The Green Issue Generations Before

I had the following sent in an email and thought it was worth sharing as it makes you think.

In the line at the supermarket, the cashier told an older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren’t good for the environment.

The woman apologized to him and explained, “We didn’t have the green thing back in my day.”

The checkout responded, “That’s our problem today.  Your generation did not care enough to save our environment.”

He was right — our generation didn’t have the green thing in its day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, pop bottles and beer bottles to the shop. The shop sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over.  So they really were recycled.

But we didn’t have the green thing back in our day.

We walked up stairs, because we didn’t have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocers and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go half a mile.

But she was right. We didn’t have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby’s nappies because we didn’t have the throw-away kind.  We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts — wind and solar power really did dry the clothes.  Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.

But that old lady is right; we didn’t have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house — not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the Wales .

In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn’t have electric machines to do everything for us.

When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.

Back then, we didn’t fire up an engine and burn petrol just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power.  We exercised by working so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.

But she’s right; we didn’t have the green thing back then.

We drank from a tap when we were thirsty instead of a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water.

We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.

But we didn’t have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their mums into a 24-hour taxi service.

We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances.  And we didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.

But isn’t it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn’t have the green thing back then?

And So Ends Another Resolution

March has come to an end and with it my Green Resolution. I don’t know why but when I started the resolution I didn’t think I would enjoy it. I had visions of bags of recycling cluttering up my home till collection day. I also naively thought recycling would be easy as I thought everything could be recycled. Its all very well the supermarkets getting behind the recycling and putting labels on all the packaging to say what is recyclable but its a bit pointless when in small print it says ‘check with your local council’. For example most of the plastic packaging that is used by manufactures cannot at this time be recycled by my local council or by the recycle centre near me. The only things I can recycle in the plastic department are milk and drinks bottles. Once I got into the swing of things, recycling has very easily slotted into every day family life. I don’t, though, have any indication or clue if my efforts are actually doing anything. I do struggle to be enthusiastic about things unless I can see an improvement. Watching my recycling disappearing into the distance on the back of the recycling lorry doesn’t really do it for me. I knew that my efforts wouldn’t cause an overnight hysteria of success but come on give me a sign of some sort.  Both the children have got into to it to and instead of throwing everything away if there is something they are not sure if they will stand in the kitchen making recycling noises which they know puts a green motherly smile on my face.

I also learnt that it’s not just about recycling plastic, glass and paper each week. Things like light bulbs, appliances, products etc can all be tweaked to be greener if you just take 5 minutes to think what the better option is.

There is reusing things too. I have a small area in the garden that is a real sun trap but is ugly and uneven. The easiest option would have been to get a builder in to make it look pretty with some blocks and paving slabs. I don’t have the money for that sort of thing so instead I have done it myself. Not like the builder would have done but with some hefty stones found from the corners of my garden, soil and a lot of back breaking it has been transformed into a hard standing area that will now happily home the fruit and veg in pots. Didn’t cost me a penny and used up ‘rubbish’ from around the garden. I am more chuffed with it then I would have been if I got the builder in.

So with March at end the important question has to be asked, will I continue my green crusade?

In a way I will. I know single handily I am not going to save the world. I know that I don’t have to try to be green in every area of my life but just the bits I can do freely and easily. I have though installed the green seed into my children. If they now grow up more aware and recycle for the rest of their lives and pass that on to their children then maybe I have achieved something.

Other Green Things I am Trying.

The more I have read about being green the more I realise that managing to recycle is actually only a small part of it all. I have looked at some of f the other things that I can be green at was surprised to know I am actually greener than I thought. I have though made two more steps on the green ladder by growing my own veg and walking to the supermarket. Not huge things, granted but both have an other reasons for my madness.

Growing veg is only a recent bug I have discovered I enjoy. Last year was my test to see if I lasted the year with some raised veg patches. I quickly learnt that though lettuce and more lettuce were nice, I wanted to grow more variety. This year the veg boxes have been moved and recycled into flower beds in the front garden. The back garden now looks like something out of the Good Life. I may not have enough room to self support the kids and I but least it will be more than just sodding lettuces.

