Green Ignorance: Top 5 Mistakes I’ve Made While Trying to Be Earth Friendly

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.
- 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.
- Disposable containers: I see people with coffee cups everyday and it makes me cringe. Read the rest of this entry »
Powered by Gregarious (42)Share This