Tree Hugging Family » Earth Friendly Living Ideas

Six great reasons not to go green

Jennifer — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 13:00:17 +0000

This weekend I decided to look at all the best reasons why you shouldn’t bother going green. In case you missed any of these anti-green excuses, now is your chance to catch up…

Can you think of any other good reasons not to go green?

[image via stock.xchng]

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Six great reasons not to go green: reason six – I have no idea where to start

Jennifer — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 00:00:37 +0000

Getting started is the easy part of green, if you know where to look.

The best advice is to start small and incorporate green activities naturally into your world.

Basic ideas to get your brain pumping:

A few good books that will help you:

I’ve read all three of the books above. All offer easy tips, no pressure, and yet still teach you something new. Another idea is to try a daily dose: Living Green Page-A-Day Calendar 2009 (Page-A-Day Calendars)

If you need ideas about organizations who promote green, and who can teach you a thing or two, check out the blogroll here at Tree Hugging Family. I’ve included plenty of organizations and blogs where you can learn more about green.

All you have to do is choose a few green steps, and then do them. The more green steps become normal to you, the easier it gets. You won’t have to think about carrying your reusable bags to the store, you just will. You’ll learn which products are good green choices, and which should stay on the shelf.

Does green living ever overwhelm you? What do you do then?

[image via stock.xchng]

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Six great reasons not to go green: reason five – I don’t have time

Jennifer — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 17:00:16 +0000

I’m going to make this short and sweet. Yeah you do.

Don’t believe me? It takes under five minutes to…

Unplug an appliance.
Hang your towel
Scrape a plate.
Recycle a toilet paper tube.
Whip up a kitchen face scrub.
Pass up toxic cleaners at the store – just keep on walking.
Switch to a LED light bulb.
Make an entire batch of homemade ice pops.
Choose organic milk over conventional.
Take your own bag to the store.
Grab a reusable cup.
Conserve water.

Even if you did all of this above today, your grand total of time spent would be well under an hour.

In my opinion, the bigger green steps don’t always mean as much as the small ones. You can fit a lot more small green steps into your world, then say many huge leaps like starting a community garden or hand building a sustainable home.

Although I do think there can be a green living curve that may take time to learn, overall, being green is not about spending more time at all. Being green is about changing the actions you do in the time you have.

What do you think? Is green zapping your time?

[image via stock.xchng]

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Six great reasons not to go green: reason three – going green is too expensive

Jennifer — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 02:00:51 +0000

All expenses in the world have leverage and many expenses are choice orientated. Not trying because you think it’ll be too expensive is not a great excuse to ignore green living. If you need help getting over this issue, we discuss it all the time here:

If you’re complaining about the cost of green living, I’d take a very close look at what you own, how you make decisions about purchases, and figure out if you’re handing over cash on a need to have, or want to own basis.

Also, just to be clear, I think that there are some green products that are overpriced, but there are also plenty of conventional products that are overpriced as well. In a general sense, I don’t think green living is expensive. If anything, green living can save you money; on everything from doctors visits to gym memberships to beauty products to gifts to that wall of paper towels to the third car you don’t need.

In what ways has green living saved you money?

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Six great reasons not to go green: reason two – global warming is a crock

Jennifer — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 19:00:34 +0000

So what if it is?

Frankly I’m tired of this excuse. Yeah it might be a crock, but it’s a lame excuse to use to avoid green living.

Green living is so much more than the global warming issue. True green living supports local economy, fair employment, resource and nature preservation, healthy bodies, and much more. Green living will ensure we don’t live in a concrete jungle void of trees and allows us to learn how to keep dangerous toxins out of our homes and kids.

To flip with global warming. Don’t believe, believe, do what you like, but it’s really a moot point.

Now, do we have any non-believers out there; who still are into green living? If so, tell me why in the comments.

[image via stock.xchng]

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Six great reasons not to go green: reason one – I don’t matter

Jennifer — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 15:00:34 +0000

With the new year almost upon us, many folks are thinking, “Hey, this will be the year I try to live a little greener.” Others will say, “What a waste of time.” There are hundreds of excuse why someone can’t or won’t go green. That said, I’ve decided we’ll have an anti-green weekend before 2009 arrives. This weekend we’ll look at five reasons why you really shouldn’t bother with green living.

This weekend, I’ll post six of the most common excuses I’ve heard over the years. Starting with…

I’m just one person so it’s not like I’ll make that big a difference:

Actually, (and maybe surprisingly) I agree. One person alone recycling ten cans a week won’t make all that much difference. However, if someone thinks of green as a global effort then they might think differently, because many together can make a huge difference.

If just one block of families recycle all their cans, that’s a lot. If everyone in the city recycles that’s a lot more; and so far we’re not even out of our local community yet. If everyone thought “I can’t make a difference,” if people refused to join up, who knows if women would be voting now. Maybe we’d still think slavery was super keen. One voice, one action; is all it takes to start a revolution, but how far it can go is up to everyone.

