Extreme Green Part 2
Well, I’m running late but have made it before Blog Action Day is over with the second installment of extreme green living ideas. For some of you the 15th is over — not me though. I’m a west coast girl! I’ve got an hour left.
I would have been back sooner but I had a lot of blogs playing green today and it’s been busy. That said, we should get going.
In the previous post I listed 4 extreme green living ideas. Here are some more. These tips are all centered around the same thing; waste.
5. Wear (and use) only organic natural fibers and shun anything that isn’t. Buy local-made whenever possible.
Why: Organic materials aren’t grown with pesticides obviously and many of the companies/individuals making these items practice cleaner production techniques.
Do I do it?: No, and here’s why.
A lot of green-minded friends have told me get rid of anything you own that’s not hemp, organic, etc. But where exactly should I put this stuff. I have skirts that aren’t organic but were thrift store finds from 10 years ago. Should I fill up landfills with stuff I had before I was a greener individual? And what about thrift stores. They don’t have a lot of locally made and organic items but they are in the business of recycling. That’s a good deal. I’m on the fence on this green living tip. I do buy hemp and organic now but shun old school thrift — I don’t know.
Here we go; number six is the biggie….
6. Create no waste by staying away from ALL packaging.
How: The how of creating zero packaging waste is a tough one. Here are some things you’d have to give up:
- Toilet paper
- Maxi-pads and tampons
- Ice cream in cartons
- Coffee
- Bought bread
- Toothpaste
- light bulbs
And a thousand other items that most homes use. Packaging is not eco-friendy it wastes energy, materials, and think about the factories who make packaging (yikes!).
Do I do it?: No; I’m not this extreme. Think no average family is this extreme; think again. There are plenty of families out there who have managed to live without packaging and not just rural-grow-their-own-food types either. Here’s a family trying in New York City.
Do I do any of it?: Yes, I am extreme on some packaging waste issues. Like…
Baked goods: You can buy the ingredients you need to make baked goods in bulk (using your own refillable containers) and make the items (bread, muffins, etc) at home. I do this a lot — not 100% but often enough.
Fancy Beauty Products: You can make your own sugar scrubs, face masques, soap, shampoo, lotion, toner and more. This I do all the time. BUT I also once in a while buy a product but I’d guess far less often than the average American. For items like toothbrushes I buy recyclable.
Reusable Maxi Pads and biodegradable organic tampons: I always use these. I can’t believe I’m blogging this — damn extreme day. Still consider this; thousands of plastic tampon applicators end up where they shouldn’t each year (like washing up on beaches). Think of all the months in a year and all the years in your reproductive years now think about the landfill size needed to hold all those used non-biodegradable pads and tampons.
There are other choices. For pads you can buy (or make) cloth ones. My sister is completely grossed out by this and so are other people I know but here’s the deal what’s grosser — a landfill full of millions of used pads or a drawer full of washed reusable pads? Hmmm. As for tampons if there’s one place you don’t want cotton pesticides it’s well, you know where. Buy organic and biodegradable.
Options:
Those are three ways we cut down at my house but we do buy some stuff in packaging. We try to make sure it’s all recyclable. If you were extreme you’d cut out all the packaging; there are ways.
There are more extreme green living tips obviously; quit your job, homeschool, toss the computer, downsize, turn off the electricity, and so much more — goals that are attainable for some but not for everyone.
Here’s the deal. Tomorrow; I’ll be back. Blog Action Day will be over and I won’t blog too extreme. I’ll go back to the small steps and mid-level green ideas. But that’s not a bad thing. We all need help in some areas of sustainable living.
I personally believe that living as extreme green as you can is a good thing. The world could use it. However, I also believe that each of our small steps can add up to one extreme. Although people do things differently and are on various levels of their green path the point is that they’re trying. There is no completely wrong way to try to be more eco-sensible.
The only wrong way is to not try at all.
I hope everyone had a great day and don’t forget to visit the other Blog Action Day b5 bloggers!
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POSTED IN: Blogs, Extreme Green, Health & Wellness, Home Products, Recycle, b5media
7 opinions for Extreme Green Part 2
Crabby Mcslacker
Oct 17, 2007 at 6:23 pm
Okay, in case there was ever any doubt–I’m not Extremely green.
