Guest Post by Lori Stewart – Green GigsAs an Eco-Office Gals reader you are by default, some shade of green. Maybe you are a neon green person that can be spotted coming a mile away in your hybrid car, wearing an organic cotton sweater, and drinking naturally pure water from your stainless steel container. Or maybe you are a pale green person, one who finally switched to natural laundry detergent and realized your clothes still get clean. Or maybe you are like me, moss green – a nice shade of green, but not quite a pure green.
The web is overflowing with advice on how to green your business, food, car, vacation, pet, job, kids, ad nauseam; so much so that I feel guilty for all that I don’t do to help the environment. My shade of green has improved vastly over the last few years, but I still have work to do. So today, I am going to relinquish some of my guilt and share my not-so-green confessions with you:
- Gift Cards – Okay, the holiday season is over. In my wallet I have seven plastic “gift cards” of varying value. Now, some of these “gift cards” are not really gifts, rather, they are the remains of a return – for example, my son’s duplicate birthday present exchanged at a toy retailer netted us $2.74 on a “gift card”. And what happens to these gift cards when and if they are finally used – they get tossed in the trash at the check-out counter! Think of all of those little plastic cards gingerly being electronically filled and depleted then tossed away. What is wrong with paper gift certificates? Somehow I manage to keep paper money in my wallet without losing it; I think I can be responsible for a paper gift certificate. Given the number of times my credit/debit cards have been voluntarily replaced by my bank(s) because of a breach of security, I can’t image these little plastic menaces filling our landfills are much safer than old-fashioned paper gift certificates anyhow.
- Incandescent Lighting – I hate fluorescent lighting – there, I said it. Begrudgingly I have slowly let my husband change one light bulb after another in our house. We are down to the last two – the ones over the bathroom vanity. I can’t let go of those glorious last incandescent bulbs. Frankly, looking in the bathroom mirror at the crack of dawn each morning is scary enough – I certainly don’t need to witness it under fluorescent lighting.
- Reusable Bags – I have yet to catch on to the reusable bag revolution. Each time I go to the grocery store, I see more and more eco-conscious shoppers pulling out their collections of eco-friendly, recyclable, made from recycled products, free of chemicals, fair trade bags. Then I look at my cart full of white plastic bags filled by my barely-of-working-age bagger. I have true guilt here. Skewer me if you must, but frankly, money is tight these days and if I am going to pay anywhere between $1 and $8 a bag for a reusable bag, I want to know it works. Can I wash it when the tomatoes get squished in it after my bagger tosses the bag of cans on top of the bag of vegetables? How many uses can I get out of it before I need to replace it? Are they compact enough I can easily bring them all in to the grocery store? Besides, if I switch to reusable bags, what will I put the dirty disposable diapers in?
Of course, I have more green shortcomings (see diaper comment above), but what shade of green are you? Ease your conscious and share your not-so-green confessions!
Lori is a work-in-progress green being who blogs at Green Gigs a site dedicated to listing home-based green jobs.
Update: Okay, it took me a while, but I am now a fair-trade, recycled, recyclable, eco-friendly, reusable bag carrying member of green nation! One confession down, many more to go. Baby steps!
Lori´s last blog post..Celebrate World Water Day!
Update: Okay, it took me a while, but I am now a fair-trade, recycled, recyclable, eco-friendly, reusable bag carrying member of green nation! One confession down, many more to go. Baby steps!
Lori´s last blog post..Celebrate World Water Day!
RT @EcoOfficeGals http://tinyurl.com/8kptux Not-So-Green Confessions <== love this..
http://tinyurl.com/8kptux Not-So-Green Confessions
This is a great post. Thank you for your confessions. As someone who only made a conscious decision to go green last year, there are still lots of non-green items in my house (dryer sheets, dish soap, candles, shampoo). As my non-green items run out I am replacing them with green items but like you said, money is tight and I just can’t see wasting these items to buy more.
P.S. A while back I wrote a post on tips for remembering your reusable bags in case you are interested in reading it (http://overcoffee822.blogspot.com/2008/12/tips-for-remembering-your-reusable-bag.html)
This is a great post. Thank you for your confessions. As someone who only made a conscious decision to go green last year, there are still lots of non-green items in my house (dryer sheets, dish soap, candles, shampoo). As my non-green items run out I am replacing them with green items but like you said, money is tight and I just can’t see wasting these items to buy more.
P.S. A while back I wrote a post on tips for remembering your reusable bags in case you are interested in reading it (http://overcoffee822.blogspot.com/2008/12/tips-for-remembering-your-reusable-bag.html)
It’s ridiculous isn’t it? I actually run solar related ecommerce stores
myself, yet I’m guilty of some of the things you mention. Something
which I’ve promised not to do anymore is buy reusable bags. As I’m
always forgetting to take my reusable bags to the supermarket, I buy
another one when I’m there. I’ve ended up with more reusable bags than
plastic ones!
So I’m giving most of them away to an organic food store near where I
live, so that they can be reused by customers there, and I leave a
reusable bag by my front door so that I don’t forget it when I go
shopping.
Solar Gadgets´s last blog post..Wooden turbine 30cms – £ 29.99
It’s ridiculous isn’t it? I actually run solar related ecommerce stores
myself, yet I’m guilty of some of the things you mention. Something
which I’ve promised not to do anymore is buy reusable bags. As I’m
always forgetting to take my reusable bags to the supermarket, I buy
another one when I’m there. I’ve ended up with more reusable bags than
plastic ones!
