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Greening my life pretty much has consumed much of my personal growth goals the past year or so. Mostly it all comprises constantly refining my life bit by bit, becoming less wasteful and more resourceful with each step. Last year I made shelves out of some DVD cases I was going to toss, I started using CD spindle covers to hold random cables that my gadgets need and I have made good on a promise not to buy any new clothes. Despite my continual efforts to audit my own waste, some obvious things never crossed my mind until I learned about them and some of the things I was doing, actually were not doing any good! With this in mind here is my list of the top 5 things I never realized until I really tried to go green.

1. Cutting Shower Water: I knew that short showers were the best showers, but I never thought of soaping up without wasting water until reading about “Navy Showers” at Tree Hugger. Now I stick to a quick spray, shutting the water off and then soaping up. Not only are my showers faster, but I am saving a lot of water by not leaving the shower running. The TreeHugger articles says:
   

   [A] typical shower takes as much as 230 L (60 US gallons) of water, while taking a navy shower can use as little 11 L (3 US gallons); one person can save 56,000 L (15,000 US gallons) per year!

   It is a bit tough to give up enjoying a constant flow of hot water but my green angel on my shoulder tells me I am doing the right thing and that feels great.

2. Disposable containers: I see people with coffee cups everyday and it makes me cringe. I used to buy disposable drinks without guilt, but the amount of waste created by the US’s disposable container culture really is a concern. This calculator helps people see how much waste you produce each year by buying coffee. 4 cups a week is 3.25lbs a year and then multiply that by the 12,000+ Starbucks worldwide (and other coffee shops) and I think you get my point. This is only coffee too, fast food with their cups, bags, boxes and paper wrappers all contribute to waste. Usually none of this can be recycled because they have plastic coatings or are soiled by food. So what’s the solution? Bring a mug, cook at home or if you really need to eat out, hit up a cheap restaurant that uses reusable plates, cups and utensils. Not only will it be good for your pocket and the earth to give up your daily coffee and fast food, it will probably be good for your health!
3. Recycling yogurt containers: Not all plastic is created, nor recycled equally. Unfortunately, after washing and “recycling” my yogurt containers, I learned that my area does not recycle the plastic used to make them. Earth911.org has a lot of great information on where and what is recyclable around the US and links to local disposal and recycling centers. Exploring that site led me to realizing I need to be more careful of what I do (and do not) recycle. Although I my yogurt cups now go in the waste bin, I also learned that old electronics like VHS players and tape players can be recycled by the local pick up. Knowledge is (green) power, so go check out what you can recycle.
4. Durability: My dad taught me not to sweat the small stuff, including cheap goods, like sunglasses. Lots of times we would purchase items knowing that they would not last long and end up breaking eventually. This attitude lead me to take things more lightly, but as I learned later on, caused me to waste a lot. Frugality has been pretty important to me, as I try to always get the best price for whatever I buy, but now I realize that the quality and durability is worth paying for, not only because of the convenience and comfort of having a good product, but that it prevents more waste from being created. If you buy the same cheap sunglasses again and again, instead of buying one good pair then more and more garbage is piling up. Buy one, treat it good and use it for as long as possible and you’ll save money on the long wrong run. Lastly, I don’t mean to knock on cheap goods, many cheap goods last a long time, even something as simple as a paper cup can be reused again and again. On the same token, expensive goods may have a very short life and so the important thing is to do a little research and use some common sense to get the most out of everything you buy.
5. Keeping my gadgets plugged in: My love of electronics can not be denied. In high school I was the first kid around to have a CD burner and a digital camera and, while I have toned down my gadget obsession a tad, I still have a lot of goodies to charge. My main green infraction was keeping everything plugged in so that they would be good to go when I needed them. Unfortunately when gadgets are fully charged, electricity is being wasted just from the AC adapter sitting in the outlet. Lifehacker cited a CNET article that said:
   

   If 10 percent of the world’s cell phone owners [unplugged their chargers when their cell phones were done charging] it would reduce energy consumption by an amount equivalent to that used by 60,000 European homes per year.

   Now I make sure to unplug things once they are 100% and if I really want to make sure I got juice in my camera, I plan ahead and give it a extra charge the day before I use it to make up for battery drain while it is sitting around unused.

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I wrote this as part of Probloggers Group Writing Project. A wonderful site filled with helpful tips about how to blog, I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to be serious about blogging.