Just trying to do what I can. While I admire those who are willing to make huge personal sacrifices, I also feel like so much of this stuff needs to be dealt with at higher levels–sane government policies on so many things could do so many bazillion times more than we can as earnest individuals. Which doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try, of course–but there are limits to what’s practical for most people to take on.
Great post!
Diana
Oct 17, 2007 at 8:13 pm
GladRags may seem ‘extreme’ but it’s really what’s been going on for generations. Jenny Rose Ryan just posted a great GladRags Gab blog entry about how her grandmother and her sisters used to share a Rag Bag of cloth they would use as menstrual pads.
I believe that people should take the steps towards being more sustainable that they feel they are able to take. I was able to use GladRags (they’re so comfy!) and I’m happy to know that more and more people are seeing ‘extreme’ lifestyle choices as realistic steps towards sustainability. Cloth pads and menstrual cups are gaining more and more popularity again!
http://www.gladrags.com/blog/2007/10/16/the-rag-bag/#comments
Jennifer
Oct 18, 2007 at 1:43 am
Funny Crabby; I think that there’s practical that people think they can take on and stuff they haven’t tried so they maybe think it’s too hard and also it takes some thinking now-a-days to be green because all these modern conveniences make it easy to be well, not sustainable. We don’t have to be anymore so we don’t. I agree that there is a higher level both at the government level and the professional (i.e. as in the manufacturing level). As soon as we realized the things we do hurt the planet there should have been changes — yet there still aren’t. It’s depressing.
Jennifer
Oct 18, 2007 at 1:52 am
Diana, I agree that reusable pads aren’t extreme. It’s way more normal IMO to use reusable. Yet if I did a poll here I’d wager that the vote would go to extreme. I thought reusable pads were actually less extreme and then I moved to Humboldt where there’s always someone preaching about the environment yet most people I knew there didn’t use reusable — or would tell me straight up how weird this tactic is.
It’s been like that everywhere I’ve lived. I think that consumer issues have sold disposable for so long that it is the new normal. Here I try to talk about steps I actually think someone might take to become more ‘green’ instead of ideas that most people I know think are odd. But you are completely right — it’s not extreme in a broad sense which is one reason why I wanted to feature reusable pads on Blog Action Day.
I love your product BTW. You and Luna are my faves. I’ve had one box of yours for maybe six-seven years now and they’re still in perfect shape!
Diana
Oct 18, 2007 at 2:19 pm
Jennifer, what an interesting point about the hypocricy of many environmentalists when it comes to GladRags and other reusable menstrual products. Many people think that only ‘hippies’ use GladRags, but many would be suprised that the idea of reusable pads is often unthinkable for even the super crunchy out there. It takes an interesting combination of characteristics to draw a woman to reusables - there is a good amount of, like you said, selling disposables over reusables out there and that is difficult ’status quo’ to overcome.
Thank you for contributing to the counter-education going on about reusables. There is so much education to do, that every conversation with a girlfriend, sister, co-worker is important to make women aware that they have options beyond disposable tampons and pads!
Thanks for your GladRags praise. We love how long they last too! We have a cute new pantyliner that you might like :) It’s just the thing for those light days…
http://www.gladrags.com/gladrags-cotton-reusable-menstrual-pads-gladrags-cotton-reusable-menstrual-pads-c-21_59.html
carolyn
Apr 20, 2008 at 10:23 pm
I switched to Glad Rags about a year ago. No one would ever guess that a middle age, PTA, Girl Scout leader mom would be so ‘extreme’. I had been considering it for a couple of years. But it was a prolapsed uterus and not being able to use tampons anymore that made me switch. And I wish I had done it sooner!! I feel so much better knowing what I am putting next to my girl bits.
It’s true that marketing has us believing it is normal to use disposable products. But they have only been in existing for much less than a century.
Jennifer
Apr 20, 2008 at 10:38 pm
@Carolyn, thanks for your input (love “girl bits” that’s a good one). I was pretty happy when Glad Rags went organic - so have some of the other reusable - the last thing you need down there are chemicals. Thanks for noting that any woman can use reusable and do, the more women sending “extreme” tactics praise, the better.
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