Earth Day of the Extravagant Sort

Earth Day...



Anthony thinks I'm a little nuts (yes, I know you're reading this honey).
My parents don't get it.
The guy at Chik-Fil-A wrote me off as a crazy greenie.
Nancy, the woman I'm acting as caregiver for says I'm "conscientious" but says it in a way that I'm not sure it's a compliment.

But I don't care.

I'm unashamedly trying to be green.

I recycle. And I'm somewhat militant about it, I'll admit it. Nancy now just leaves her plastic juice bottles in my car because she knows that if she starts to throw them away I'll just grab them out of her hand and throw them in the backseat anyway. And she and I went to Chik-Fil-A the other day and I was quite excited that the sandwich I ordered came in a recyclable plastic box. It was even a #1, so that's really easy to recycle! However, after eating the sandwich I realized that there was NO RECYCLING BIN in the store. I even asked the guy behind the counter "So, you have a recyclable container but no recycling bin...is that the deal?" and he was like "yeah..."

Sigh.

(I took it home to recycle.)

Now I'll admit I'm not the world's best recycler. I forget pretty often about paper. But glass, plastic, tin, aluminum, cardboard...my kitchen is taken over with the recycling bags for each of them.

I also use CFL's which pretty much everyone does now...I have a SIGG which you all know if you've read my blog :0) I try to buy natural and organic products, although I'll admit I don't do it exclusively. It's expensive. And I like my mint chocolate oreos :0)

And I use reusable bags. Most of the time I go through the self-checkout if I'm in Kroger/Publix so as to not have to deal with the checkout process. Trader Joe's kind of expects you to bring your own bag (good for them), but the people in Target look at you oddly--even if you're using a Target reusable! Not only are the reusable bags great for the environment, they're also a whole heck of a lot easier to wrangle from the car to the house. Believe me, that's a great benefit.

Am I perfect? Nope. I use more heat in the winter (but it balances with my low air conditioning useage), I forget to turn off lights when I leave the room, I leave lights on for the cat when I'm gone, and I forget to unplug things. But the point is...I try. I'm not trying to save the world, but I AM trying to be a good steward of what God has given us. I don't think that being green is just a human initiative. I think we're called to take care of the earth.

So maybe today instead of throwing away that Diet Coke can you can toss it in a recycling bin. Perhaps you can pour yourself a glass of water instead of paying for a plastic water bottle. And possibly you can bump the temperature on your air conditioner a couple of degrees higher or unplug an appliance you rarely use.

Or maybe you can just dismiss this all as the ramblings of a liberal. ;-)

Either way...you have a choice. Isn't that a beautiful thing?