I love Earth Day, but it also leaves me feeling guilty too. Like I should be doing more. Well, as an American that is not hard to consider. Perhaps I should move to another country and live off $1 a day by farming, hunting, and gathering while living off the grid. Sure would make blogging hard... Instead I guess I will celebrate how I usually do, by drinking almost Fair Trade and mostly Shade Grown, with a high percentage of Organic, coffee and listing to myself the ways that I am not too hard on the earth.
I am a huge fan of Reduce, Reuse, and then Recycle. Reduce, well that's an easy one. I usually avoid shopping and will go "without" for a long time before making a must have purchase. I live in a tiny house so can't fit a lot of stuff anyways. And I keep my income low so I wont be tempted to upgrade (just kidding). Reuse, this is a favorite. I have reused furniture, reused cars, a reused house, reused clothing, reused boats (mostly), and reused pets. I even sometimes remember my re-useable shopping bag. And then there is Recycle. I am rather a nut about this. I even pre-cycle by choosing some purchases in part due to their recycling potential... The thing that bugs me, however, is not knowing exactly what is happening to my recycling. I hear much of it is now going to China by the ship load, and onto a nefarious fate from there. It is kind of like when I worked at the Outdoor Pursuits Centre in New Zealand. We had the kids sort EVERYTHING for recycling. After two months working there I went on the final recycling journey with the maintenance guys. This was fun because it meant I got to surf in the back of the Ute (pick-up truck), but then we got to the tip, and into the pit went all the recycling. Just like all the garbage. To be burned. DAMN! It was the dirty little secret because there were no recycling facilities nearby. I am sure that has changed by now, but it points out how things aren't always as they seem. And progress is slow.
But I try to keep a good attitude. And keep living lightly on the earth. I have nothing on some people, and all the natural systems of the earth, but heck, you gotta start somewhere. As a species we will eventually learn to clean up after ourselves. Just like mom always said.
4 comments:
Dear Bethy:
Thank you so much for inviting me to read and join your blog. You are so wise...I will read all this carefully, since I am about ten years behind you...dreaming of being gentler on the earth but not very consistent in my approach. I'm seriously trying to eat little/no red meat, as I know that it takes many pounds of grain (a report I once edited said the ratio was 13:1, but recently NPR stated it was about 4 or 5:1) to make one pound of steak, for instance, and to bike/walk to work as often as possible. It's easier for me down here than for you "upnorth" since the weather in Georgia is, if a bit rainy, still pretty damn fabulous unless at the peak of summer. Anyway, I look forward to getting inspiration for going green from my "little cousin" Beth.
Hugs,
Anne
look kinney notes! How are you? hope you're all happy.
Hi Anne,
Hey cousin, glad you could stop by the blog. I think you are probably pretty green after living internationally. Yep, think of all the heating oil you are saving now living near Atlanta. And you don't need to eat for 20 below either. Glad you are enjoying the south, and we hope to see you there one of these days!
Hi Opal,
Kinney notes, it is the Cliff notes of the family zone! I am doing well, what the heck are you up to? Exciting as usual, I am sure.
Send me the news, both of you!
Cheers,
Beth
Happy Earth Day to you as well. I am a huge fan of the Freecycle Network, where you can advertise giving away just about anything as long as you'll be giving it for free. You can check if there's one in your area at www.freecycle.org to add to your recycling experience. We have given away a washing machine and dryer, a sandbox, old cell phones we'd upgraded from, oodles of books and clothes, even a broken printer and DVD player that someone was willing to take to tinker with and fix. If it keeps it out of the landfill, I'm all for it. And I received some fantastic cross country skis, a computer desk, and just recently a new patio umbrella. It's terrific!
Keep up the great blog - I love it!
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