So I’m giving most of them away to an organic food store near where I
live, so that they can be reused by customers there, and I leave a
reusable bag by my front door so that I don’t forget it when I go
shopping.
Solar Gadgets´s last blog post..Wooden turbine 30cms – £ 29.99
I don’t always remember my reusable bags (especially when I’m not at the grocery store) and I still use paper towels once in a blue moon. I’ve been thinking about gift cards lately myself and how freakin’ wasteful they are. There has to be a better solution.
Good post. 🙂
crunchy domestic goddess (amy)´s last blog post..Great Green Goals for 2009
I don’t always remember my reusable bags (especially when I’m not at the grocery store) and I still use paper towels once in a blue moon. I’ve been thinking about gift cards lately myself and how freakin’ wasteful they are. There has to be a better solution.
Good post. 🙂
crunchy domestic goddess (amy)´s last blog post..Great Green Goals for 2009
Hi Jen: You so crack me up!!! Your first comment about credit/debt cards. I use the ‘dead’ ones to paste small ‘wallet-sized’ pictures of my granddaugters on them. I can then slip them in my wallet, & as they grow, I place the older pictures with double stick tape to the walls, desk, any surface that I can cover. I’ve even used the ‘business card’ size magnets on the back & they hang on my fridge. I KNOW that you have 2 beautiful little girls, & I think they would LOVE to see more of themselves.
As for the light bulbs, I agree with you, but, I also have switched over, HOWEVER, NOT IN MY BATHROOM!!! After all, this old lady gets shocked at that strange face looking back every morning, I’m NOT ready to see the ‘real thing’.
The bag thing is a give or take. I do have 3 that I use, but somehow, I also buy too much, & everything must be added to plastic bags also. All of mine are washable, even the one for hot/cold food,(silver interior lining), which I know is not ‘green’. I used to make those ‘eco-friendly bags, if I ever get a sewing machine again, I’ll make you one, promise.
The diaper thing,don’t they make ‘flushable’ ones now? I thought I read that somewhere?
Now, my confession, & I think of you every time I do this, silently whisper “I’m sorry Jennifer”, but, I print out almost everything that I need to read &/or that I feel I will need in the future. Sorry Jen, I know your signature says not to print out, save a tree, but, again, this ‘ol lady, can’t read & maintain/comprehend everything the first time, especially if it’s a lot of words, so I print, read in bed, pick out important stuff, & the pages that I don’t need to keep, I reuse in the printer for the other side of the page.
That’s all my friend. Your doing a terrific job in helping us, help our children have a ‘greener’ life. Sincerely, Carolyn DiBlasi
Hi Jen: You so crack me up!!! Your first comment about credit/debt cards. I use the ‘dead’ ones to paste small ‘wallet-sized’ pictures of my granddaugters on them. I can then slip them in my wallet, & as they grow, I place the older pictures with double stick tape to the walls, desk, any surface that I can cover. I’ve even used the ‘business card’ size magnets on the back & they hang on my fridge. I KNOW that you have 2 beautiful little girls, & I think they would LOVE to see more of themselves.
As for the light bulbs, I agree with you, but, I also have switched over, HOWEVER, NOT IN MY BATHROOM!!! After all, this old lady gets shocked at that strange face looking back every morning, I’m NOT ready to see the ‘real thing’.
The bag thing is a give or take. I do have 3 that I use, but somehow, I also buy too much, & everything must be added to plastic bags also. All of mine are washable, even the one for hot/cold food,(silver interior lining), which I know is not ‘green’. I used to make those ‘eco-friendly bags, if I ever get a sewing machine again, I’ll make you one, promise.
The diaper thing,don’t they make ‘flushable’ ones now? I thought I read that somewhere?
Now, my confession, & I think of you every time I do this, silently whisper “I’m sorry Jennifer”, but, I print out almost everything that I need to read &/or that I feel I will need in the future. Sorry Jen, I know your signature says not to print out, save a tree, but, again, this ‘ol lady, can’t read & maintain/comprehend everything the first time, especially if it’s a lot of words, so I print, read in bed, pick out important stuff, & the pages that I don’t need to keep, I reuse in the printer for the other side of the page.
That’s all my friend. Your doing a terrific job in helping us, help our children have a ‘greener’ life. Sincerely, Carolyn DiBlasi
I can throw in a HUGE confession.
I’m a smoker, picked up the nasty things when I was 15 and haven’t been sucessful at quitting yet!
To make things worse I am notorious for flicking the butts! I will chew you a new one if you put a soda can in the trash, but I will flick a butt out of habit. I know total non greenies that are better then that!
There you go… =(
I can throw in a HUGE confession.
I’m a smoker, picked up the nasty things when I was 15 and haven’t been sucessful at quitting yet!
To make things worse I am notorious for flicking the butts! I will chew you a new one if you put a soda can in the trash, but I will flick a butt out of habit. I know total non greenies that are better then that!
There you go… =(
I still buy way to much packaged food. It’s organic but still packaged.
I still buy some china made items and other over seas products.
And overall I just buy to much stuff.
Lisa´s last blog post..Pet Peeve!
I still buy way to much packaged food. It’s organic but still packaged.
I still buy some china made items and other over seas products.
And overall I just buy to much stuff.
Lisa´s last blog post..Pet Peeve!
come on greenies… you know you got some guilty non-green pleasures or vices ‘fess up! I just dropped a doozy http://tinyurl.com/8kptux
http://tinyurl.com/8kptux Not-So-Green Confessions… do you have one?
What are your not-so-green confessions? http://tinyurl.com/8kptux
http://tinyurl.com/8kptux Not-So-Green Confessions