Have you seen green group efforts that have paid off?

[image via stock.xchng]

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Around the Web with Jennifer & Peggy

Peggy — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 13:00:54 +0000

We haven’t done one of these posts since May! Yet, we’ll be good and try not to overwhelm you, too much.

Jennifer and I chose these links to other posts we’ve written because we thought you’d find them interesting and some shade of green.

Misc. Fun

Reuse / Craft

Green Home & Living

Green Baby

Green Art

Luscious Green

Click here to learn about all the current contests, themes, and green challenges going on at Tree Hugging Family in September 2008

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Green Science Fair For a Better Planet

Jennifer — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 19:00:56 +0000

Instructables and Discover magazine have joined forces and right now are running the Green Science Fair For a Better Planet contest and event. I actually meant to post on this sooner (bad me). The contest is complied of every sort of green project you can think of, but each project needs to be instructions, a how to go green, make a green something, or use green ideas for something off the charts odd.

Voting ends tomorrow. So right now you can go vote or even still submit, if you’re quick. There are all kinds of things to see at the event page. I picked out a variety of interesting entries…

Easy Recycled Compost Barrel
Solar Powered Trike
How to Turn Junk Mail and Paper into Very Nice Bowls
Film Canister LED Flashlight
A sort of odd butter pen
Make Your Own Biodiesel Processor
And more.

There are some very cool items entered, and also some that might make you go hmmm? But it’s fun to see everyone being creative.

Click here to learn about all the current contests, themes, and green challenges going on at Tree Hugging Family in June 2008

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Note to HGTV: Green is all in your choice of words people…

Jennifer — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 06:55:49 +0000

First a disclaimer. I actually like HGTV. They’re nice people, or their PR folks are anyhow. Although I can’t ever find them now, they’ve had both George and Ed on their station (love them both!). They promote green living (to an extent), and they offer me my summer dose of TV.

However, I recently saw something at their website that sort of irks me. This isn’t the first time either. They do this quite a lot on their TV shows. I suppose tonight was the last straw.

I was at their Green Home blog, and I was reading this post, Green Decorating and Storage, and here’s what they say, “10 Beautiful Rooms (You Won’t Believe They’re Green!)”

Let’s take a look at that statement: The rooms are beautiful; so beautiful in fact, that I simply won’t believe they’re green! Well, thank goodness, because I was really worried that my beauty statements might be affected by the darn tree huggers. I’m ok now though.

Seriously HGTV – what’s up with that? I watch all the HGTV green shows, when I manage to catch them, because green home shows are lacking on television, and I enjoy this kind of stuff. But really, I’m so sick to death of being told that in spite of the green, just look at this house! Look how we made green pretty. Look at how green is not so green; as if green is a bad thing to begin with.

Is HGTV the only media outlet to do this – focus on the how green doesn’t have to be green aspect? NO. Plenty of the media outlets I frequent do this. Am I saying to ban your HGTV habit? Um, no. I’m only picking on them because I happened to see this tonight, but they’re oh so not alone.

What I am saying is it sets a precedence; green is normally icky, but you can make it better. You can make it beautiful if you try. I actually like green already; I see reclaimed homes, recycled materials used to build furniture, with no cosmetic additions, and I like it, adore it even. I don’t need green to look just like what I’m used to seeing in home magazines. It doesn’t always have to be something it’s not. It sometimes is what it is, and that’s perfectly fine.

I think, that when green newbies see such excitement over how beautiful green can be it makes it hard to imagine that green is beautiful enough, good enough, when left alone. Maybe I’m just being picky – but words are powerful. Words can make or break a situation. If we’re going to attach words to green items, or green issues, let’s not attach words that make green seem so outside the norm. That’s a problem.

Click here to learn about all the current contests, themes, and green challenges going on at Tree Hugging Family in June 2008

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Where do Unwanted, Unrecycled Plastic Bags Go?

Peggy — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 16:00:11 +0000

Plastic bags don’t biodegrade. But something must happen to them. They don’t disappear just because you throw them away.

In landfills, plastic bags take up to 1,000 years to break down.

As litter exposed to sunlight, plastic bags photodegrade, breaking down into small, toxic pieces. Those pieces pollute our land, lakes, rivers and oceans. Plastic bits look like food to marine life. Look at the jellyfish photo to the right. Can’t you see a turtle mistaking a plastic bag for a jellyfish?

When fish eat plastic pieces, that not only hurts them, but it can hurt you if it enters the food chain. Pretty gross.

The wind loves plastic bags. I see them daily in the lake outside my apartment. They’re the perfect, noxious, lightweight tumbleweed.

The solution: A sturdy, reusable shopping bag. One investment can eliminate thousands of plastic bags. Don’t wait until plastic bags are illegal everywhere. Help wipe them out now.

Image via flickr.

Click here to learn about all the current contests, themes, and green challenges going on at Tree Hugging Family in June 2008

Post from: Tree Hugging Family