Growing veg is ticking the green boxes.  I am not buying packaging with my veg like I would at the supermarket. I also hopefully saving pennies, keeping fit and the other good side is that it’s a good excuse to be outside in the sunshine.

I am also very lucky to live less than a mile from two supermarkets. They very inconsiderately are in opposite directions though. In the summer the local Asda is over run by holiday makers, so much so I proved with the help of my mother and her car that it is actually quicker to walk there and back than getting in the car. This is all very well and healthy but does lean to some organisation on my behalf. I have to remember that whatever I put in the basket I will actually be lugging back up the hill in my backpack due to both supermarkets are at the bottom of hills to. I have found I am buying less and loosing inches too, which has to be good. I am also saving on petrol as the car only gets used when it’s too far to walk.

Maybe it’s the change in weather that has brought about these two changes and only in autumn will I discover if I am a fair weather gardener and walker. I suspect I will be.

You may be Greener than you thought

Doing the green resolution is proving to be quiet challenging. I seem to be constantly reading labels and on bin monitor duty. But as I have been reading up on the whole green thing, I am realising that some of the things I do in everyday life are actually greener than I thought. I use to think you were either green or not green but I am learning that there are several shades of green and some of these shades I am already doing. Take washing the dishes, something that is some in every household every day and several times a day. Now the really green option would be serving up the food on huge leaves which is completely impractical, slightly mad and would confirm to my kids that I had lost the plot. At the other end of the scale is washing dishes by hand – yes washing dishes by hand can be the least green thing to do.

As with the washing the dishes I have looked at some of the other things I do on a daily bases and graded them into their green shades. Are you greener than you thought?

My Green is more a sludgy Grey now.

Today I am proud to post the thoughts on Green things of a fellow single mum…..

Since becoming a single parent many things that I once held dear to my heart, or in actual fact was quietly smug about, have fallen by the wayside.  None more so than my “green” credentials, from once being a 3 box, compost bin and water butt kind of girl I am now a, err tescos man please can you take these carrier bags away because they are driving me up the wall kind of girl. No longer am I saving all my cardboard, sorting out the aluminium tins or saving my peelings and though I know I should feel some sort of guilt, I am ashamed to admit that there is none.

I am not a litterer, I often come home from the school run with pockets bulging with wrappers and the car looks like the inside of a wheelie bin, its just that I can’t seem to get my head round the fact that at some point going to the tip is now under my banner of jobs to do, along with everything else that is required in running a house single handedly.

Please some one convince me that all the effort of seperating my rubbish, and keeping everything neatly stacked in the garage to be taken to the tip once a week, with 2 energetic boys bouncing around in the back of the car is actually going to make a difference to global warming and greenhouse gas emmissions.

The thought of not only having to save, stack and then move weeks of rubbish just to take it to the “recycling centre” but to also having to do it with the boys fills me with dread.  I can imagine getting there, ordering them to stay put and the second my back was turned the 6 year old slipping his seatbelt off, untieing his baby brother and them making their escape to the world of “stig of the dump”. I’d lose them in one of those massive containers because they would be trying to re-inact the end of Toy Story 3. So no thank you, if dear council you are prepared to take it away without me having to sort it or if you are willing to reduce my council tax as a form of payment for the effort that needs to be put in, I will not be sorting out my rubbish for you untill the kids are driving and they can go play at the tip by themseleves, though should you decide to send Brad Pitt to ask me to do it, I may reconsider….

For more of my drivel find me at www.daytodaylivinginthenuthouse.blogspot.com

March Resolution One Week In

A week into being greener and it was rubbish day in my street yesterday. Last week I put out two black household rubbish and one piddly recycle bag that was very lonely. I am happier with my recycling efforts this week and managed two recycle bags though still had two black bags this week.

