I'd love to say that I always choose The Planet. Obviously, that would be a lie, or I wouldn't be sitting next to a small hill of used tissues when I could have used a handkerchief. But who uses a hanky? Is it even sanitary? Most people, even very earth-gentle people, will not blink about using disposable tissues (especially during allergy season) or TP (thank heaven), but what about other things?
Open my freezer, and you will see 2 frozen pizzas. Les and I love frozen pizzas, and thankfully, there are some very tasty options for around $5. They save time and money for sure, but they come in a cardboard box and are wrapped in their own little plastic shrink-wrap. They were shipped around the country and kept at freezing temperatures for their entire lifecycle. Our little pizzas have a pretty big footprint. Do I care? How much should I care?
I actually HAVE more time to put into things like cooking, composting, recycling, and general greening. Some of those things save money, even though they take a lot of time. Sometimes, though, it's a heckofa lot cheaper to buy a $5 tasty frozen pizza from Trader Joe's than to buy all the ingredients to make one. And then you have the chopping, and the inevitable food scraps. Hm.
I'm going to surf around and try to find an InfoGraphic about this. I'll let you know if I find a handy flowchart... But in the meantime...
When I was thinking about a reasonable way to make choices about these things, I had an idea to make a "Green Budget". Sort of like a monetary budget, but for the environment. The idea goes something like this: Determine all the positive things I'll commit to do every month/year and put them in one column, then put all the things I'm willing to wiggle around about, then list all the things I am not in a position to scrap or start doing in a third column. The goal is to make sure that the positive column is at least longer than the third column, and to start moving things from the middle column over to the first.
Like this:
Green Commitments
Change all the light bulbs to CFLs or LEDs
No more paper towels or napkins, except to clean up dog-related messes
Meat-free diet
Only local, organic eggs
Soy or almond milk, freeze leftovers before expiration date
Switch over all cleaning products to some combo of baking soda + vinegar
Use only bar soaps with little/no packaging in bathroom
Make my own laundry detergent
Let my gray hair grow out!
Walk or take public trans as much as reasonable
Use only reusable grocery bags
Recycle everything I possibly can
Stop buying ANYTHING new unless it can meet some stringent criteria
etc, etc....
Wiggling, considering
Trying again to grow our own herbs in the window?
Get a bike?
Community composting?
Selling and/or donating a LOT of our stuff?
Clothing swap?
Sewing up all the holes in ALL of my socks?
Handkerchief? Maybe?
Only replacing clothes items as they wear out, and trying to source organic cotton as much as possible?
Not buying ANY new plastic?
Sell one of the cars?
Limiting any food that comes in a package?
Try canning seasonal produce this summer?
OK to take a pass on...
Home-made/uber green dish washing detergent, until one that works is developed
Giving up the dog pee-pads in winter and just mopping the floor every single day
Trying to eat truly seasonally in Chicago in winter
All-natural deodorant
Upgrading to bamboo or organic cotton sheets, at least until the new wedding sheets have deteriorated
Going full-vegan
etc, etc....
Maybe that is a lot more trouble than it's worth. But for me, making a list of the things I am doing and/or commit to start doing helps me feel more "OK" about using a paper tissue or buying a frozen pizza. It can be helpful to see that you've already made some progress, and get an idea of things you're willing to try. Maybe that's just me. Thoughts? How do you make decisions about stuff like this?
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