family’s diet to include only organic meats and produce. She wants her family to grow their own food, use solar power and to only work outside the home for things and services for which they can not barter.
She’s the only person I know interested in sustainable living. She’s not just carrying canvas totes to the grocery store; she’s actually making significant lifestyle changes to follow a principle. I’m awed, but a tad nervous.
It sounds like a huge amount of work. In fact is seems like more work to be self sustaining than it does to work for all the instantly gratifying, non-sustaining things my other friends and family enjoy spending money on. After all, industries like plastics and agriculture have spent years coming up with chemical combinations that make our lives simpler and less expensive. Am I supposed to abandon all that convenience to grow my own vegetables? Isn’t it just as rewarding to take my family to the grocery store and shell out the dollars I make while leaving my child in someone else’s care? Surely spending time together playing in the dirt and learning to care for and cultivate something isn’t as worthy of a pursuit as let’s say…Sponge Bob.
I enjoy all my plastic containers and cheap lettuce. I’m used to convenience. I like things streamlined. I don’t want to pay $5.99 for a pint of strawberries when I can get the toxic other variety for $2.99.
I’m much too lazy to take up the self-sustaining flag, but her influence is starting to have an effect. I’ve given thought to the echo-friendly, green idea. Every time I contemplate taking a step toward enlightenment, I’m overwhelmed with all there is to consider, the many changes that I’d have to implement. Do I have to stop shaving? Please, can’t someone invent an aerosol spray that eliminates toxins, purifies water and keeps an abundant amount of trees populating the planet?
The idea of a composting toilet (which you can get in a variety of designer colors, I’ve checked) makes me very nervous. What exactly am I supposed to do with the compost? Isn’t this why some wonderful person many, many years ago developed indoor plumbing and septic systems? With one flush, everything goes away. I’m having a hard enough time adjusting to the low-flow toilets that came with our new house. I can’t imagine if they were actually waterless.
With all my nay saying and itty bitty tantrums, I have to admit my friend’s endearingly soft shoulder taps are starting to take a toll. My husband’s most recent grocery-shopping trip produced organic carrots, apple juice, butter, lettuce and broccoli. I bought organic milk yesterday and when I was going to pour maple syrup into a plastic container to keep in the fridge, I thought of my friend and reached for a Mason jar.
We can do this, I started to think. We can make little changes for a bigger difference. We can take a more proactive approach. Teach our son to be environmentally conscience and to act more responsibly. Then, I opened an email last night that completely threw me off track and made me regress to the consumer driven, convenience seeking polluter I really am.
My girlfriend wrote that her 13-year-old wants me to stop using paper towels…use a hand towel instead, she says, and just wash it. Are you kidding? Give up paper towels? I have a preschooler. What’s next, toilet paper?
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Comment by Amy on 22 April 2008:
Well … Dan and I attended a workshop through Northeast Organic Farmers Association (NOFA-VT) and we toured a gentleman’s house — he tries to live sustainably and has for about 30 years. He has an outhouse and says that there are several good magazine/catalogs printed on a type of newsprint that works great as toilet paper!!! There are some things that I am not willing to give up!
Comment by Chris on 22 April 2008:
If you have children, you are pretty much done with going green thing. Children are the main reason why the environment is dying…LOL
Seriously though, I have done some steps to go green also, like eating less meat, and replacing all my light bulbs and requiring my students to e-mail me their homework.
Comment by Kristy on 23 April 2008:
I personaly think we can all make a little difference. It just takes some consideration and thinking. The big ones are bringing your own grocery totes to the store with you. Don’t be fooled by the paper. It takes almost as much fuel to produce a paper bag as it does a plastic. But the no paper towel dilemma is easier than you think. Just keep wash clothes handy and washable dish towels. If they aren’t there for the taking than you won’t grab for them first. Try for a week and see how much less you use. Everyone has their limits and won’t dos. Mine is cloth vs. disposable diapers. I draw the line at the upcoming choice and will still head to the store for the cases of disposables that my husband and I will soon need for our new adition to the family. But I can bring them home without a bag or in a cloth, reusable bag. HAHA
Comment by Doug on 23 April 2008:
My Dad and his family were ‘going green’ back in the late 1940’s, using the Sears catalog as toilet paper! How forward! Oh, wait - what’s that you say? They weren’t going green? Oh…
Double-pleated big roll Charmin with aloe > Sears catalog.
Comment by Tricia on 24 April 2008:
PAPER TOWELS
I’ve been thinking about the paper towel conundrum and because it’s on my mind, I noticed that while helping my son get ready for school yesterday, we used FOUR paper towels before he even got out the door. I suppose my friend’s Green Teen does have a point. (I hate it when teenagers get under my skin) Although I knew we are overly dependent on the rip, wipe, throw away convenience, I must agree that a hand towel would really do the trick most times. We’ll have to work on this one.
CHILDREN KILLING ENVIRONMENT
I have to admit this comment was a bit perplexing. Children are killing the environment? Really! How can that possibly be. Then, I found Chris’ blog and discovered that he not only has a similar, sarcastic sense of humor, his analogy is spot on. Read his post, Children Are the Cause of Global Warming here: http://watdawat.com/2008/04/22/children-are-the-cause-of-global-warming/#comments
SEARS CATALOG
When I was a little girl, the Sears catalog that came just before Christmas was like the ultimate fantasy guide. I used to go through and gaze longingly at all the toys I was certain I wanted, and I’d draw colorful circles around the ones I wanted to put on my wish list for Santa. So, with the Sears catalog wrapping holiday childhood memories, I just can’t imagine someone using the pages for toilet paper. Are you sure it wasn’t a different catalog…Please?!
Comment by Laura Schmelter on 27 April 2008:
Either I am retaining what I am hearing more often these days or people have begun to speak louder… I am not sure which … but a new little voice has emerged in my head when shopping… for instance I was going to purchase sandwich bags and the voice said “Is that the best choice for the environment?”.. I opted for a tuperware container and avoided the guilty feeling I now get when I am not making “sustainabilty” choices…
Comment by Anna on 12 June 2008:
As a recent friend of whom the article was written about, I felt I just had to make a comment of sorts. I find I’m thrilled to talk with her because I also am going green and I also wish to be self sustaining. I loved the blog about her, it was adorably written and can’t wait to one day meet the lady that wrote it. It has been talked about (by myself and the person the article was about)that maybe she can come visit someday and sleep in a real strawbale guesthouse. Green is coming on strong, watch out world, us treehuggers are out to save you! Love thy Earth, Anna