Through my green-tinted glasses
Monday, January 21st, 2008 5:23 PM
Apparently it ain’t easy being green, or is it?? These days we are inundated with companies, services and products that can all help us live a more eco-friendly life, how fab! We now have doorstep recycling schemes, organic clothing companies and fair-trade products available in most supermarkets along with the ubiquitous organic…………..well, err, everything.
We can almost feel the smugly green glow of ethical consumerism with it’s ‘betcha not as green as me’ shininess emanating from glossy pages like an eco-parade of planet-saving paraphernalia.
Can you see where I might be heading with this yet?
Let’s just say that perhaps we have mistaken our compost bins for actual compost
Being ‘green’ is not a product or a service, it can’t be bought (even with a co-operative bank credit card) nor can it be sold. It is an attitude, a way of life, a decision to have less impact on the planet cos, let’s face it, there are too many of us, using too much stuff and throwing loads of that stuff away.
Can we really live a more planet friendly life by buying more things? Even if they have greener-than-green credentials. Yes, the skirt is hand-woven by people paid a fair wage and using organic cotton, but did we really need to buy a new skirt at all? Maybe the chocolate is fair-trade and organic but it still came from half-way around the world and is it really a necessary part of our diet?
Are we mistaking the buzzwords of eco-marketing for grassroots action?
- We only need fair-trade cos poorer nations are being ripped off
- We only need organics cos someone invented pesticides
- We only have ‘green issues’ cos over-consuming is killing our planet
We are all consumers, green or not and perhaps the most important thing we can do as individuals is consume less.
Consider recycling……………….
It allows the planet-caring amongst us to carry on consuming as normal but with an eco caveat. “It’s ok to buy loads of stuff in tins and jars cos I send them to be recycled” all well and good but wouldn’t it be way greener to buy less packaged stuff and then to reuse the jars or whatever?
Most of us probably remember when glass bottles could be taken back to shops to be reused, oh and we got money back for doing it too. I wonder if more people would be ‘greener’ if this scheme was still going huh. Considering that glass from bottle banks is crushed and used as infill for (shock horror) road-building of all anti-planet things, maybe it’s time to put our LETS credits where our mouth is and view our recycling boxes with a suspicious eye, or at least see them as a last-resort place to put our rubbish.
Being green is actually simpler than it seems cos all we have to do is buy and use LESS!
- Reuse instead of recycle
- Buy 2nd hand instead of brand new (no matter how ‘eco’)
- Eat fresh ‘real’ food instead of tinned and packaged rubbish
Maybe it is time for us to ‘make do and mend’ instead of ‘eco-expend’
xx Star
Star Khechara is a naturopathic nutritionist, natural skincare producer, workshop leader and writer with a passion for eco-living.
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