The past week I have become a recycle fiend, looking at every bit of rubbish and pouncing on the children when they go near the rubbish bin to inspect what they are throwing away. The compost bin is getting ‘fed’ regularly with veg peelings so I feel happier with that. I am though rather angry with plastic. What I didn’t know and fast learning is that I can’t put all my plastic from all the packaging into the recycle bin. If I could do that I think I would be down to one black bag a week easily.

It depends on your local council and what they can accept so check that out first. Paper, cans, glass and aerosol cans can be put out for collection in those nifty little recycle bags they give you. Plastic though is a bit more hard work. They happily take plastic bottles but things like bags, ready-meal food trays, yogurt pots, margarine pots etc are not allowed as they are made of different kinds of plastic. So the council won’t take them as they don’t have the resources to sort them once they have picked them all up. Couldn’t we adopt a system like New Zealand has where all plastics have a number and recycle bins have numbers too so it’s easier to work out what can be recycled where?

Although I am rather peeved that I can’t recycle more of the plastic stuff, I am slowly getting to grips with what goes in which recycle bag so at least I am making progress.

I am quite proud to report that I saved a tree. No mouth to mouth resuscitation or anything like that was needed. Clearing out under the bed and a cupboard I managed to accumulate a stack of magazines almost a meter high. After digging further into the unknown world of the back of the cupboard, one Argos book and an old yellow pages got the magazine stack to a metre high. According to the green boffins, recycling a metre high of paper saves a tree.

So baby steps with the recycling, giant steps with the compost bin and great delight that early seedlings have started to sprout. I am yet to convince the children that being greener is fun.

For March I am Going Green

It’s the beginning of March and time for a new resolution. Throughout March I am going to tackle ‘Being Green’. I know single handily I won’t change the world but I am ashamed to say I am absolutely crap at recycling. For my last rubbish collection, for example, I put out two black bags of normal rubbish and one piddly recycle bag that two glass jars in it. Pitiful really and the only thing in my defence was that there wasn’t any more glass jars in the rubbish bags so yey to me for only using two glass jars. But I hadn’t sorted my paper, plastic etc. If my 80+ year old neighbours can get to grips with recycling then I am sure I can improve my ways.

I also think that our children, grandchildren etc would rather like a planet to grow up on. Any normal child is unlikely to sit down and think ‘wow we really need to learn how to look after the planet’. They like most of us probably think of the now and not future generations. But if I can get my two to recycle and think a bit greener as natural part of their life and they go on to teach the same with their children then at least I have helped. So I have told my two rather unenthusiastic children that they will be doing my resolution too.  I asked the teenager to go on my computer (the Holy Grail in my house) and search the internet about recycling. I didn’t interfere with how she searched or what she searched as I wanted it to be natural but her findings left her even less enthusiastic. So I will have to figure out how to make this interesting.

I want to find ways to incorporate recycling and being green into normal family life. To find ways that aren’t time consuming or costly and hopefully save pennies along the way.

The thing that started me off on my planet saving quest was my 80+ neighbour. The previously mentioned recycling whizz has also decided to start growing veg again after my efforts last year. I am a newbie veg gardener so was forever pestering the poor chap on how to do this, how to do that and how’s my veg doing, knowing he use to be a very keen veg grower. With his help I did manage small crops of leeks, carrots and tomatoes, two peas and more lettuce than I needed. Hardly gets Alan Titchmarsh quaking in his wellies but I am rather bitten by the bug. The comment across the fence, from the recycling veg whizz, that I need some good home grown compost is what in a roundabout way started me on my green resolution. For my veg to grow I need compost which I can make for free and recycle along the way.

My planet saving quest has started, another very kind neighbour has given me a compost bin. Like a kid with a new toy, I’ve dragged it home yesterday, cleaned it (no I don’t know why either) and put it in my garden after I read up on its best positioning. The green life has begun.

As usual for my month resolutions I will be tackling this for the whole month. At the end of the month I will decide how easy it is to carry on. This obviously excludes the veg growing as even I or the neighbour have a magic wand to make seeds grow that quick.