rel="nofollow" href="#uca4dfdd3-f46c-5c2e-83b6-28020f087aad">Making Homemade Toothpaste
The Reality of the Electric Car
A Better Earth, One Cap at a Time
Use Little, Live Big
The way the green movement has gathered steam in the last five years and entered mainstream culture seems as if it would be an environmentalist’s dream come true. Recycling is quite fashionable as is composting. Finally the neighbors have stopped gossiping about that pile of vegetable scraps you keep in your backyard or asking what is going on with your front yard rain barrel. Nevertheless, the idea of using less has gotten lost along the way.
Somewhere between the advent of curbside recycling and upcycling, both of which have been embraced by even the most recalcitrant, reducing—that basic tenet of the environmental movement—has been strangely absent from the conversation. In an era when environmentalism has become increasingly trendy, this concept has been almost entirely skipped over, and it’s not hard to understand why: nothing is more antithetical to our consumer culture than the idea of simply not consuming.
This means that while we keep hearing “green in the new black,” the concept of reducing anything has been entirely abandoned. It’s ironic, really, because the ability to reduce is perhaps the most important aspect of any environmental movement: reducing conspicuous consumption, reducing useless stuff, reducing your waste, and eventually—as a result of these endeavors—being able to reduce the amount of time you spend shopping, cleaning, and organizing your possessions.
My big suggestion would be to adopt the life motto of “Use Little, Live Big.” I joke to my friends that my afternoon Sunday church service is at the local Recycling & Reuse Center. It is definitely a ritual for my boyfriend and me. In fact, we just came back from there and saw many a well-loved item go to a joyous new owner.
You should only have possessions you really love; don’t let your things possess you. I have a neat-looking “outbox” on my front porch I fill during the week with items I can take to the Reuse Center at my neighborhood recycling center. As the days go by, magazines, extra pots and pans, odd cups and dishes, old electronics and anything that no longer has a place in my home goes there. My partner and I go there every weekend and it simply feels wonderful. The center has a lot of regulars and we are now recognized as purveyors of 100 percent discount bounty such as scented candles, barely-worn scarves, office supplies, odd crockery, and superb magazines as we are a household of voracious readers. I really get a kick out it when white-bearded elders run up to me with my scented candles and ask “What does it smell like?” They are delighted with Sugar Cookie Vanilla and Cinnamon Spice and such. I have seen amazing trades at the Reuse Center and witnessed a musician sit down and play a free sitar with virtuosity while a family with young children got a sorely needed washing machine and dryer. Moments like this remind me of the eco visionary teacher and writer Starhawk’s novel, The Fifth Sacred Thing, depicting a future where people return to a barter system and live harmoniously in community.
The sign at the entry of the Reuse Center is certainly wisdom to live by:
Take only what you need and share anything extra with your neighbors.
And there is an upside, a big, beautiful upside, to this “less is more” lifestyle. And here it is: embracing the concept of reducing takes the least effort of all the environmental changes you can adopt. It’s almost Zen in its simplicity because, in order to reduce, you spend a lot of time not doing.
Keeping the decision to reduce at the forefront of your brain means you don’t have to drive yourself insane comparing and contrasting eight different brands of fabric softener that claim to be eco-friendly, wading through the green washing and the jargon for hours before giving up and drowning your sorrows in a box of wine. You simply wash your hands of the entire thing and make the decision not to purchase fabric softener at all. Plus, all those chemicals are not good for you, for your kids, or even your pets.
It is also important to popularize the concept of reducing because the effort needed to become environmentally friendly, while not huge, is simple not worth it for many people.So, while the amount of effort needed to rinse an aluminum can, sort it into recycling bin, and take it to the recycling depot isn’t huge, if you’re not at least a tiny bit passionate about environmentalism the chances of this happening are pretty slim. Why? Because it’s still harder than doing nothing at all.
The Real Cost of Consumerism
With shopping being one of the most popular leisure activities in North America, buying things goes without notice most of the time—so much so, that an international movement, Buy Nothing Day, was started to curb this habit and draw attention to its almost involuntary nature. Shouldn’t there be more than one Buy Nothing Day a year?
Going Green
